Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

Dunno about Canada, but there is nothing in the UK to compare with the sheer inanity of CNN or Fox, both of which are available in localised form though, (I think). I would go further, actually, and say that the likes of these baby-feed channels, along with Jerry Springer type idiocy, do more damage than anything else in the media to American reputation abroad, and re-enforces the stereotype of the dumb Yank. "I mean I don't like to call Americans stupid, but have you seen their so-called news reporting? No wonder they think Saddam was an ally of Al Qaeda and voted for that moron from Texas, twice." is a typical comment, not totally without merit, though unfair.

[Isla Guapa]

I get my news from the States from NPR, which is several cuts above Fox and CNN. I never watched Fox, because I knew it would give me nausea and possibly a heart attack, and I haven't watched CNN since moving to Mexico several years. I don't recall CNN being as horrible as you paint it, but maybe I'm just too much of a stupid American (Yanks are either a baseball team or someone from New England, but I�m sure you knew that ) to realize that.

[johnslat]

I'm glad to see that we are all eschewing generalizations and stereotypes here .

Regards,
John

[spiral78]

[Isla Guapa]

[Isla Guapa]

Apart from TV news, what about newspapers? Does the US have a monopoly on right-wing rags?

[Sashadroogie]

UK tabloids are pretty filthy, though avidly read by the lower orders. don't really have too much influence on important political matters though, unlike American TV, or even Radio.

CNN is as bad as anything. I remember well the original Gulf War conflict twenty odd years ago, where CNN basically rotated non-stop the same clips produced by the US military/industrial complex to advertise their death-dealing wares. Every single report featured the same graphics explaining how smart bombs worked, or detailing the inner workings of a cluster bomb. War was reduced to a sporting event in our livings rooms. Made CNN what it is today: undeniably successful but ultimately bilge for anyone with half a brain.

Yanks. A term which most other English speakers use to describe anyone from the US, usually in a less than friendly manner. Baseball? what's that?

[geaaronson]

I�ve never had a serious problem with CNN but then again I don�t watch it often. I do understand how mediocre reporting such as you cite on the Gulf War, deterred you from being a CNN fan. I recall Ted Koppel pooh poohing offhandedly news reports that the Korean flight that got shot down, when was it? 20 odd plus years ago had intentionally strayed off course because, despite it being a passenger plane, had surveillance cameras on its underbelly. I stopped watching Ted after that as I realized he just was an "establishment dupe".

[Guy Courchesne]

[Isla Guapa]

[nomad soul]

I remember back in '84 when it was said that Democratic prez contender Walter Mondale slid in the polls against Ronald Reagan because voters found him too straight-laced and boring. Frankly, I follow the current GOP lineup only because they're entertaining (but not in a good way).

[Sashadroogie]

Dunno about its 'true' meaning. Southerners seem to use it in as similarly a disparaging manner as anyone else, but to describe their northern cousins, relatives of Jan Kees.

The lower orders aren't really the working class in the UK, on account of the fact that there really isn't a working class left after Maggie Thatcher's assault. No, they are all the low-life that create disturbances at football matches, go on riots, and usually have holidays in Ibiza, thus endearing themselves to the Continentals. Wouldn't really know what work is, but get their 'news' from the tabloids. Well, the literate ones, at any rate...

Here in the Motherland, the true champion of the Working Man, all you need to read is Pravda, and that's the whole truth. Such nice things are said about Hillary Clinton at the moment...

[Isla Guapa]

The "true" definition of "Yankee" according to the American Heritage Dictionary:

noun

A native or inhabitant of New England.
A native or inhabitant of a northern U.S. state, especially a Union
soldier during the Civil War.
A native or inhabitant of the United States.

Word History: The origin of Yankee has been the subject of much debate, but the most likely source is the Dutch name Janke, meaning �little Jan� or �little John,� a nickname that dates back to the 1680s. Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec. The name may have been applied to New Englanders as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River. Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New England. The first recorded use of the term by the British to refer to Americans in general appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson, no less. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank. During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride. The derisive use nonetheless remained alive and even intensified in the South during the Civil War, when it referred not to all Americans but to those loyal to the Union. Now the term carries less emotion�except of course for baseball fans.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/yankee

[Sashadroogie]

...so they are not only a baseball team or residents of New England? Oh, OK then.

[Isla Guapa]