| War, oil, evil and America proved an irresistible combination in 2003. The U.S.-U.K. invasion of Iraq was No. 1 on everyone’s list of top news stories last year. It was a year of remarkable stories – many of which never appeared on a top 10 list or received the media coverage they deserve.
The rest of the events on the top-story lists profiled in the March edition of World Press Review reinforce the U.S. media’s preoccupation with domestic issues. SARS was the only other news story with international flavour to make the U.S. editors’ lists of top news stories. It was also the only other story to appear on every top story list.
U.S. OBSESSION
U.S. self-obsession is not news. Last year’s top story lists are evidence of a growing gap between the U.S. government’s renewed interest in running the world and its citizens’ flagging interest in foreign affairs. The lists also show how self-obsessed the U.S. is compared to other countries and how the world is growing more obsessed with the U.S.
The U.S. plays a central role in the stories of North Korea and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Neither appears on the U.S. editors’ top-story lists – losing out to the perennial favourites, bad weather and tax cuts. China sending a man into space and the collapse of the WTO talks also failed to top domestic issues in the U.S. The editors in the rest of the world continue to watch these ongoing sagas with interest, but their lists are heavily influenced by the U.S. aura.
U.S. INFLUENCE AND UNDER-REPORTED STORIES
North Korea and the West Bank are dangerous situations that affect millions of people. Many other situations in the world that threaten lives and world peace as much or more go unranked because the U.S. is not as involved. U.S-related stories even outweighed national or regional stories on a number of international top story lists. This fascination explains why Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election made the top story lists around the world when famines, plagues and assassinations went under the radar.
AIDS, the war in the Congo, Chechnya, escalating violence in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan-India relations all failed to make any of top-story lists included in the World Press Review report. Each of these under-reported stories affects more people with greater long-term consequences than most of their high-profile cousins. The one element they share is the lack of economic – strategic, if you prefer euphemism – interest they hold for the U.S.
CANADA’S TOP STORIES
The biggest story in Canada was having our arm twisted by the U.S. as it fabricated the coalition of the willing and finding we could stand the pain. The under-reported story was how Canada’s one-year Afghanistan mission helped the U.S. efforts in Iraq more than the entire coalition except Britain by freeing up thousands of U.S. troops for the Iraq invasion. The story had no legs because it did not serve the political interests of either the look-at-us-standing-up-to-the-Americans Liberal party or the love-America-or-betray-Canada Alliance party.
SARS was second on Canada’s top 10 list. The speed with which Toronto went from Toronto the good to Toronto the travel-banned was a dramatic lesson for all of Canada’s governments. So was the No. 1 story in Alberta, BSE. If we are lucky, these blights will cause governments to overhaul neglected public health and food safety systems. As governments try to fill the holes SARS and BSE exposed, Canadians will feel hundreds of little changes in their lives.
THE STORIES OF 2004
Events in Iraq and their fallout will continue to dominate the news. The under-reported story will be the human toll. The U.S. military suffered more casualties and wounded in 2003 than it has since the late stages of the Vietnam War. Even more invisible were stories on the number of Iraqis killed or wounded last year.
The U.S. presidential election will be the biggest media story. Despite the earnest hopes of Democrats, little will change in the rest of the world if George W. Bush is defeated. The Bushites are more aggressive, but the fundamentals of U.S. foreign and economic policy have not changed in 60 years, 120 years in Latin America’s case.
The Russian presidential election will tell us which direction that shaky democracy is headed. Israelis and Palestinians will continue to suffer. Afghanistan will still wait for the U.S. and its allies to fulfill their promises. Central Asia will spiral into violence as weapons and money flow into the oil-rich region. The de-population of Africa will continue, leaving a generation of orphans to struggle on with no parents to teach them how to survive and raise their own family. The loss of knowledge will hurt for generations.
Web resources
· CBC’s year in review –www.cbc.ca/news/background/yearinreview2003/
· Top BBC stories by website hits – news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3370405.stm
· Doctors without Borders top 10 humanitarian stories of 2003 – www.msf.org, search for "underreported."
· A U.S. focused under-reported story site – www.underreported.com |
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