I continue to be upset about what is going on in Burma and I look around and see I am the lone ranger here in my life, at least. My husband is upset and knows the whole story front to back, but my kids know more about Britney Spears' life than they do about Burma. Ditto my friends. If you don't know the whole story, it's hard to be outraged. These days it takes a real commitment to educate oneself on issues beyond the borders of our lives, let alone our country.
Over at HuffPo this a.m. Harry Shearer wrote a column regarding the lack of news coverage of Burma. I had this to say as a comment:
Last night I viewed PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer as I do daily.
One of the lead stories was about the situation in Burma and as always, the story was in-depth with a short history lesson and a summary of the current situation. Additionally there was an analysis of why China came out and made a statement this week, which included words on hope for development of democracy in Burma.
If the American News media cannot get fresh breaking news stories and photos out of Burma, they could certainly report on the history of Burma to educate the American public which is sorely lacking in information about any countries other than the US. This could be for starters. I do believe that if Americans knew the history and cast of players in many countries around the world, we could make much better choices and decisions about our political leaders, about our consumer choices, even perhaps our lifestyles. We live in information isolation, regardless of the pretty stories we tell ourselves about the Internet, TV etc. We are woefully ignorant of other cultures and how their governments operate. Moreover, we're woefully ignorant of how our government cooperates in propping up fascist and thug regimes around the globe and why. Look no further than corporate interests. Natch. Corporate news media are not going to report on stories which conflict with their own interests or contradict the party line of the latest propaganda coming out of "headquarters". Let's not be naive.
Independent, non-corporate news media outlets always get the news out. FSRN (Free Speech Radio News) a source which was born out of Pacifica Radio during a conflict between Pacifica and station personnel, has been submitting news reports from around the world for several years now. Non-corporate, grass-roots news.
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