[speaker002:] I uh get a lot of my news driving home from work listening to All Things Considered on National Public Radio uh that is one of my big sources for current events information I I really like that coverage my wife uh on the other hand is home most of the day and she watches a lot of the cable news network have you seen uh have have you uh ever heard of All Things Considered
[speaker001:] no we don't have the uh national public radio in in my area I can hear it at the um
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh oh the college town nearby when I'm in Stillwater which is about an hour away but the FM signal doesn't reach this far
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh I listen to shortwave quite a bit it gives you a whole different perspective on the news uh when you hear it from say a European point of view or from the country of origin
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh I agree with you too on the um uh the cable channel CNN and Headline News um I'm not too satisfied with our local newspaper uh which is why I rely on shortwave and and then the cable CNN
[speaker002:] um-hum  I'm uh interested in the in the shortwave aspect of it uh how do you find that the the coverage from other places in the world uh compares with the American coverage of how do you think that uh the viewpoints differ
[speaker001:] I think a lot of it is just um the fact that in the US you're so far removed uh in a lot of cases from say conflicts or or it's not happening in your backyard so it's it's more of a
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] it's not as a personal uh the news isn't as personal in what we receive domestically than than what's on the shortwave it's BBC is um oh I don't know the right word is is almost um they almost take all emotions out of it when they report it
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and it just they seem to give more just the facts than opinions
[speaker002:] do you think then that uh the American media is presenting an opinion along with their facts
[speaker001:] uh very much so very much so and I I think a lot of it is um especially TV news they don't really have the time and a lot of them don't have the education and the background to um oh to really decipher the news and to really explain it I mean I you know I think it's important to interpret it but a lot of times the person doesn't have the experience to to do the interpreting
[speaker002:] um-hum which uh which approach do you find to be um more useful the the interpretive approach or the straight reporting
[speaker001:] oh I like the straight reporting um and then I I hope to be able to form my own opinion of it it's it's nice to hear someone's interpretation of it
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um I always think it's humorous when when the President gives the State of the Union and uh for thirty minutes and then for an hour and a half you hear different commentators explaining what you just heard and a lot of times I don't hear exactly what they what they write into it
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] so I overall I think I would rather hear just straight reporting
[speaker002:] one of the things that I found interesting last year during the uh the Gulf conflict was a sentiment against uh Peter Arnett who had stayed in Iraq and was presenting uh some of the things that were available uh there was a there was uh a piece where he was showing a bombed out building where there was obviously a crudely uh a hastily erected sign saying baby milk factory and while he was being severely uh censored and could not make any judgment call on this it was fairly obvious that it was a piece of propaganda but people were really down on him for reporting the fact that this you know this isn't a baby milk factory how could he say it was uh and I think that that to me showed that the Americans were really getting used to having the not just the facts but also the conclusions and opinions spoon fed to them
[speaker001:] yeah I I think people are people have that opinion they they wanna sit down in front of the TV and um or at a read a magazine or USA Today and read in four paragraphs uh and and find out every