I become increasingly annoyed by the British news media, and their acute narrowness of vision. This week-end my wife bought The Guardian …. I have to admit, partley because it has the best crossword puzzle. By my estimation, the main news section (of 48 pages) carried variations on only one story, namely, the progress and implications of the Covid-19 virus in the UK. By way of contrast, I read regularly an interesting on-line service called “Easy Italian News” (it does what it says on the label) each day. Yesterday’s broadcast carried information about a major resurgence of the virus in northern China (not spotted in the British media, as far as I can tell); the severity of the recent storm in Bangladesh which has been responsible for more deaths there than the virus; the killing of the successor to the leader of ISIS (Al Baghdadi); and two major raids on mafia-related organisations which will have consequences for serious crime activity across the whole of Europe.
Tonight’s TV bulletins convey the impression that there is only one story worth reporting, namely, the allegation that PM Johnson’s political advisor flouted the travel restrictions imposed during the current epidemic. By some miracle beyond the dreams of those who advocated British withdrawal from the European Union, our country has now actually left the planet.
I was interested to have an email exchange with another member of the family this afternoon, who tells me that she regards Al Jezira now as a more reliable and a more comprehensive news service than the BBC. I have not tried the experiment myself, but I can well believe it.
The readership of this blog regularly includes people in the USA, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Ireland, apart from occasional visitors from other countries. I would be very interested to hear whether your own media are as narrowly blinkered as ours.
By coincidence, I was looking at the catalogue from a gallery in London, while I was enjoying my mid-afternoon cup of tea. They are showing currently work by a Catalan artist, Magi Puig. My email carried the other day information from the Estorick Collection about the way they are attempting to adapt to the current restrictions on movement, continuing their dissemination of information about Italian modern art. Thank God the world of art is more broad-minded than our media!