Since I pretty much decided to move back to Europe in a not so distant future, I thought it would be a good idea to slowly re-familiarize myself with the EU mentality by regularly watching the BBC World News on BBC America.

20 years ago, while in France, I used to religiously watch the Evening News with Dan Rather. I'm sure I didn't grasp any of the subtle nuances as my command of the English language was pretty basic at the time. Nevertheless, I was in awe of American news programs. Nowadays, I pretty much can't stand watching the news. Although I have to admit that the BBC show is a breath of fresh air.

The first thing I noticed is that we pretty much don't get world news in the US, just the big headlines. That's sad. We really have no clues on what is going on in the world. Heck, we don't even know what's really happening in Afghanistan. I heard statements from a couple US and UK allied forces representatives that frankly raised the hair on the back of my neck.

I also realized that the US media favors reporting (and editorializing) on what people said instead of actually showing or quoting them. On the other hand the BBC always seems to directly quote or show people making statements. For example, the day Bush left for his trip to Europe, they showed one of the White House press secretary assistant answering questions about the President's itinerary, etc. Which, of course, reminded me of C.J. on The West Wing. But I also came to the realization they never show that kind of stuff on the evening news. We almost never get to witness White House press briefings, we get a bunch of selective he said/she said or sound bites, at best.

I think it all comes down to the BBC news format. I would describe it as being like CNN's Headline News with more depth, interviews and less propaganda. Works for me.