As the news rolled in for the Halloween week many topics were discussed. There were topics of the presidential races, new studies on cancer, and red carpet showing of the best magazine covers of the year. Throughout the whole five day news showing, Brazil was never brought up once. ABC News with Charles Gibson, the news broadcast I chose to observe, never went there. Most of the topics discussed were of either domestic issues, or the boiling tensions that continue to rise in the Middle East.
What I did notice was there were some topics that were talked about repeatedly throughout the week. Now there are some stories that need to be, but then there are others that for the life of me I cannot understand why it was given multiple airings. The biggest story of the week was the increase attacks on Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton. Political writers and commentators went ad nauseam about how this would or wouldn’t sink her chances for a White House bid. Barack Obama sensing that he needed to make a move now rather than later went tough on her, as did others like John Edwards and Joe Biden. But did this needed to be talked about for a week straight?
More I watched the news, more I realized that the shows were heavily devoted to the presidential primaries. There was a piece on Barack Obama, titled “Who Is Barack Obama?” Then there were more on the debates. Not only is the primaries months away, but the actual election is a year away. Why the rush and constant barrage of news on it?
This week in Brazil there were some major stories happening. The biggest was that Petrobras, the state controlled oil company has bought refineries in Japan at an estimated couple billion dollars. Brazil in recent years has continued to position itself as a player on the global energy scene. They have put heavy finances into developing new sources of energy, and the results are new technologies to allow them more power. Not only that, but recent purchase like the oil refineries in Osaka, Japan have increased their staying power in the oil market as well. In a world where oil has a grip on the dynamic of nations, wouldn’t news outlets talk about the business ventures going on?
Of course American news stations will talk about America and take America angles on topics. One story also talked repeatedly during the week was Hurricane Noel rampaging through the Bahamas. Watching the broadcast they briefly described the death toll in the island nations, the amount of damage, and pictures of muddy waves drowning out the streets. But that was shown for about forty-five seconds. The rest of the three minute news segment was directed towards American citizens. How it was going to hit the Carolinas? How this has been a tame season? The angle taken was on the potential threat to us and how we made it out okay. Something was lost in translation there. What was lost was that the real story should be about the damage happening to the Bahamas, but that had nothing to do with us. The reporter ended the story with a warning to us to reconsider the scary rhetoric of hurricane predications. Yes Americans made it out okay, but what about the people in the Bahamas?
This goes the same about Brazil. In recent weeks there have been murders and breakouts of violence. Most of them at the suppose hands of police officers. Should American news outlets discuss these stories? At times I wished they did to allow us a greater understanding of the world around us, but at the same time is that possible. ABC News only has thirty minutes to broadcast. In that time they need to hit many viewers as they possibly can. So topics about how obesity leads to cancer and frozen pizza recalls are needed to be there to make them still relevant. Would American viewers really care what is happening to citizens of another country? Iraq stories are about the soldiers not Iraqis. Brazil to make the evening news would be a miracle. The idea is that if you want to know, there is the internet to allow you the information. But for that thirty minutes, America has to be about America.
