A national media that retains its honour
There's no typo in the title; honour is the British spelling of honor, and their newspaper retain some of it.
Each year witnesses a decrease in the circulation of most major U.S. daily newspapers, and a corresponding decline in their credibility.
Whether you draw the concentric circles of readership circling the drain centered in Chicago -- with the Tribune and the Sun Times -- on the East Coast, at the New York Times, or the West Cost, with the Los Angeles Times, newspapers in the U.S. are not a growth industry. They're dying.
But while the U.S. print media has lost most of its honor; British print outlets have retained some of theirs.
For example: On Saturday, August 11, 2012, the U.K. Mail online posted an article entitled "Obama's slumdog brother: Meet the hopeless drunk from a Nairobi shanty town who is the U.S. President's BROTHER."
The three tease ledes read:
- Whilst the President inhabits the luxurious surroundings of the Oval Office and flies aboard Air Force One, his half-brother George Obama lives in a notorious African slum.
- George Obama has battled addictions to drink and drugs for most of his life at the same time as his relative has enjoyed a meteoric rise to power.
- The 30-year-old, who was once hooked on cocaine, says that his surname is frequently a burden to him.
George Obama has been mentioned, in passing, by the U.S. legacy media, but the U.K. Mail displayed 22 photos, several of George Obama that may have never appeared in U.S. outlets. In fact, the U.S. media has paid more attention to Obama's dog, than to his "slumdog" brother, George.
Although they're not known as "conservative" news outlets, the U.K. papers have made their presence felt on the American political scene. When addressing the U.S. political scene, they spin less.
Consequently, while the honor of many of the big city U.S. daily papers has been severely damaged by bias reporting, the U.K. papers still retain some of their honour.
Good for them -- and shame on us.