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Lonely Planet

Posted on Apr 12, 2007

By Marie Cocco

WASHINGTON—In the goofy 1995 movie “Canadian Bacon,” a U.S. president beset by political problems brought on by the end of the Cold War cooks up the improbable idea of turning the American public against its amiable northern neighbor—better to have an enemy abroad than a restive electorate at home.

In the run-up to the “invasion” of Canada by an oddball band of provocateurs led by a Niagara Falls sheriff, the White House public-relations apparatus dreams up all sorts of reasons to, well, hate the Canadians. They are alleged to be excessively clean, annoyingly polite and as unnervingly bland as an Anne Murray song. And after all, the national security adviser points out, “When have you ever heard anyone say, ‘Honey, let’s stay in and order Canadian food?’ ”

Well, when? For that matter, when do most Americans think of Canada as anything other than a frozen haven for winter sports, maple syrup and cheap prescription drugs?

The misconceptions and outright ignorance we have about Canada are surpassed only by our collective refusal to learn much about anywhere else in the world—unless, that is, Americans are at risk because of what many perceive as an incomprehensible animosity abroad. This American myopia is a trait that non-Americans find particularly grating.

And though it might not seem as urgent as repairing the tarnished image of our government abroad, it can’t help that American news organizations have been closing foreign bureaus and cutting their overseas staffs. The latest installment of this sad saga is word that The Washington Post, the last American newspaper to staff a full-time bureau in Canada, is leaving its Toronto office vacant indefinitely after its current correspondent, Doug Struck, ends his tour there this summer.

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David Hoffman, the Post’s assistant managing editor for foreign news, says the move is not an abandonment of Canada coverage, but part of a reassessment of foreign news. He’s trying to change the Post’s emphasis from a model based on correspondents in fixed locations to one in which emerging themes that cross boundaries and cultures—migration, terrorism and climate change, for example—are stressed. “I’m trying to be a revolutionary and get people to think more globally,” Hoffman says. “We have to stop thinking of stories as taking place in a fixed place.”

This is diametrically different from the more traditional view that by immersing correspondents in a particular locale, their comprehension and instincts about the place are enriched—and so their reporting enhances readers’ understanding of it. This remains a consideration for him, Hoffman says, in places such as Beijing and Moscow.

Canada is no hot spot. But it is the United States’ largest trading partner. It is our chief supplier of energy, with oil reserves in Alberta estimated by some experts to be second only to those in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. and Canadian automobile industries are integrated. This is no small matter, given that the excruciating changes that have roiled the auto industry and its work force ripple through the U.S. manufacturing sector, if not our entire economy.

Maybe all this is beside the point for a nation more titillated by the raunchy coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death and the racist pratfalls of Don Imus. Despite a documented surge in interest in foreign news after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we seem to have fallen back into a bad habit. We care—briefly—about the rest of the world when it experiences war, pestilence and natural disasters. And we’re especially attentive if Americans are dying in a military conflict or held hostage by ranting terrorists.

Several Canadian news organizations still maintain bureaus in the United States, typically in Washington and New York. But Tim Harper, the Toronto Star reporter who first wrote about the Post’s plans, says he’s the last of the Star’s correspondents here—though the paper is Canada’s largest: “Canadian newspapers are cutting back, just as American newspapers are.”

Mutual misunderstanding, Harper says, is typical. Most Americans he meets don’t realize that Canada is fighting alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan. His encounters with Americans still result in “weather cliches, hockey cliches.” Meanwhile, “there’s a sense in Canada that we know the U.S. because we get CNN and we watch your sports,” Harper says.

Perhaps this isn’t a gulf that 21st-century journalism can bridge. But that in itself is sobering. Because if this is the way we see our friends, it’s no wonder we have so many enemies.

Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at symbol)washpost.com.

TAGS: bureau canada information journalism marie cocco media news newspapers world

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By Tom Doff, April 14, 2007 at 12:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Hey, this is the right move, at least at this time in our history.

If our government refuses to speak and/or negotiate with any ‘furriners’, and the MSM doesn’t report on any ‘furrin’ affairs, then the President can proceed with his policy of ‘Preemptive War’ throughout the world with a hell of a lot less dissent than he’s getting now, which would make things much more ‘peaceful’ on the home front.

May I suggest nuking Paris just to get the ball rolling?

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By Reportero, April 13, 2007 at 11:54 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I work in Mexico - and I’m Canadian. Canadian media outlets pretty much abandoned Latin America earlier this decade so the region doesn’t get much coverage. What happens as a result is that a lot of trivial stuff - i.e. a loaded snowbird getting struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident in an expat haven down here - makes front-page news.

These correspondents that just fly in for thier stories are capable, but their stories are always lacking. Thus, having someone here isn’t a bad idea.

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By Douglas Chalmers, April 13, 2007 at 8:12 am #

“...a U.S. president beset by political problems brought on by the end of the Cold War cooks up the improbable idea of turning the American public against its amiable northern neighbor better to have an enemy abroad than a restive electorate at home…”

Yes, that’s definitely the age-old solution for all “fearless leaders”. After all, why have the boys getting drunk and fighting at home? Better to send them off over the hill to the next tribe where they can rape and murder or do whatever else their hearts desire. Nobody at home has to worry, then, do they, duh!

“...This American myopia is a trait that non-Americans find particularly grating…”

Well, that’s until you have been to Australia, the “coalition of the willing”‘s littlest partner. It might be in the Anglo/Celtic genes but they too have made threats of “pre-emptive strikes” against their near Northern neighbours in S.E. Asia, particularly Indonesia! What do they know about these people and their 1,000’s of years of culture and civilisation? Nothing, of course!

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By Kol Klink, April 12, 2007 at 10:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I stopped watching local news years ago because they cover local stick-ups of convience stores, carjackings, traffic jams and weather. The so called main stream media are little better, spending an inordinate amout of their time covering ‘celebrities, celebrities involved in suicides, murders, or other sordid behavior. Who cares? How does that effect our lives? It doesnt, but it uses up air time so that the MSM doesnt have to cover the real stories that can and do effect our lives.
American isolation and ignorance of other cultures is not an accident. Fortunately there is the internet. Prior to the internet I used short wave radio to pick up foreign stations at night, especially during the winter when ‘listening conditions’ were good.
The internet offers so many good sources that it takes some time to find the ‘best’ sites. I like The Guardian, Asia Times On Line, Financial Times of London, Anti War.com, Z Net, The Huffington Post, Al Jazera, Times of India, and many more. Of course, Truth Dig is among the very top sites available. No kidding.

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By Michael Boldin, April 12, 2007 at 8:32 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Call me crazy, but this is, in my opinion, one of the prime reasons to get rid of government agencies overseeing communication - starting with the FCC.

If the internet were “regulated” like our airwaves, you know who’d be able to afford the licensing, the fees, the regulations?
Rupert Murdoch.

free the airwaves!

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By YIKES, April 12, 2007 at 7:47 pm #

The time has come to move away from traditional news sources. I find real joy in reading the information here on Truthdig and even more in reading the posts. There are smart Americans..whodathunkit.

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By John F. Butterfield, April 12, 2007 at 6:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

American?

America is a continent! We share the continent of America with Canadians and many others. In the old days if people from the United States told a Canadian they were visiting Canada from America, they would get a strange look and be told that Canadians were Americans too. But that probably doesn’t happen now that no one wants to be an “American”.

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By joneden, April 12, 2007 at 3:21 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

...The Bush aide said this reality-based community consists of people who believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. Suskind nodded in agreement and muttered something favorable about the principles of the Enlightenment, only to be cut off by the aide.

Thats not the way the world really works anymore, the Bush aide told the journalist. Were an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality….

So, we now we only need embeds to report whatever reality our government decides to impose.

Connecting the dots: from human behaviors to ecosystem decline
http://StudentsForTheEarth.org

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By GW=MCHammered, April 12, 2007 at 1:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

One mustn’t travel far from our borders to realize the president isn’t the only American living in a distorted bubble. And make-no-mistake-about-it (to use a bubble term), much of the world sees our malady. Anyone else think it odd that our news drumbeat ‘08 candidates months early? Can you spell c-e-l-e-b-r-i-t-y p-s-y-c-h-o-l-o-g-y?

They’re public servants. But they look more like Elvis impersonators everyday.

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By Stephen Smoliar, April 12, 2007 at 12:02 pm #

I agree about American cultural myopia, but I think that the news business makes for a poor example. This is just another sector of the economy that is trying to make ends meet by drinking the Kool-Aid of globalization (as enabled by the Internet). Let me give a recent example that also happens to involve Canada. On Tuesday my Reuters: US News RSS feed provided me with another story about a recall of pet food from Menu Foods (in Canada). There was nothing particularly surprising about this except that it concluded by crediting the story as having been reported “by Sweta Singh in Bangalore!” Yes, Virginia, Reuters works the same way as your AOL call center! I wrote up further details at:

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2007/04/o-brave-new-world-that-has-such-people.html

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By Steve Hammons, April 12, 2007 at 10:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Marie Cocco’s article seems to note more reasons for Americans to shift from mainstream news media to alternative and online sources.

Newspapers, TV network news and major news magazines are losing readers and viewers. Their credibility might also be slipping.

Though much online news is also via major news organizations, Web-based information gathering allows people to discover many international Web sites and alternative perspectives.

Americans may actually becoming more sophisticated in gathering information, gathering “intelligence.”

We don’t always trust major US-based media and we are finding better kinds of “open source intelligence” or “OSINT,” including unconventional intel sources. See:

“Gathering intelligence: Grassroots intel by and for the people”

PopulistAmerica.com
January 30, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/gathering_intelligence_grassroots_intel_by_and_for_the_people

- - -

“Unconventional Human Intelligence Support: Navy SEALs report”

PopulistAmerica.com
January 7, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/unconventional_human_intelligence_support

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