I'm a Canadian living in the states. The joke I tell my family is that I go to Canada to hear about US news. The other joke I have goes like this: the problem with Canada is that America thinks Canada is Europe, Europe thinks it's America and Canadians think they're American.
I am an American and I support having less "American news"...way....way less<p>When I was younger I enjoyed reading my local newspaper (local news/local sports/classifieds), the USA Today (national news/sports), and the Wall Street Journal. Between those 3 I felt pretty well informed and enjoyed my daily ritual of reading them in the morning at school in the library. Unfortunately as other commenters have noted the quality of journalism has gone way down hill since then.
Other people have pointed out that "American news" also displaces local news in the states, but it's worse than that: this stuff you see on CNN isn't actually about the important events going on in the world, it's an entertainment product engineered from a mishmash of urgent-sounding background music, very serious faces and sound bytes selected to compromise between sounding interesting, and supporting a pre-selected story arc. In other words, "American news," displaces <i>all real news, anywhere.</i>
This is becoming a problem in latin america as well and you see people importing culture wars issues that are not really relevant to their local politics and further muddying the waters and distracting from the actual issues facing them
To quote trudeau (sr) "Living next to you [America] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."<p>Fact is, as a middle power country next to a super power, american politics has an inordinate impact on us, and we can't even complain to our local congresman, since obviously we dont have one.
I completely agree; we have the same issue here in Australia. When I came home to find my elderly father watching Fox News, claiming that the election was stolen, I realised that the cable box parental controls might actually be for parents!
Seeing bits of the DNC last week with celebrities like lil wayne making appearances, a packed stadium and whatnot, is there anything comparable in Canadian politics or even other parliamentary systems like the UK? American politics (and the news focused on it), is quintessentially American: big, loud and over the top.
Annoying excessive coverage of US politics has been a thing in Denmark since 2008. Although nowadays we at least have the excuse that the US has replaced both China and Germany as our main trading partner and the Danish GDP probably fluctuates a little whenever the FDA looks in the direction of Novo Nordisk.
This is an expected consequence of American hegemony. When so much of our culture is imported from America, we end up feeling American. To a degree, what happens in America really does affect our lives, even more than what happens in Canada in many cases. When everybody around you is focused on American issues and American politics, they start to vote based on these imported ideas and make them Canadian ideas.
I live somewhere in the Northeast and have access to CBC and Global on my US television package and boy is it wild to sit back and watch the Canadian version of what's going on in America every night on their news.
To some extent it's reasonable for Canadians, Europeans etc. to be interested in American politics, say on trade or foreign politics because it affects us in real ways especially these days with the world situation, but I also think we're honestly past 'peak Americana' culturally.<p>Personally speaking being German, my father (60) was in the West Germany army, stationed in Canada and the US for a while, you can tell he was deeply influenced by how Americans live, what cars they drive, how their houses and kitchens look, what their aspirations are, etc. For my generation, already not the case having come of age during the 2000s, seemingly less so for people who are even younger.<p>I think it's tempting to think America still has a big cultural influence because of how prevalent English is and the media, memes and mannerisms that come with it, but at a deep level I think people have become much less influenced by it. It's the kind of error people made on China, were they thought the internet and media would just turn all the young Chinese into de facto Americans. People today are more fluent in American news and culture but they're also much more capable of just ditching it.
Not just news. Movies. Music. Websites.<p>It leads to some unusual cross currents. A few years back following the Canadian trucker protests, some of the defendants cited their "First Amendment rights":<p><i>Tamara Lich, the Alberta woman whose GoFundMe campaign raised over $10 million for the convoy, and her husband had their day in court—and Dwayne Lich said he was innocent, because: “Honestly? I thought it was a peaceful protest and based on my First Amendment, I thought that was part of our rights.”<p>The judge then asked, “What do you mean, First Amendment? What’s that?”</i><p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-bail-hearing-february-19-1.6358307" rel="nofollow">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-bail-heari...</a><p>(The First Amendment is part of the U.S. Constitution, not the Canadian Charter)
This is by design. Aside from the points raised by others on the reality of living next to the world's biggest superpower; our media landscape is fast becoming a monopoly. That monopoly is owned by Americans [1].<p>[1]. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Asset_Management" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Asset_Management</a>
Engaging in passive news consumption will quickly turn one into a brainwashed zombie. Active news searching on a specific topic you have some interest in and a at least a small amount of background knowledge as to where to look is a far more rewarding use of your limited time. e.g.<p>site:oilprice.com canada | canadian<p>Try it with ft.com or nytimes.com too. And then try it with rt.com and globaltimes.cn to get the Russian and Chinese spin. Somewhere in there you might get an accurate picture of reality - unless they're all on the same page about something they want to hide from public view. Don't forget to look at the negative space in the image.
Everyone should probably consume less news but what is happening in the US right now will have a dramatic effect on our northern neighbors so I don't think being informed on the happenings is the worst idea
They don't even need superficially American news channels to get the American viewpoint, since the overwhelming bulk of Canadian "news" outfits other than the CBC are owned by American vulture capital firms, including all of the ones that advocated for the link tax.
This is unfortunately also true for lots of non-Canadians(that are not Americans). That includes me - the number one source of news i use is the NYT, and I think I can tell you more about American politics/politicians than I can about any other country
I wish this was mirrored and Americans would consume Canadian news instead of local news about Canada. Maybe some more ppl would build more nuanced understanding of how universal healthcare care works beyond “they all die in the waiting line”
The U.S. is a TV show the whole world watches. It's not healthy for anybody on either side. The news is making everybody insane, and not making them particularly well-informed in the process.
This is absolutely true. It is wild how many people I know that can name a half a dozen or more notable American Senators, Congresspersons and politicians and yet have barely any working knowledge of even Federal Canadian politics let alone the (arguably more relevant to their daily lives) Provincial and Municipal political issues and persons.<p>The quality level of the discourse is as you'd expect, very low!
The Canadian grown news is soo0ooo much better: <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/cbc-paid-more-than-18-million-in-bonuses-in-2024-after-eliminating-hundreds-of-jobs" rel="nofollow">https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/cbc-paid-more-than-18-mi...</a>
Had a friend of my SO (we're both Italian) visit us for some days, she's Canadian in her 60s and she talked so much about US politics.<p>I don't find talking politics much polite, especially because I believe you should first be politically active, with practical things, in your neighborhood and city first and worry about local problems that impact directly your life and those of your family.<p>Then make the scope larger.<p>But talking about politics of another country?<p>I have my personal opinion that the death of newspapers, which were generally local in favor of internet media, which tends to talk about topics with the highest reach completely inverted the political priorities around the world.<p>I swear in Italy more people can argue more about US politicians agendas and programs but can't name their mayor.<p>Some people argue that the decisions taken at federal, global level matter more, yet many are unaware that the beautiful house they bought for the view is being discussed to be sold by the city to build houses or a waste dump or many other things that impact your life directly and on which you have yourself more impact than following a US presidential election. And I have endless examples, because in a small village like mine, with 4000 souls, most decisions impact your life. Waste management, funding for the school buses for kids, safety on local roads, etc. This is literally your every day life.<p>But what people arguing? Whether AOC is too extreme or anti capitalist?<p>It's all backwards. I find it sick.
I wonder if it explains their massive levels of assisted suicide.<p>Instead of dealing with their healthcare and community support problems and supporting people, it turns out to be much cheaper to just kill them. They just had to fire a bureaucrat who is recommending directly to veterans that they kill themselves.
You really must consume your own domestic propaganda for maximum effectiveness, it's more targeted at you and your culture, customs, beliefs, biases, etc
Dude must be from midwest, perfect midwest nice negging here:<p>“I do think it is odd, particularly when I contrast it to the United States, where…virtually no one in the United States is paying any attention to Canadian politics,” he said.
This is true for most (all?) countries. If there's any country that avoided this fate, I'd like to know.<p>People don't know what's going on in their own country but obsess over minutae of american politics.<p>Legacy media is no escape as its journalists themselves are addicted to twitter and reflect that in their work. My local newspaper in germany used to have Trump on the frontpage more then any german politician.<p>We need local forums.
The "news" are just another form of entertainment. And there a fraction of the entertainment going on in Canada that exists south of the border so people flock there.
As a Canadian I appreciate his concern but kindly ask that he mind his own business. I will decide for myself how much U.S entertainment.. I mean, er, "news" is unhealthy for me, thanks.
Canadian mainstream news sit left but think they are neutral/unbiased because all other mainstream orgs speak from the same narrative. In the US they admit bias (for some reason cnn tries to pretend to be neutral).<p>Leslyn Lewis is Conservative the cbc wouldn't write an article on her.<p>Canadian news is shallow and doesn't allow a diversity of ideas so people ignore it.
Only America matters. Canadians cluster on the border with America because only America matters. Canadians read US news primarily because only America matters. Canada's independence is nominal. The nation depends entirely on the US for its security and will obey when commanded. A vassal state.<p>Given that, it is normal for Canadians to consume American news, and it is only unhealthy in that it is unhealthy for Americans as well.
I would humbly suggest the ambassador STFU and read the Bill of Rights.<p>Yes, our news sucks and is polarizing. Yes, our corporate news sources are largely captured by one side.<p>But the government has no business trying to suppress discussion.<p>I’m not claiming that the ambassador acted illegally; I am claiming that as an agent of the US Government he needs to stifle his own opinions when speaking publicly on behalf of the US government and not try to suppress legal speech.<p>Ever since COVID the US government, especially the executive branch, has tried. Every means they could think of to suppress dissenting opinion while trying to stay just on the legal side of the first amendment. They need to stop.