Poor news coverage in U.S. of terror attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris reminds us of what we've complained about for years: inferior news coverage of foreign news on U.S. TV networks! Save yourself the aggravation of watching PC and sanitized MSM newscasts and start watching Sky News and France 24's English service if you really want to know what's going on in France right now

WE ARE NOT AFRAID. A selection of 72 covers in solidarity with #CharlieHebdo via @benoit_tessier @NewspaperWorld pic.twitter.com/RAVZSDwVqY
— Vincent Peyregne (@vincentpeyregne) January 7, 2015

I dag är Expressens hela förstasida tecknad – jag förklarar varför på http://t.co/DLfDIOsQi0 › pic.twitter.com/7iqzOv9h2k
— Thomas Mattsson (@ThomasMattsson) January 8, 2015

#SkyDebate @DouglasKMurray defends Charlie Hebdo's "lampooning" of political and religious figures in France http://t.co/Z5knLsSn9F
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 8, 2015

FRANCE 24 live news stream: all the latest news 24/7 https://t.co/4yt6nafpIg
— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) November 25, 2014

As many of you know from my past blog posts here over the years, due largely to my own wide-ranging pursuits, interests and inclinations, I've been watching Sky News and France 24's English and French language service for many, many years and have been watching them again since 

this terror attack happened in Paris yesterday.

(And SVT, SVT Play, TV4 and TV4 Play in Sweden, too, of course. Especailly the morning news shows like SVT's Gomorron Sverige and TV4's Nyhetsmorgon both of which I watch when I can and whose daily newsletters I receive, just as I receive Channel 4 News' daily Snowmail. 
I'll even admit to a bit of a crush on TV4 presenter Tilde de Paula Eby! 
Then again, over the past five years or so, I've gotten VERY frustrated with BBC America's mediocre programming lineup that for so long has featured StarTrek-TNG episodes instead of the sorts of engaging and compelling news shows and documentaries that have recently aired back in Great Britain, which I'd much rather be watching.)

The news coverage of yesterday's Paris terror attack at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo reminds us of what we've complained about for years: inferior news coverage of foreign news on U.S. TV networks. Save yourself the aggravation of watching PC MSM newscasts in USA that sanitize news and start watching Sky News and France 24's English service if you really want to know what's going on in France right now

I strongly encourage you to check these tow news outlets out so you can see and hear the facts 

for yourself and not be forced to wonder, as so many do, why the highly-edited and highly-sanitized 

versions of reality seen on US. network evening newscasts, especially important news in foreign countries, seem to leave out so many important and salient facts after they are edited out in London:

http://news.sky.com/watch-live

http://www.france24.com/en/

Want to know what's going on? 

Close your mouth, open your eyes and expand your news horizons.

Dave

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth
https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering! #rubio

Sen. Marco Rubio video: Sen. Marco Rubio's speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. April 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/9Hb31bEa0mg


Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering!


See summary of remarks at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0425_rubio.aspx 
or the full transcript at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2012/0425_rubio/20120425_rubio.pdf

The Washington Post

Marco Rubio’s foreign policy speech stakes out a middle ground in GOP

By Karen DeYoung

Published: April 25, 2012

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took another step onto the national stage Wednesday with a foreign policy speech that positioned him squarely in the middle between a dying breed of GOP moderates and his partisan brethren who have condemned President Obama as an international weakling.

“The easiest thing for me to do here today is to give a speech on my disagreement with this administration on foreign policy,” Rubio told a packed auditorium at the Brookings Institution. “I have many.”

Read the rest of the article at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marco-rubios-foreign-policy-speech-stakes-out-a-middle-ground-in-gop/2012/04/25/gIQAOsLohT_story.html

The Washington Post

PostPartisan blog

Marco Rubio’s foreign policy message for the GOP

By Michael Gerson

Posted at 03:32 PM ET, 04/26/2012

Sen. Marco Rubio’s speech on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution was not oversold. It deserved the designation “major” for its courage, skill and moral seriousness. 

The courage came in criticizing a drift toward isolationism within the Republican Party.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/marco-rubios-foreign-policy-message-for-the-gop/2012/04/26/gIQANTAcjT_blog.html


----
http://www.brookings.edu/


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


http://www.heritage.org/

Syria bleeds while dithering O 'condemns' -Charles Krauthammer calls out Obama's ineffectual foreign policy on Syria that's unsatisfactory to GOP, Democrats AND our overseas allies

Above, the segment that Channel 4 News in Sweden ran this morning on Syria, as the United States continues "to condemn."
How's that working out so far?
It’s time for President Obama to back up his rhetoric with firm action.




The Washington Post
While Syria burns
By Charles Krauthammer
Published: April 26, 2012

Last year President Obama ordered U.S. intervention in Libya under the grand new doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect.” Moammar Gaddafi was threatening a massacre in Benghazi. To stand by and do nothing “would have been a betrayal of who we are,” explained the president.

In the year since, the government of Syria has more than threatened massacres. It has carried them out. Nothing hypothetical about the disappearances, executions, indiscriminate shelling of populated neighborhoods. More than 9,000 are dead.

Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/while-syria-burns/2012/04/26/gIQAQUC0jT_story.html


-----
For more on Obama's failed foreign policy re Syria, see my previous posts on the subject:


April 29, 2011 blog post titled, Marco Rubio is crystal clear in Foreign Policy magazine - "How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/marco-rubio-is-crystal-clear-in-foreign.html


March 20, 2011 titled, Marco Rubio on dithering O: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/marco-rubio-on-dithering-o-so-if-russia.html


It's completely impossible for me or any of my like-minded friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio has done repeatedly on Syria since last year.


My vote for Senate will be FOR people with similar intelligent and articulate views and AGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool.
That completely eliminates Connie Mack IV and puts George LeMieux back in the U.S. Senate.


-----
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


http://www.heritage.org/

Marco Rubio on dithering O: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”

Sen. Marco Rubio questions William J. Burns about President's Obama's "Puzzling Inaction" over Libya at Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the dithering approach to foreign policy and confuses both our allies and our enemies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Brn-7fOGGY

Marco Rubio: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”
Or, "How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power" -and saved Nicolas Sarkozy.




Sen. Marco Rubio Questions U.S. Involvement In U.N. "Charade" at confirmation hearing of Joseph Torsella to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform. March 16, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcC0ChGuXSk

Marco Rubio's performance at these Senate Foreign Relations hearings, so many of which I attended when I lived in the D.C. area for almost 15 years, with Jesse Helms or Joe Biden as Comm. Chair, are exactly why I enthusiastically voted for him last November over Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek, neither one of which was capable of doing that in so effective a manner.
So Florida would have a voice for common sense, effectively articulated.
Just like I repeatedly said last year, no?

It's completely impossible for me or any of my friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio did twice this week, even when he needed to.
Just saying, compare and contrast.

Next year, my vote for Senate will be FOR people with similar intelligent and articulate views and AGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool.
That completely eliminates most of the announced candidates thus far -Connie Mack IV or the perpetually ethically-challenged Mike Haridopolos.
They are OUT!

And reformer Paula Dockery looks even better qualified than she did before this week.

And please don't publicly call what President Obama does in foreign policy 'dithering' or sleepwalking, call it quiet reflection or walking with his eyes closed -or something else.
To do otherwise hurts his supporter's feelings.
Especially his supporters in the American news media.

-----

USA Today
On Libya, how have global players done?
By Justin Paulette

On the eve of a possible war in Libya, the major players on the world stage have taken their turns and staked out their positions. Yet many players have postured themselves in ways that seem to be reversals of their usual roles. This shift in global strategy is largely the domino effect of a shift in American self-identity under President Obama, and an omen of the future under his new foreign policy for America.

The United Nations: Though espousing lofty principles of international peace and security, the U.N. has largely proved an ineffective millstone around the world's neck over the past half-century. As recently as January 2011, a U.N. report uncritically praised Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's human rights record.

Read the rest of this Op-Ed at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-03-19-paulette18_ST_N.htm


The American Spectator
How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power
By John R. Guardiano on 3.20.11 @ 11:08AM

One of the more sadly amusing spectacles of the American-European-Arab dance over Libya is the complete and utter role-reversal that has taken place. Indeed, the Europeans are leading; the Americans are following; and the Arabs are applauding -- publicly!

Read the rest of this post at:
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/20/how-obama-turned-france-into-a


From Krishnan Guru-Murthy writing in Channel 4's Snow Mail this afternoon:

It is now more clear than ever that the Americans are in command of the attacks against Libya. And the coalition is already in trouble tonight with the Arab League chief condemning the airstrikes. The European-led narrative had been executed very well - the French jets got maximum worldwide publicity for leading the onslaught. But shortly afterwards it was American cruise missiles that did the bulk of the work against Libyan air defences. A British submarine and Tornado jets were involved too. This morning the American Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen declared the operation a success. Libya claimed sixty four people had been killed. Russia called for an end to what it called indiscriminate attacks by the coalition. And then a diplomatic bombshell from the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa - saying he wanted civilians protected not bombed. It is hard to imagine what he thought he was signing up to yesterday in Paris - but by the time he got back to Cairo the tune was different. So it is now down to countries like Qatar and UAE to demonstrate that there is still Arab support for the action - that was a crucial part of the justification of military action for many. Tonight we'll have the latest from Tripoli, Benghazi and beyond.

You can watch the last seven days of Channel 4 News on their catch up player - available on iPhones and iPads too: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/



Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller in Tripoli.
http://bcove.me/jnx5ex02


Channel 4 News Internation editor Lindsey Hilsum in Benghazi
http://bcove.me/ngr3ij6w

--

See also: Congressional Hearings Offer Opportunity for U.N. Budgetary Scrutiny
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/03/Congressional-Hearings-Offer-Opportunity-for-UN-Budgetary-Scrutiny

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio
http://www.heritage.org/

Fascinating Deutsche Welle TV video of innovative architect Thomas Rau in Amsterdam, and what he's done with the WWF HQ in The Netherlands

I originally came to this short report -in English- on Deutsche Welle TV after reading a story on FC Bayern Munich boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's efforts to bring salaries down and keep at least some ticket prices family-friendly, and I'll be posting that story soon.

This video explains why architect Thomas Rau decided to rent (instead of buying) his office interior, why this is, supposedly, better for the environment and financially attractive for manufacturers, though the truth is, he makes the disposition of the furniture the manufacturer's problem, not his, when he tires of it.

Then, Deutsche Welle visits a client that he has worked his magic on -the head office of WWF Netherlands in Zeist- and explains how their building became the first energy neutral building in the land of the Orange.

http://www.archicentral.com/wwf-zeist-the-netherlands-rau-architects-11212/ http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/zeist-home-to-the-wwfs-innovative-new-dutch-headquarters

"A key maxim he follows is the use of 100% recyclable materials. Rau has committed himself to designing environmentally-responsible architecture."
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5887227,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66ZA-kfjBUA



Some day, if I can remember to, I'll write here about my plans circa 1990 to travel and write from Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall fell.
Among other things, I was going to write about how rural communities were coping with the rapid economic and social changes that lay before them, the effect of decades of pollution on the communities and foreign investment, and the employment prospects of the young people who suddenly had choices their parents never had, and who could now move west and leave their problems -and families- behind.

Marie Ciganek, who was from the then-Czechoslovakia, was the savvy and friendly woman who was then in charge of Eastern Europe at the D.C. office of the WWF, and she couldn't have been more helpful and encouraging, even suggesting some folks I contact to make my goal a reality. http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/

But despite lots of hard work on my part to make a real go of it, the plan could never be worked out financially, which was very depressing, as I had some very definite plans for doing some very interesting things once I got over there.

It was while going around talking to people in Washington and doing some investigating that I first found out for myself how many of D.C.'s think tanks and foundations that have funds that are supposed to be used to help and encourage Young Professionals in their career efforts, were actually not much more than wink-wink slush funds/vacation jaunts for well-known establishment types already working at mainstream American news media outlets, print and electronic -and they were NOT so young, either!

I won't name names here but... well, I could.
It was quite an eye-opening experience for me to see how routinely "requirements" were flouted by well-connected media types to secure things they weren't really eligible for!

This was also roughly when I was routinely plowing thru Foreign Affairs magazine in one week, often on MARC train trips up to Baltimore from D.C's Union Station on weekends for Oriole home games at Camden Yards.

Somewhere, in the archives, there are photos of me reading it in-between innings out in the centerfield bleachers, my favorite area for watching a game there. Perhaps even this essay from 1993, The Collapse Of 'The West' by Owen Harries
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49202/owen-harries/the-collapse-of-the-west

Those were the days!
Yes kids, once upon a time, not so long ago, the Orioles were very, very good...

When I was at IU in Bloomington, I used to routinely listen to Deutsche Welle's English-language radio broadcasts on my shortwave radio, http://www.dw-world.de/ which was even more interesting when I had a girlfriend at the time who spoke fluent German, one of the languages I never quite cracked.
http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_multi_mediaplayer/0,,4128016_type_audio_struct_4703_format_WMedia,00.html

Talar ni tyska, Dave?
Nej!

For more information:
http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/netherlands/

http://rau.eu/en

RAU Architects YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RAUarchitects

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/

http://www.timothygartonash.com/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/