As a boy growing up in the United States, I was always fascinated with the world beyond America. My brother’s friend would come over and see me reading the World Atlas and quiz my brother about what might be wrong with me.
That hunger and thirst for knowledge was always satisfied as I tuned my shortwave radio to the BBC World Service. An announcer would declare “This is London.” The presenter would then read a summary of the headlines, which often included stories like the civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers.
Over twenty-five years later, it is wonderful to see that the BBC, through such outlets as their World News channel, is continuing to produce quality news stories that bring the world right into your home. American news outlets struggle to maintain political impartiality, often blurring the lines between commentary and journalism. When they can manage to remain unbiased, they rarely focus much on events beyond American borders. On the other hand, the BBC seems to cover each story for the long haul, remaining on the scene at earthquakes and floods throughout the aftermath long after the actual events have subsided. The journalists of the BBC continue to tell the stories of the people affected, and in doing so, continue to focus the world’s attention.
Diane Sawyer boasted during one evening news bulletin that ABC “was telling the world” about the famine and drought in East Africa. However, it was the BBC that first reported on the depth and scope of the situation there. By the time ABC started to devote a great deal of coverage to the unfolding human tragedy, the BBC had already been all over it for some time.
One of the BBC’s greatest assets is Lyse Doucet, a journalist originally from New Brunswick, Canada. Lyse covered the “Arab Spring” in Tahrir Square in Cairo and often reports from hot spots in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her best work to date may be the riveting reports she filed in late September 2011 from Syria. Lyse’s reports from Syria chronicled a nation torn between the fear of the repressive Assad regime and the desire to see the freedom being realized elsewhere in the Middle East. It was nothing short of award-winning caliber journalism. That type of reporting is possible for the BBC because of it’s reputation for fairness, proper research and the ability to cross social, religious and ethnic barriers to tell a story.
Christmas came early in my house this year when a Verizon FIOS salesman rang my doorbell and asked me to consider switching my cable service. I was not convinced until I saw that BBC World News was on the list of channels provided. It is now my primary source for news. My hope is that more Americans will be exposed to the BBC over time. There’s a great big world out there. The BBC is the network that I believe is best equipped to tell us what’s happening in it.