Keeping track of American news cycle is a very different experience to that of UK news. American news contains far more opinions, panel discussions and assertions which criticise the Government and Trump severely (MSNBC, CNN, CBS) while Fox News and Britebart support Right Wing thinking in America but more recently have also been critical of Trump’s undemocratic actions.

The News Cycle in the USA is short but focused. The news cycle in the UK – at least from the BBC which appears to be a Government mouthpiece pretending to be balanced but clearly is not, is more focused on the Government handling of the Pandemic and presents the Government without much commentary, simply reporting on the PM’s agenda and actions by Ministers. Which one is better?

American news has freedom of speech as its core value. The UK does not actually have freedom of speech and its main news channel, the BBC is hardly objective. In fact it would also be true to class all British Media as having a distinct Right or Left wing agenda.

American media has been attacked by Trump almost continuously. He called it fake news. However his record of lying is well documented and for him to accuse journalists of misrepresenting facts is a bit rich. It is sheer hypocrisy, but that is Trump’s method of spreading misinformation.

In the UK, the government speaks and it is reported. Only during PMQ (Prime Minister’s Questions) does there seem to be any challenge to the Government’s media projection. There are articles in papers like The Guardian and The Independent that are critical of the Government, but it is most challenged by the Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party – Sir Kier Starmer who regularly takes the PM Boris Johnson to pieces.

I think America is better served by its media. Fox News is owned by Australian magnate Rupert Murdoch who also owns the Wall Street Journal, plus, in the UK, The Times and The Sun. One is a sober and well respected fairly right wing paper, while the other is an awful tabloid with an extraordinarily high circulation and a ridiculous level of influence. It is said that it chooses the Government. I think that its grip on the nation is reducing. You need to have an IQ below 100 to bear it, in my opinion.

Does the media serve democracy? Or is it so bent by their own political agenda that they are not objective? I think the American media are better at being objective than the British media. And yet, American democracy is being killed by Trump and his cohorts.