A Global News Source

There is a new website for those who wonder what people outside of the United States think of this country. It is called Watching America.

I keep the Christian Science Monitor’s daily headlines on My.Yahoo because that paper often supplies otherwise scantily reported information on Culture, Politics and Science. Today’s online issue provides an efficacious and objective look at happenings and ideas throughout the world that the standard fair of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, etc, seem to find unworthy (read not-already-Profitably-Popular) of their readers’ attention.

The CSM article talks about what this new site can contribute; why its creator’s brought it to life and what its impact on policy might become. One might wonder how much foreign media might care whether or not American's know what they have to say.

Last January, when WatchingAmerica.com started to link to foreign articles and translate them, the founders had no idea how the foreign media would react. But all the news organizations that have been in touch about their content appearing on the site have been "totally delighted," Koerner says, and have begun alerting him to other stories in their publications.

Actually, my reaction to that is "Duh!" LOL!

The CSM story also points out a small problem for such an out of the mainstream project:

To become self-supporting through advertising … the site would need 100,000 hits a day. Right now it gets about 6,000 (says Robin Koerner the site’s co-founder)

Since this concept (actually knowing and understanding what your neighbors' conerns and thoughts are) is of such fundamental importance in existing in the Global Village, I heartily endorse and recommend making reading this site de rigueur for all who, like me, presume to discuss issues of the World at Large.