Speaking about the lack of hard factual international news reporting by our nation’s major news outlets, Ted Koppell stated the following as part of his speech to the Overseas Press Club (where he received the President’s Award):
They have almost surrendered even the pretense of civic responsibility. That is not just a shame, but a travesty.”
In case it isn't obvious to all readers, what is exceedingly troubling about a decrease in international reporting is that it makes the American government that much more able to falsify and distory information to manipulate public opinion. Indeed, every repressive government in history has sought to control the 'news' media. That's dangerous enough when it happens in a powerless Third-World country, but when it happens in the world's only remaining Superpower, whose military spending equals that of all the other countries on the planet combined, it is a formula for disaster. When that same Superpower suffers from: (1) a nationwide addition to oil, whose supply it does not control, and (2) a nationwide, nationalistic megalomania; the results will unlikely be good.