CNN Vs.BBC

CNN or BBC - Which is the best news channel?

We people in India, hardly turn to these international news channels unless there is a September 11 or an Israeli attack or a high profile event like Milosevic death or Saddam capture occurs.

For one of my onsite projects, I had to live in a hotel room in Cairo, Egypt for about 4-5 months continuously. Thanks to genrerosity of my employer, it was a top notch 5* hotel. So there was a plethora of paid satellite channels; without which it would have been terribly boring to stay like that for a long period. Here in Egypt, most of the news channels are in Arabic and the English language press also plays second fiddle to the regional language. The local people want passionate reporting of any issue and they can only feel the passion only if they read in their local language. I have hardly seen 1-2 news papers in english for a country of 70 million.

So I had to “live” with the 2 channels BBC and CNN for my news updates. You know news on the internet is not interesting as always. Of course, Euro News was up there, but their presentation is very monotonous and boring in-fact. Nevertheless it was not an international channel.

My personal favorite is CNN. They are simply explosive in their style and their journalists are thier assets. I love the way they present their shows and some of the hosts are so pretty that you can watch them, even with the television volume muted. Yes….I was talking about Monita Rajpal, she is terrific :-). I was never interested in watching Lifestyle programs, but started watching ‘Art of Life’ for this beauty with brains.

Usually we skip the channels when they start showing temperature and rainfall related stuff, but Jenny Harrison makes it interesting. I don’t know how the hell she has so much “enthu”, in presenting weather data, whch she does so nicely.

“Quest” is one of my favorite programs…the langy Richard with his thick British accent makes it super dooper stuff. I have to say, the special report programs are are really good. Seen this "In the Footsteps of Osama Bin Laden" ..by Christian Amanpour...what a research man !! amazing stuff... hats off...only CNN can produce such stuff.

Also, the way they handle terrorism is stupendous. I think these journarlists gets trained in Al Qaeda camps, as a part of their recuritment..juz kidding.... Aneesh Raman is an excellent example for this !!

International Correspondents is worth seeing. The sports commentators are pathetic, except for Don Riddell and Candy Reid. CNN doesn’t cover much of cricket. Being from the Indian Sub-Continent, obvioulsy i want cricket news, whether its played in Barbados or Bangaldesh. May be they don’t recognize cricket as truly international game. And they live up to their motto “Be the first to know”.

Coming to BBC World, their jingles, graphics and presentation is all boring. The dull orange and black makes puts me to sleep, even if the news is really breaking stuff. Some programs on BBC are real good, Hard Talk with Stephen Sackur, The Doha Debate and Click Online. The websites given in the Click program are real good ones.

I still remember how Binayamin Netanyahu grilled Noel Johnson, in the Hard Talk program at the height of Israel-Lebanon war. Usually it will be the other way around with guest being grilled by the host, Stephen Sackur :-) It was real fun to watch that.

In BBC, have you watched the Earth TV, in which they show the live feed from all important cities of the globe with current time and temperature, I love to see the bird’s eye view of Sydney in that.

What irritates me, is that every minute every other presenter prompt you to visit BBC World or BBC News website. Too much !! I feel like hitting the guy and saying...We will visit..if required..juz shut up !!

On a contrary I like the BBC website very much, and not impressive about CNN Website. The former's website is pretty much organized and easy to browse.

Good to watch faces and graphics are not the only criterion for a news channel to be voted the best. Inspite of very good news content, I believe CNN is bit biased towards their home, the United States; while BBC loooks more neutral. The US correspondents of CNN, think their world is limited to the US only. They also have double standards when reporting about the people in the Middle East and people in the North America. Neither the CNN n0r the BBC is critical of the Bush's Foreign Policy

When the Americans in Florida took to the streets and celebrate the ill-health of Cuban leader Castro, the reporting is toned down. When the lebanese public celebrate the death of israeli civilians, they are picturized as barbarians...... CNN publishes the critic letters in one of their programs, but dont expect any responses to the critics.. its all "stone in the well" policy.

If CNN sheds is double standards and stop pleasing their US masters, they are the number one.

What say BBC Fans ?? Got any defending aruguments ??