Enough with the America Bashing
Independence from Stereotyping Day. Please.
I’m a big fan of Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett. I read her all the time. So imagine my irritation when a favorite British writer takes a gratuitous swipe at Americans.
In a story about cell phones and the confusing near-coup in Russia, she writes:
“If a revolution can be followed on our phones, it should, theoretically, make it easier to persuade Americans, or anyone else, to take note of geopolitics.”
What’s with the cheap shot at Americans Ms. Tett?
US citizens are no different from people of other nations. Some folks follow the news; some don’t.
In fact, a Reuters Institute/University of Oxford report shows that Americans are nearly ten times more likely than British people to follow the Russia/Ukraine conflict “extremely closely”. The same survey says that in 2022 46% of Brits “sometimes or often actively avoid the news”, compared to 42% of Americans.
And yet, the chair of the editorial board of one of world’s most respected news outlets casually suggests to readers (most of whom reside outside the US) that Americans are myopic, incurious, ignorant.
