Martin Savidge

If youve ever traveled outside the US and turned on the news then you know there seems to be a lot more reporting about the rest of the world. Its not your imagination, for years foreign news coverage on American networks has been on the decline. Bureaus have steadily closed their staffs laid off. In fact last year attention to international news was at its lowest since records monitoring such things were first published in 1988. Savidge has heard producers at respected news networks say Americans dont care about foreign news. 9/11 should have changed that thinking but instead even today we only learn of international events when they become crises, even though the conditions for that crisis have been brewing for years. It gives Americans the faulty sense that things in the world explode over night when in fact there are clear warning signs going back months or even years. Instead Afghanistan became a launching pad for terror. And today most Americans are still unaware Somalia is about to take its place. What we dont know has and can still, hurt us.