alexist

If I hear one more British newsreader/reporter pronounce Houston as "hoo-ston" I'm going to go nuts.

It's pronounced "you-ston". You all make fun of us when we mispronounce British place names; don't mispronounce ours!

ETA: Pronouncing it with some form of h at the beginning is perfectly acceptable. After pronouncing it repeatedly (and making the word lose all sense) I've decided I do sort of pronounce the h at the beginning. It's not as strong as in, say, "house", but it's not a straight y either. Happy now?! :) The issue was them completely leaving out the y, which is definitely not OK. :-)

The British coverage of Katrina is beginning to get on my nerves.

The Bush-bashing was expected and certainly deserved, at least to some extent.

But the reports about the "hidden poverty", racism, etc are another matter. So many of them have this air of smug satisfaction: Look at America! The suffering of innocent people isn't enough in itself, it's also proof of the horrors of American society and government.

There have been 3 deadly fires in Paris apartment buildings recently, all housing immigrants. Have we seen articles on the hypocrisy and callousness of a French government supposedly dedicated to equality and fraternity? No, we haven't. (I'm not suggesting the events are of the same magnitude, but I haven't seen one opinion piece on the Paris events, just dry news articles.)

I'm becoming more and more convinced that some British journalists, especially on the left, simply jump at the chance to attack the US. It's not that the US is above criticism or that Bush is a great president--clearly, neither is true. But it's wearying. Unless you restrict your news intake to the few Americanophiles (which I don't want to do) it's a constant stream of criticism.

I'm also not one for seeing conspiracies in every corner. I don't think that Bush et al deliberately ignored the people of New Orleans because they were black and poor. I think they simply didn't think or care. It's a subtle difference, but it matters.