I have a feeling its ok to point to sites that do down Obama, but when the McCain/Palin camp get the rip taken out of them, its not funny.

"I think people are too hard on you about foreign policy - I can see Belgium from my house!"

I think the Canadian DJ's did a very good of prank calling.

That call was from Les vengeurs masqués (Masked Avengers)
They caugth the pope, Sarkozy and some other international morons.
I they act clumsy on behalf - so we can see the sheer stupidity of the people they prank too.
Other than that, they do pretty boring shit on popular radio.

Nah, I just thought it was boring, but I listen to Opie & Anthony and a lot of people find them unfunny, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X8V_OpsMAo&NR=1

This is the McCain that I want to see, not the McCain that his party try and get him to be. Twice he defends him and gets boo'd. Amazing.

A prank call was also done in the U.K a couple of years ago to Blair, pretending to be from the oppisition leader at the time, William Hague. Was quite funny but Blair caught on after about 30 seconds and then had a jolly good laugh about it and everyone was happy.

However with this one it went on for 6 mins and was much more obvious that is was a prank, the worst thing about it I found is how Palin didnt take it well, you really got the impression that she ran away in tears.

The call itself wasnt particularly horrible and they gave her pleanty of big clues that it was a prank- but she still didnt catch on. She is a victim of her own stupidity though, its not a secret that forign govenments do not favor either candidate in the race, and also as I mentioned before, Sarkozy doesnt speak english.

All in all though I did feel sorry for her and found it very painful to watch- but it goes to show she really isnt fit to be in the position she is in and that the Media have been far to easy on her- still hopefully come tuesday she will be put out of her misery.

She's not qualified for the job, but I don't think falling for a prank call is what decides that.

Also, I don't know what kind of coverage Palin has been getting in the UK, but here in America (you know, where the people who choose the next President live), Palin has been taking a real beating in the news since the day she was chosen.

Yes, because foreign interest in the US elections is wholly unnecessary as your country has no impact on our lives Petes sake Roger, that condescending attitude really does grate sometimes.

And Palin gets a kicking whenever her name is mentioned in the UK press.

I wasn't saying that the election wouldn't have an impact on your lives. I was saying that whatever media Samba is seeing in England really doesn't have much of an effect on the election because that's not what the American voting public is being exposed to. Americans are being exposed primarily to American media.Looks like your assessment differs from Samba's, then, but very few Americans pay attention to UK news sources. It's a shame, too, because the coverage I've seen on BBC and read in The Guardian is superior to ours in many ways.

That statement does make me kind of sad, do all Americans only listen to whats put under their noses?

Whats the point of the internet?

It swings both way- I have a narrow view of american media, the only american news I watch- and only occasionaly are Fox and CNN ( Fox only for my own amusment.)

Anyways to me Palin gets an easy time with both Fox and CNN- thats nothing new though. Today for example I didnt even see any mention of the prank phone call on Fox, but they mentioned Obamas illegal immigrant Aunt every 5 mins.

When I watch ameircan media I like to watch the worst of it as opposed to a broad sprectrum. The thing that facinates me is that there is actually still some credible debate as to wether Palin is capable of of the job as VP.

Hand on heart I can say anywhere else in the world somthing like Palin would have never been allowed to happen, there are already many negative sterotypes of americans that you guys probably arnt exposed to but this plays into the hands of all of them. The think that worrys me the most is that if these clowns so manage to get in it will not be 4 more Bush years, but somthing much worse!

Anyways I havnt seen any polls that suggest Obama isnt still leading by a comfortable gap- obviously the Aunt story could have a big effect though.

Whats the point of the internet?

Toys & porn

Not everybody in America uses the internet, and not everybody who uses the internet uses it to get news.

I believe most Americans who seek news out get ot through local newspapers, local network affiliate television nightly news programs, and top-of-the-hour news broadcasts on the radio. All of these are usually the worst ways to get information because they're restricted by time and space constraints, and very beholden to advertisers.

Cable news sources (CNN, Fox News, etc.) and things like National Public Radio aren't consumed by as many people as the aforementioned sources, and too many Americans get news through word of mouth, which really doesn't help matters much.

What's it like in the UK?

Also, come on, Samba:

This is probably just as stereotypical, but are you including the governments of Africa and South America when you make this assessment of one American politician? Some pretty crazy shit goes on there.

On cable tv, EuroNews is a good way to get unbiased info.
Personaly, I also get CNN,BBC World + all the national ones to get a idea of what is going on around the world. When looking via the net, it is to easy the find the things that correspond to one point of view.

Yeah maybe I was exaggerating a bit- but I definatly feel Palin marks a new all time low. I mean obviously some seriously bad shit goes down in Dictatorships and so on, but for a democracy Palin is definetly a global low point.

The media in the U.K is obviously a lot smaller scale than the U.S, and obviously it isnt all impaticial. We have bad stuff for example the tabloids ( The Sun, The Mirror ect) which most thinking people steel well clear of. They are bias, right wing and sometimes raciest and generally full scaremongering. There is also a lot of spin- but thats just politics and outlets like the guardian and the BBC try to even it out and present both sides of the argument, although it is worth noting the BBC is not as good as it use to be and is slowly dummbing down it content in favor of more and more celebrity news storys, as is the Guardian but not at such an alarming rate.

I would also say that our media inbraces the internet more than yours, from what I have seen, they view it all as the same thing. We do not have a much good investigative journalism as we use to and in the 24-hour media era our primary outlets like the BBC are cutting corners and relying too heavly on wire feeds like Reuters ect.

For me the main difference between though between U.K and U.S media is the way it is presented- the U.S media is like news on ecstacy, super fast, constructed out of the shortest sound bites possible- it rarly does a deep anaylsis of the story and hardly ever presents conflicting opinions. Its sad aswell because this is inturn having a knock on effect- politicians now only seem to speak in sound bites for televised news and the whole content of what they are saying seems to be simplified and dummed down.

The think is being living in England you only have to look over the pond at you guys to see what the future holds- I bet 10 years and our news will be exactly the same as yours- like I said it is dying a slow death.

Thats why more and more people now get their news from the internet, they can read conflicting reports, and different interpretations and draw their own conclusions. People making their own opinions rather then watching over opinionated news and adopting those views.

I get all my news and views from the daily newspapers, in particular the Daily Star, and the Daily Sport.

Cant beat the 'views' in the Sport!

Its quality reading material.

It has text in it?

The fact that there are Americans that honestly and truly believe Obama is a terrorist and "fear for their children's futures" under his Presidency (yes, I'm optimistic) tells me that they aren't paying attention to Fox much less global news sources. They probably rely solely on local townsfolk word of mouth and forwarded chain e-mails. Very scary.

Some perspective from a friend of mine who is serving the Peace Corps in Cameroon:

http://camerooned.blogspot.com/2008/11/ ... ntial.html

I think you should listen to this, then:

http://www.msbrew.com/2008/03/whats-wro ... e-got.html

Fast forward to 5:30, where the eternal question is asked, "What's wrong with the beer we got?"

WFMU's Electile Dysfunction 2008:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/11/w ... ctile.html

On the eve of this historic election, I predict Obama will be the U.S.'s next president.

He talks to talk, but we shall see if he walks the walk. I sure hope so.