http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-arndt/20-thing-ive-learned-from_b_673264.html
2) The media lies. If you only learned about other countries from the news, you’d think the world was a horrible place. The media will always sensationalize and simplify a story. I was in East Timor when the assassination attempts on President José Ramos-Horta, and Prime Minister Xanana Guséo in 2008. The stories in the news the next day were filed from Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, not Dili. It was all secondhand news. I was in Bangkok during the political protests this year, but you’d never have any idea they were taking places if you were not in the immediate area where the protests were taking place. The media makes us scared of the rest of the world, and we shouldn’t be.
I agreed with almost every point this long-term traveller made – and almost all of them are beautiful and worth sharing. As a Canadian, however, I take quiet yet indignant issue with his claim that American and Canadian culture is the same thing. We share similar accents and media tropes, perhaps, but I would suggest any conversation that went deeper than a chat about the weather would reveal a very different mindset indeed.