I’m in London watching a morning BBC show made up in great measure of four people sitting on a couch discussing stories in the Sunday papers. Every day here, TV news shows share what’s in the papers. Can you imagine this happening in the U.S.? It’s not just that there aren’t enough papers, it’s also that there’s less in them worth talking about. And TV news in the U.S. is too little about discussion.
These segments on British TV news are a proxy for the broader discussion that goes on not only on the internet but across breakfast tables and pub benches. How much are American papers worthy of that discussion?