ABSTRACT
Before the Thomas-Hill hearings came to a close, the Cable News Network ran a feature on how the spectacle had been playing in other countries. Two British citizens, both white, were interviewed on London streets. The first, a rather proper middle-aged woman of means, walking her dog in a Belgravia-type square, told the interviewer that she just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. The second, a younger, more bohemian man, standing on a less posh street, said that the hearings demonstrated that the British had a good deal of catching up to do in the area of women’s rights. The CNN double play reinforced some obvious British stereotypes. But its real purpose was to reinforce the perception of U.S. culture as both democratic in its public exposure of political corruption (no doubt quite “vulgar” from the perspective of the middle-class Englishwoman) and pioneering in the advancements of its civil society (“progressive” from the perspective of the would-be male feminist). Among other things, this dual perception of the national culture is the primary shaping principle behind CNN’s own house style for editing and broadcasting world news across the major league of nations. Performing the global function once served by the BBC in the age of radio, CNN’s decentered corporate populism has effectively replaced the voice of paternal imperialism that used to issue from Europe’s metropolitan centers.
