Only the countries highlighted on this map received twelve or more hours of coverage from the big three U.S. network news programs during the entire decade of the 1990s. The other countries received less coverage than this, some of them far less.
Even countries that are quite large in terms of their population, economic importance or political importance to the United States received scant coverage. Notice that Brazil, India, Australia, France, and even Canada (our largest trading partner and home to one of the big-three news anchors) did not merit twelve hours of coverage over the ten-year period.
During the decade, 41 countries received no coverage at all, while an additional 73 countries received less than 30 minutes of coverage in ten years.
The map appeared in the January 2002 issue of Harper's magazine, and is based on research by Harper's staff and Andrew Tyndall.
ABC News claims that "more Americans get their news from ABC News than
from any other source." If this is the case, ABC (and the others) have
failed as corporate citizens, and the rest of us have failed to hold them
accountable. An informed citizenry in the United States could be one of
the most important guarantors of peace and justice at home and abroad,
but it is sadly lacking.