It's not uncommon for me to have trouble falling asleep at night, and something I've done since I was very young to help drift off is listen to news radio.

As a child growing up just outside Chicago, that meant WBBM ("Newsradio 78"; I can't help but hear that in jingle form in my head). But when I got to college, there was -- surprise! -- no 24-hour news station in Champaign, Illinois.

The local NPR affiliate did, however, carry the BBC during the overnight hours. Because I was both involved with student media, and a student of media, I was particularly attuned to the contrast in interview style between the reporters on the BBC and their US counterparts. Stateside, reporters are just not very good at asking tough questions, but more importantly, I find them almost universally terrible at calling bullshit. Our media is just too obsessed with maintaining the precious illusion that there are "two sides to every story."

I was reminded of this while reading The Economist today when I came across the following (sorry, behind a paywall), which you'll never see in a US newspaper or newsmagazine (the emphasis is mine):

Florida's popular governor, Charlie Crist, tried to persuade the candidates to back a federal subsidy for home insurance for people who live in hurricane-prone places like Florida. This is a terrible idea. By making it cheaper to build in risky areas, it would ensure that more houses are destroyed in future hurricanes.

Isn't that refreshing?

¶ 11:45 PM