John Judis has a nice peice up at TNR that uses Obama’s trip to Asia to illustrate why American newspapers are so worthless for the non bird-owning segment of the population. Not really Chinese history, but if you have wondered why you spend so much time reading blogs this is nice.
Sino-Korean relations (Or, why American newspapers stink)
Wow. I can’t disagree. I read the NY Times from time to time, and I’ve noticed how a story about some regional crisis is pretty identical to a story about that regional crisis they printed five years ago, or even a story on another page about another crisis in another part of the world. And the Times still has much better foreign coverage than most US papers.
I always wondered why I couldn’t get on with the NYT or any other US paper. I assumed it was something cultural, that Britishness naturally inclines me towards the style of British papers. But maybe there is something in it. The FT and The Economist do make efforts to present very coherent narratives.