Watch: BBC Director-General Mark Thompson on ‘Morning Joe’

Earlier today, BBC director-general Mark Thompson was a guest on Morning Joe, the MSNBC breakfast gabfest featuring Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist. Thompson touted the BBC’s international news coverage in a time when many foreign news bureaus have shut their doors due to shrinking budgets. “There’s a hunger for international reporting,” Thompson said. “Our rivals around the world…just haven’t got the resources to invest in international reporting, particularly in this country, the United States.”

He noted that the situation hasn’t always been that way: “I ran the BBC news operation for Tiananmen Square in ’89, and when U.S. networks arrived to cover a big story, it was like watching an American carrier group arriving in town – people, resources, no expense spared. It’s very different now. The agencies Reuters and AP are out there, but very few people have got that global reach.”

Watch the interview below.

Why do you think there isn’t more international coverage from U.S. news organizations, even though we’re more globally connected than ever? And will it get better or worse in the years to come?

by Kevin Wicks