The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

A programming note to the media-wise. PBS' "Frontline/World" concludes its series on the post 9/11 media with a segment on Al Jazeera and the role it plays in shaping opinion in the Middle East. (9 p.m. TPT 2). Here in the US, where Congressional neandertals made a patriotic show of re-naming French fries, we continue to have almost no idea of how we are portrayed in the popular press in a region where we've dumped a half trillion dollars and 3200 of our soldiers' lives. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

You don't have to buy Al Jazeera's act. But considering how so much of American news is packaged to "appeal" to viewers, and/or avoid outraging them, it'd be valuable to be able to check in on how we're faring with street level consumers on the other side of the great cultural divide.