Brits on Diane Rehm

I noticed an interesting development on the Diane Rehm show this week. Every Friday morning the ever-excellent Rehm (broadcasting from Washington, DC's WAMU public radio station) has a weekly news roundup, where she invites three prominent political journalists to discuss the major issues of the week. Usually these journalists are fairly well balanced politically, with everyone from left-leaning journos such as James Fallows and The Nation's David Corn right across the spectrum to conservative ideologues such as William Kristoll and the occasionally foaming-at-the-mouth Tony Blankley. But (as far as I know) most of the guests have been American. Well, not so much any more. Recently I've noticed an increasing number of English accents on the show - including the BBC's Katy Kay and UPI's Martin Walker, who's become a regular.

Then on this week's program, perhaps for the first time, two out of the three guests were British: Martin Walker (again) and John Parker, Washington bureau chief for The Economist (perhaps he was there to fill the conservative slot normally occupied by Blankley, even though The Economist's brand of economic conservatism is a good ball park away from the Washington Times's more rabid orientation). It was particularly noteworthy this week since the news of the week had been dominated not by a major international story such as Iraq or the Middle East, but by the peculiarly American circumstances surrounding the Terri Schiavo saga. Is this, then, another example of the Brits being given increasing license to interpret current events to a (fairly elite) inside-the-Beltway and national American audience, on even the touchiest American matters? Could you imagine two French or German or Chinese journalists being on the Friday roundup at the same time (unless it was a special "global perspectives" or "foreign viewpoints" type of show, which this week's wasn't)? How long before it's three out of three Brits on Diane Rehm? Meanwhile, this is all a long, long way from local TV news - where most Americans get their news - where it's still rare to hear an accent that's not solidly fake-mid-Western.