News may still be new, but nothing is "foreign".

I still have not yet seen. The Red Green Show.

As members who read NCEW'S valuable e-marl listserv may recall, Red Green is a Canadian-produced TV comedy. I hear it's your basic laff-riot, employing woodsy Canadian lads as comic doppelgangers for the haplessness in all males everywhere. The latter I can relate to. Someday, I'll watch.

The curious thing--for your humble editor, anyway--was how the discussion evolved. Or, more accurately, devolved.

It started with a very straightforward question about the then-impending Canadian elections, tossed out by Doug Firby of the Calgary Herald. He was curious about what Americans were thinking regarding Stephen Harper and the suddenly resurgent Canadian conservatives. About two posts later, we were wall to wall in Red Green.

Yes, I suppose you could say he got his answer. As news consumers, Americans are notoriously incurious about Canadian politics, even though Canada is by far the U.S.'s most important trading partner.

But where editorial commentary is concerned, the question becomes more intriguing. No one in our business would ever argue for ignorance of issues beyond our immediate borders. But what is the appropriate venue for debating those issues?

Is the editorial page of a small-circulation newspaper in Nebraska, for example, the best place to debate U.S. tariffs on Canadian timber imports? Or, for that matter, the merits of the next Canadian prime minister? Or has free trade and the rise of international government organizations brought issues once deemed "foreign" to the doorsteps of readers in McCook, Nebraska?

We have a solid Symposium in this issue of The Masthead arguing, as usual, both sides of this sticky issue.

Some contributors, like Rob Bignell of The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, argue persuasively that international subjects are a waste of precious space for papers the size of his. Others, like Tom Walton of The Blade in Toledo, make a great case that it's the soundness of your argument, not size, that truly matters. No matter where you come down, though, it's a great debate.

As an organization, meanwhile, NCEW may be on the brink of some significant change.

The world of editorial writers and editors is changing fast. I don't need to tell you how: the Internet is fast proving its own Big Bang Theory of commentary. One big blast of universally accessible technology and suddenly billions of lights are twinkling (and chattering) all around. Whither editorial pages?

The board of NCEW has concluded it is high time we discussed where we stand in the expanding universe of opinion-writing. President J.R. Labbe writes on important proposed changes in NCEW, as does Neil Heinen, chair of strategic planning.

Don't you dare change the channel to Red Green.