sometimes it is about not having access to healthy food. sometimes when the food is there, people still are not buying vegetables and fruits. they still are buying what they're used to. opening a supermarket in isolation is not going to change people's eating habits. it has to be in tandem with other things such as education on nutrition and knowing how to cook food are not used to buy. it has to be a multi-faceted approach. a big part of the campaign is education around nutrition, what to do once you have access to these kinds of food. host: this is median earnings. guest: you do see differences for african-americans by gender. this side shows african-american

males making about $37,000 is around all females. some of that may be related to occupation and back from. cynthia may want to follow-up on that if you have any other things to add. host: i was going to add a statistic from the economic policy institute on poverty rates. this looks at median earnings. this is another view of household income. it was steady. the black population, 27% of those reporting are at the poverty line. hispanic, 26%. a large disparity in black and white households on poverty statistics. guest: absolutely. when it comes to addressing poverty in general, the

administration tries to call attention to the fact they have expanded social services and the safety net. that is helpful to people struggling. what people are looking for is not so much services and a safety net. they're looking for robust jobs programs that will bring people out of poverty. that is something people are still looking for. host: this is the last slide. you referenced this earlier. the current generation of black americans are coming from different places. guest: this showcases some of the diversity. in 2000, we have a comparison. you can see 10 years ago, the caribbean population made up more than half of all african- americans born born. these are decreasing. we're seeing a rise in the

african-born population. host: by 10 percentage points. in 2015 when the population is reversed, will you care what my white heritage is a restaurant you ask country of origin for white immigrants? guest: the information is based on all people. we want to know how people in all communities are doing. host: what are the most important issues? guest: the most important issue is always jobs and employment with education being the second most popular issue. what is great about the conversation is to show the diversity of the black experience it is- so diverse. not only where you are from, but

also your economic background and your educational attainment. it is a snapshot of all the different areas of black life. host: theroot.com is a gathering place for the issues we have discussed today. cynthia gordy represents them covering washington. we're going to take a break. this week, we have been doing a series looking at foreign news bureaus in washington, d.c., and how they framed the united states in their coverage of issues. you will meet simon wilson who represents bbc news, reporting on america for british audiences at home. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> we pulled in for refueling. >> a former commander on the al qaeda attack that left 17 dead and 37 injured. >> i was doing routine paperwork. there was a thunderous explosion. you could feel all 8,400 tons quickly and violently thrust upward and to the right. it was almost like we seemed to hang in the air. we came back down in the water. the lights went out. ceiling tiles popped out. everything on my desk lifted up and slammed down. i grabbed the underside of my

desk to brace until the ship stopped moving and i could stand up. >> more on sunday at 8:00. >> one of my favorite drugs to talk about is in maybe half of pigs, cows, and a lot of turkey. it is to make the animals that so they make more money. when an animal is killed and the meat is sold, it is in there. >> she looks behind the scenes of the food and drug industry and fines regulatory lapses and government complicity in undermining public health. that is sunday night at 9:00. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: we wrap up our series this morning looking at foreign news bureaus in the united states. we started off on monday with al jazeera. on july 4, we focused on the voice of america. yesterday, we heard from cctv, china. today we look at bbc america. simon wilson is the washington bureau chief joining us from the d.c. bureau. give us a sense of the reach of the bbc. host: we got new global audience figures last month that were very encouraging. around 239 million people around the world watch bbc news in some form. we get our news lots of

different ways. that includes people who listen to world service radio in english but also more than more than 20 regional languages. it includes "pc world news," our main tv channel. bbc news america is part of that network. a big growth thing for us is online news. that is 239 million people around the world. more than 30 million of those each month in the united states. host: how else is your mission changing? how are you thinking about the news you broadcast around the world? guest: the bbc was the first real broadcaster in the 91 to in london.he 1920's the bbc has grown. we are the main domestic broadcaster in the united

kingdom. we have dozens of national, regional, and local stations. we have a number of television stations in the united kingdom. during the time of the british empire, radio and reached out around the world. anyone who has seen "the kings speech"will remember how the king spoke to the empire via the bbc. it is a global media organization. we reach out all over the world. it is exciting for my colleagues that it feels to us there was never more need for the kind of objective reporting we try to offer. host: some of the details about bbc world news television. it is 24-hour news and information channel owned and operated by bbc world news.

you can access it in over 200 countries. it has more than 70 bureaus. how much of your news is about what is happening in the united kingdom versus around the world? guest: that is a good question. bbc world news america has a catch phrase which i think captures it. they see themselves as bringing the world to america and america to the world. that is for their specific audience for their specific shows. we try to be a global broadcaster. in america, our prime job is deciding which stories are of importance to the different audiences. for the license the audience in the united kingdom, it varies

from america. i am sure we will talk about that later. we do have a role in reporting britain. britain is an importer and interesting european country. we're not part of the government. we do not report written for britain's sake. >> you can call us if you have questions for simon wilson from the bbc. simon wilson is -- covers washington and america. what are you looking at? how do you bring a different lense to it that is unique? guest: there is massive interest in america for all sorts of reasons. the raw politics, the president is one of the most important and powerful elected persons in the world.

we're always interested in the race for the white house. this year, it is interesting because there are a lot of other things happening. the events in the middle east, the euro crisis. it is not as high profile at this stage in the campaign as four years ago. i have no doubt that will change in the months ahead. there are all sorts of issues we think are important. within the last hour, new jobs figures came out. the world is constantly looking to america as the biggest economy on the planet to see how that may affect the global economy. there are all sorts of social change people are interested in. people are fascinated by new technology. what happens in silicon valley has changed all of our world. what happens in culture in hollywood, all those stories. we have to make difficult decisions about where we allocate resources to cover them.

host: let's take a look at a report on the national sense of the economy. it is out of stockton, california. [video clip] >> some. america is dropping behind. >> stock did is the largest city in the united states declared itself bankrupt. >> politicians had california- sized screens that turned into a nightmare. this luxury marina is never full. it propelled them into the red to the tune of $700 million. the impact has been dramatic. many offices have been cut. the murder rate has spiralled with 34 killings of this year. it is a picture repeated all over america. this is main street.

less visible is the long-term decline of the middle class income in america. for many, the prospect of prosperity has evaporated. host: that is the bbc news out of stockton, california. are your reporters seeing parallels between the u.k. and the united states? guest: that is an interesting example you have chosen. i do not want people to think we only do stories about collapsing american towns. there is a lot of interest around the world and particularly britain as a model of how you deal with an economic crisis. in britain, the model of the government has chosen is one of austerity. in the united states, there are many government projects to try to spend out of economic difficulty. that is one area of interest. with that report highlights --

what that report highlights is on the overall picture of america, i think people are very interested to see how americans perceive themselves. we see china rising, brazil, india, russia rising. how does that feel if you live in what has been the biggest, richest, and most powerful country? britain and most european countries are welfare states to a great extent. to see this big, rich, powerful country that there often are not safety nets and people in towns can fall through. that is what motivated him to the report. host: larry joins us on the pennant. on the independent line from maryland. -- larry joins us on the

independent line from maryland. caller: are there any plans for more radio and film documentaries current and from the archives, to be able to be streamed on the internet in this country? guest: that is a really good question mern. that is not my spear. i handle the news. the bbc has an incredible archives of tv and radio going back to the 1920's. we're very keen to get it to as many people as possible. there is a program in britain to use new technology to literally open up those archives. that is already underway in some sense. what we often hear from countries like the united states are copyright issues. we have all sorts of ways of getting the material to people. tv, radio, apps for smart

devices. we do have longstanding relationships with some of the american networks. there is a desire to reach out to people like you and get the content we have made over the years. host: mary joins us on the democrats' line. caller: i really think bbc is the gold standard of news services and grateful for that. when tony blair was prime minister, he castigated the bbc more than once. i was wondering if that was because of his relationship with rupert murdoch. guest: what bbc news bosses have found over the years is we often get into issues with prime ministers over the years. it is simplistic to say that if

you are getting criticized by both sides, you are doing something right. it may be good to explain how the bbc is funded. some people in america think we're government-funded. it is more complicated. we are funded by license fees of about $200 levied on each household in the u.k. it has a television. -- that has a television. it is public money. the government can have a say in the level of the license fees. in many ways, it gives the bbc a direct relationship with its audience and people. we cover the stories we think need to be covered. that does occasionally mean you run into problems with government. host: we have a comment on twitter. the bbc news is actual news. what kind of discourse do you try to create throughout the

bbc? we have a lot of punditry and analysis. do you have that? guest: we do have some of that. it is a tradition and law in britain that in the run-up to elections it is illegal for a television or radio station to espouse a particular political point of view. the british tradition is one of lively debate. you look at the house of commons and the way the government and opposition go at each other each week. i know americans enjoy that. on c-span, you often showed prime minister's questions. we try to get at the issues. bbc journalism can be robust. it occasionally gets into trouble in the united states and other parts of the world because we have a tradition of holding people in power to account.

we ask tough questions of people in power. what you see less of on the bbc is shows where you put up people with opposite views and let them shout it out. those shows have their place. it is not something we think we are particularly good at. host: an independent scholar, welcome. caller: how much impact does bbc programming have on news in america? few americans watch it. i was watching piers morgan. they asked him the same question. he said something to the extent of [no audio] host: we're going to move on to carl.

are you with us? we lost that call. simon wilson, talk was about the impact of the bbc -- talk to us about the impact of the bbc. do you think it has changed the way media is done internationally? guest: i was proud and encouraged to hear one of your callers talk about the bbc being the gold standard. we feel we set high standards. we challenge ourselves every day to live up to them. the united states is an interesting and exciting place to be a bbc journalist at the moment. our audiences are growing. we have a special edition on bbc.com/news. the audience is growing rapidly on that. the bbc world news america audience is growing. what we find is there is a real

yearning for smart, international news. we do pick up audiences that previously watched network news programs in the evening. they find those same programs today are not able to cover or is happening in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan. one of our chief correspondent has just spent six weeks in syria reporting undercover with the opposition fighters in syria. when he sends his reports back, our partners at abc news. he is doing things american networks do not find the right thing to do. traditionally, there is a willing audience on the east and west coast.

they are intelligent. i am encouraged wherever i travel in america. i am amazed when i say i worked for the bbc, many people have heard us on public radio stations. that is a big area for us. host: talk about your reach in the americas. you are talking to us from washington, d.c. tell us about the rest of your presence in the americas. are you expanding or contracting? guest: bbc in spanish has a growing service. they have transitioned. it is difficult for a number of the bbc language services as shortwave broadcasting drop off with the rise of the internet. there are very few people around the world that want to tune in to the shortwave signals. bbc mundo has made a successful transition. they're primarily a news website in the states and all

over latin america. we have a strong brazilian service with partnerships with brazilian news media. the license fee gives us secure funding to do this in difficult times. we want to try to get ahead of trends. part of my job is to look at the whole region, the two continents of america, north and south. i was down in rio. looking at expanding our news bureau there. it is amazing to be in a big brazilian city. people have smartphones and are looking at bbc news in brazilian portuguese. host: simon wilson, bbc bureau chief. our next call is from washington. caller: i would speak to you in portuguese, but i do not think he would understand it.

i grew up in rhodesia, zimbabwe. the bbc is used to be able to use their heads as opposed to emotion. i cannot understand this. bbc has changed. it is easy to do economic analysis on a few areas and give logical results like when margaret thatcher got rid of the unions in england. things drastically improved. you could use rhodesia as your classic example. you do not have to get emotions involved. more of this seems to be coming up now. host: let's get a response. guest: i am not sure about your point. host: we have moved on. i think he is talking about reporting based on emotions

forces based on facts. reflect on us how your reporters and staff tell stories. guest: the groundwork of bbc reporting is factual journalism, i witnessed -- eye witness where possible. there has been a trend in general over the past couple of generations of reporters involving themselves more in a story. 20 or 30 years ago, bbc reports which have been a white man in with the disaster behind him and keeping some distance. i think there is a trend not to simply show. there's something about our reporters showing they can get involved in the story. one of our colleagues did amazing reporting in the haiti are quite the earthquake a few

years back. he won awards in america and around world. he got involved. he helped people get to hospital in the bbc crew car. some people feel that can go too far. done in the right way and if you are doing it with the aim of showing your audience more about what is happening in these disaster areas, there is a role for that. host: heavy experienced news or pressure coming out of the news of the world scandal? guest: the bbc has not been implicated in anything coming out on phone hacking in the u.k. it has made all news organizations look hard at what they do, think of the ways they gather news. how far would one go if one felt there was strong public interest in trying to get hold of a piece of information? certainly not directly, no.

host: michael from florida is on the democrats' line. go ahead. caller: my question is about the american freedom of information act and how that -- if it has a corresponding role in britain. my cousin was a major investigative reporter who is now retired. investigative reporting, the freedom of the commission act is -- the freedom of information i is important to that. a lot of commercial stories seem to make it to the top. guest: i think it is an interesting question and something we have thought about at the bbc quite a lot. the freedom of information act

in america, many american journalists i know get frustrated with it. it can take years for a request to come through. the great thing is is based on the presumption that information is available unless there is a good reason for it not to be. over the years, it was almost the reverse in countries like britain. information was kept unless there was a recent to release it. i think the last labor government brought it in 10 years ago or so. interestinginterest thin things is that the bbc is held to account by the facts. people can ask where the license fees go. we have numerous questions. i will be asked how many people we're sending to the u.s. presidential elections, how much it costs, which tells the state

in. there are safeguards which enable us to protect journalists to get on with the business of journalism. stories have emerged. it has been interesting for the bbc. we have been on the receiving end of freedom of information in britain. host: how do you deal with countries that have censorship? guest: we think it is one of the most important things the bbc does. we have the resources to do it. we have a tradition of doing it. i spent six years in the middle east reporting from countries where the government tried to stop us from doing it. it is what we believe the bbc is about. it can be difficult. if there's one thing that trumps that, it is the safety of our people.

we will do everything to keep our people safer. there are real challenges. the biggest would be iran. the bbc persian service is broadcasting in farsi. we have seven journalists based in the office. the bbc has no problem seeking journalists in iran. the relatives of bbc persian journalists are regularly threatened and harassed. they've spoken out strongly against that. that does not stop us from wanting to report iran to the rest of the world. host: bbc world news america has a daily 30-minute broadcast it comes from washington, d.c. you can find it on the bbc news channel and pbs.

let's here from houston, texas, on the independents' line. caller: i really enjoy bbc. i watch it on pbs in the afternoon. i just wanted to let you know. host: tell us why you like it so much. caller: i am from somalia. i grew up listening to bbc on the radio. when i moved here 17 years ago and found it on npr, i was ecstatic. the usually comes on in the evenings at 9:00 p.m. when i lived there. in houston, we finally get it on npr stations. and i really enjoy knowing what is going on around the world. they cover a lot of issues and different things you do not get here. host: you just answered my next

question about whether you get something from the broadcast you do not usually find on the airwaves. caller: international news is one of them. they also cover conflicts very well. it is very interactive. they interviewed different people all over the world on one of the topic is going on that day. it is very informative to hear people all over the world. most of the views are very, or similar. guest: thank you. somalia is a country that has suffered dreadfully over the years. the bbc somalis service is something we're all incredibly proud of. it is one thing we maintain even in an era when it is difficult to find some of the language services the way they have been funded. we know there is a loyal

audience there. in the country badly damaged like that, it is literally the newsway people can get sometimes. caller: you are probably way too young for it. your guest may be in the ballpark. our station in great britain in the 1960's -- i was stationed in great britain in the 1960's. i was a big fan of radio britain and the private stations. pilot stations. at that time, bbc was born and old. they did not have american music. members of the military were big fans. then the government clamped down and put the pirates out of business. as an american, i was appalled.

i saw it in france as well. the government controlled radio. as an american, i was amazed the government had such a role in what we listen to. i was going to ask your comments on how things have changed since the 1960's and 1970's. guest: thank you for the question and your memories. i was born in the 1960's. i do not remember hearing the station. i remember that your of broadcasting. you are right. the government clamped down. the bbc recruited most of the disc jockeys off of those pirate ships and launched a new station that became and still is one of the most popular pop music stations in the country. britain has moved on quite a lot since those days.

there are multiple commercial radio stations with all sorts of choices from classical to modern music. i hope if you go back to britain, you will find one you will enjoy. host: maryland, edward is on the democrats' line. caller: i clicked onto your bbc.com website. i noticed german is not there, but you do have other languages in french, spanish, and italian. i like to listen to the bbc, especially finance news and get a flavor of what europeans think about what is going on in america and germany. i studied in germany.

i think the bbc was very helpful to be able to click on and listen to broadcasts in other languages, especially german. why have they taken the german away from the selection of languages? you have other languages, especially with the focus toward america and the south americans. what is the purpose of that? guest: you are a man after my own heart. i am a german speaker. my wife is german. i have anglo-german children. i used to listen to bbc in germany in the 1990's. what happened is like many media organizations, we faced financial pressures. in the 1990's, we had to look hard at the services we provided in europe and make tough decisions. the decision made was to focus resources on areas where people

were still struggling to get good access to free, impartial news. at that stage, the money we had was put into the russian services, the eastern european language services. at the same time, we were beginning to ramp up production in arabic and farsi. i agree with you. i love it when the bbc broadcast in german. the reality is you have to face tough choices. germany is a modern democracy with a vibrant media market. we could not justify it when we have to make tough choices. host: simon wilson has been with the bbc for more than 20 years and is responsible for the news gathering operations in north and south america and the caribbean. they have bureaus in the united states in places like washington, new york, and also

in sao paulo and bonus areas. -- buenos aires. guest: the vast majorities we have quoted are listening to bbc radio. about 80 million people around the world. it is the heart and soul of what we do. it is the roots of the bbc. what we have done for many years is we work in an integrated way. i started as a radio producer. for many years, i was a tv and radio producer simultaneously. i would do reporting in both media. radio is the beating heart of the bbc. host: an independent scholar from indianapolis.

-- caller from indianapolis. caller: i listen to the bbc news right before the news hour on public television. i find the npr, pbs, and bbc constitutes the voice of the ruling class in america. you speak for the ivy league and harvard. i do not know that you have made an effort to speak for indiana university. do you make any effort to find out what the american people in the flyover zone think? i do not get the impression you do. guest: we do. i am disappointed. i take your criticism seriously. it is something we need to look at again. we absolutely do. earlier we showed an excerpt from a piece we had done from a

tough inner-city area in california. one of the challenges for all news organizations in the united states is the national basis is washington. we have smaller bureaus and other places. there's always a challenge. we set aside money. we have it as one of our journalistic objectives to get out all over this extraordinary country and tried to report it. we are trying. i am sorry you do not find we do it to your certification -- to your satisfaction. host: wayne, you are on with simon wilson from the bbc. caller: i am curious about your health care delivery service in england compared to what we have in this country. would you traitors for hours? -- would you trade yours for ours?

what about people's finances? guest: i am not the best person to ask. i have not lived in britain for 15 years because i have been traveling the world as a reporter. i know from the studies we have done from our audiences that many in britain found it extraordinary when there was a debate going on in the united states as the health care legislation was going through that many americans simply believe the federal government should not get involved. that seemed extraordinary to many people in britain who are very proud of the national health service, even with its difficulties. i saw it as one of the jobs for myself and my colleagues to try to explain that. it seems it is a fundamental role for any correspondence, to try and explain things that seem incomprehensible to the audience back home. i know many in america feel it

should not be part of the federal government's duty to get into things such as health care. many other americans believe passionately the opposite. it was a huge story covering that debate. host: the next call comes from clearwater, florida. bill is a democrat. caller: i really appreciate the bbc. i am a merchant mariner. i go overseas. i go everywhere. i also appreciate the documentary done by the bbc that shows exactly why we are in the position we are in. i really enjoy all of what i hear. i trust them more than american tv because you do not want to

insult to is paying for the commercials so you will not want to produce news that might hurt them in the united states. i think that is the major difference between the bbc and american news. host: we will get a response from simon wilson. guest: thank you. that is exactly what we're trying to do. the caller gets to the heart of what bbc is about. it is about audiences in britain or the united states. we have this extraordinary privilege of the license fee and other funding that enables the bbc to be a strong, robust journalistic organization. that is what we do. we tried to get -- we