[esquire]

^ I suspect that with the common language it's easier to absorb large amounts of news and information from the US. Imagine if the US was the same in every respect, except they spoke Spanish. Faced with a linguistic divide, there would be a lot more distance... the flow of imported culture and entertainment would decline dramatically, and we'd probably import a lot more from the UK, Australia, Ireland and other English-speaking countries instead of relying almost exclusively on the US.