current events w/BBC daily news?

I often tape & watch the half-hour early-morning BBC news (well, it's BBC-America). I've been thinking about how to integrate current events into the curriculum, and often I wish the students could see the BBC presentation.*

One idea I had for current events was to have students keep a daily notebook (well, many of my ideas about teaching involve a daily notebook). I thought I would tape the BBC every day, show the first ten minutes (the top headlines and a major story), and have students write questions in their notebooks. Then on Thursday I'd look at the questions, and on Friday I'd pull together a presentation and discussion culled from the week's events, answering the most persistent and repeated questions...

Overall though this seems pretty unworkable. Not enough time and not enough student skills--we'd just run into the perennial problem of i-don't-get-this-shutdown.

On the other hand, I get sick of the classroom being this little bubble with no connection to the outside world at all... what is the solution... there must be some good ideas out there somewhere; I should go look.

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*I used to think the BBC was just superior to CNN for some reason, but when I put this proposition to a British friend, she was disgusted; when I was actually in England, I saw why--it turns out that the BBC in situ is just as full of sensationalized crime and celebrity pseudo-drama as CNN; it's actually BBC America specifically that does a good job... I wonder if this is due to its compressed form--a half hour instead of twenty-four--or to some attempt to find a niche audience apart from CNN's audience... any ideas?