And another one...

On October 19, 2007, we published this statement - which now resides on our sidebar:

"A fundamental problem in European media - as Baker and Joffe both indicate - is the disproportionately high levels of attention, coverage, interview time and credibility granted to American anti-Americans and representatives of the American Left as opposed to Americans representing other viewpoints whether moderate, libertarian, conservative, etc. The result is a skewed understanding of what the United States really is."

This time it is another far-left "intellectual" claiming Bush is the worst ever and "too horrendous to be forgotten." Every time I see another over-the-top interview on SPIEGEL with some far-left panderer to European prejudice - the same refrain races through my mind:

...and another one...and another one...

This repeated presentation of one line of American thought with little to counter it - essentially creates a mentality among readers that makes meaningful dialog with non-leftist Americans difficult to impossible. After all - they represent a quasi-evil movement to many Germans.

One has to wonder how much longer the Bush Derangement Syndrome can continue to act as a substitute for original political thought.

Endnote: This past week I spoke with a young German woman in Washington, DC. We were discussing an English language newspaper on German affairs. She explained to me that it represented what "we think of your election." I asked her if it was possible that one newspaper could possibly represent the views of all Germans (naturally the paper celebrated the Democrats) - and whether all Germans could be characterized as one homogeneous "we".

She did finally back away from that - only to launch into a lecture about how FoxNews makes her want to throw up and how America started the war in Afghanistan and Germany should not be forced to do anything to help. I pointed out that America did not exactly start things on 9/11 - to which she had no good prepared responses. When I asked her for an example of FoxNews making her want to throw up - she also could not come up with much.

The point is: It is worth challenging those who approach America with ideas obviously conceived in an ideological media and cultural vacuum. Getting them to think for themselves is the hard part.

Comments

[koepfchen]

I am a borne citizen of Germany and recent convert to American citizenship.
I came to America 1n 1968, after living for 2 1/2 years in Australia, where I with my then girlfriend and now wife of many decades emigrated to, just for the desire to see the world.
There was no intention that we might not come back. We loved Germany, simply wanted to see the world.
After our honeymoon, 1 year traveling in a VW camper to just about every country in central and South America, we were busted, did not want to return to Germany without a penny to our name, so we decided to accrue some Dollars before heading home again. Then the first of our two boys arrived, we bought our first home, progressed in our careers, etc....

It wasn't always easy to feed and clothe the family, but over time we gradually allowed us to admit that we were more successful than Germany and it's bureaucracy would have allowed us to become.
In all this time, we did not lose contact to Germany, visited Germany and Europe every 3 to 5 years with the whole family for 4 to 8 weeks. Every visit to Germany included a "Klassentreffen", a class reunion, attended by sometimes more than 40 in the early years, never less than 25, but despite repeated invitations, none ever came to visit us in America.
About 8 years ago, during the election campaign, I experienced a drastic animosity towards America, and George W. as the presidential candidate, especially from my younger sister, who had moved to the big city from the small town we were borne in. I asked her why she hated him, so we could discuss it, to which she replied that she had her opinion and did not wish to discuss it. Typical liberal reply. On subsequent visits, this animosity became clearly stronger. One repeat subject was G.W's refusal to abide by the Kyoto Protocol, to which I pointed that it was the US Senate that had not ratified the Protocol either. If anything, that made it worse.
My brother-in-law sent me paper clippings, always including ones by Markus Guenter, which I tried to explain to him was based on at best marginal veracity, if not just a rehash gossip long exposed as untrue. I tried to explain to him that the German MM was against conservative principles in semi communistic Germany. No matter, he continued to sent me the clipping, some of them with his comments on the side. He never answered my comments debunking the paper's asertions, simply sent more clippings. (It should be pointed out here that the major Democratic party, the SPD, owns and operates about 30 to 35% of German newspaper circulation and, similar to the NYT dictates the majority of the TV news. In the last election in Hessen, TV producers of Panorama engaged in a regular witch hunt against the more, (but by no means really) conservative party in power.
Over the years I saw a definitive, ever increasing distortion of especially political truth but also of economy news and of course the total denial of any social safety net in the USA. I countered with two books, The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorg Lomberg, and Cowboy Capitalism, by Olaf Gersemann, a long time resident of Washington DC. The first book I left in the hands of my nephew, who is quite proficient in English, but who unfortunately gets his political news from that humanities professor at MIT, who's name escapes me for the moment. When I requested the book back after some 4 years, he had not got past the first 100 pages.
What especially aggravated me was the total discard of the fact that America was the liberator of Nazi-Europe at a far higher cost of lives to America and the (not admitted) arrogance that lives lost in liberating Europe: good, lives lost liberating Iraqis: bad. This negative attitude spread to my older brother who seems to hate G.W. vicerally, judging by an outburst, when I tried to defend G.W.
About 5 years ago, I sent my Brother in Law an URL of a story about violence by Muslim immigrants in Germany, to which he responded with a call for more Christian neighborly love. Over the last 5 years it became clear to me that he is in total denial of what is coming towards Europe.
On my last visit to Germany, they would not postpone a 1 week vacation by 4 hrs. to meet me at some halfway point, even though there was plenty of time for them to get to their destination on the same day. Clearly, the Intifada by the German Press against America is having an effect that I can not see it to disappear just because the White House has a new occupant.

To me this is the backlash by the German (extreme) liberal left media against the winner in a struggle for economic supremacy that is unwilling to admit they set on the wrong horse. If I remember right it was Helmut Schmidt who proclaimed the E.U. would be burying America. Add to this the fact that the liberal Left in all of "Old Europe" agreed to accept unchallenged the overflow of births in Middle Eastern countries for an uninterrupted oil supply to the EU, is now badly back firing, with violence by non-assimilating youth gangs becoming a daily (although vastly underreported by liberal left left papers) occurrence.
In German Blogs, there is talk about the unavoidable bloody revolution coming, similar to the Banliews in Paris.
I am writing you to show that even where opposing information to German MM was available from very familiar sources, it was never accepted. There was not even enough intellectual curiosity existing to question my representation of their paper clippings, but discarded without any comments.
I am writing you to show that even where opposing information to German MM was available, it was never accepted, there was not even enough interest existing to question my representation of their paper clippings, but discarded without any intellectual curiosity.

[Scout]

koepfchen, I read your post with great interest and understanding. I have tried for years to present an opposing viewpoint to the juggernaut of the German MSM... in my mind, completely in vain. As you have pointed out, information that does not fit in the Sheeple world view is simply discarded without so much as a thought. This is because Germans are conditioned and indoctrinated from the earliest ages on to accept unquestioningly the rubbish that the state feeds them through public television, and which is hammered in through the 'gleichgeschaltete' newspapers and weeklies. I've taught in German schools, my children were in German schools, I know how it is done.
Hier die Tagesthemen. Warten Sie, bitte. Ihre Meinung wird gleich zugeteilt.

[svetov]

Dear Koepfchen: what I have always been curious about was this SPD connection with the mainstream German media. For instance, the Holtzbrinck-owned Die Zeit has now turned into a completely anti-American vehicle and it has been utterly boring to read for some years; what it used to be is long gone. Maybe after their former senior editor Dönhoff and the publisher Bucerius died, that marked the end of the independence of the weekly, and the SPD party members and Social Democratic ideologues recognized what had fallen into their laps and seized their chance. Now Helmut Schmidt is their senior editor or elder statesman or whatever he is for this German weekly. Holtzbrinck appears definitely to have a "party line." I won't even speak about the unspeakable -- Naumann; because it was under his tutelage and with his editorials that this vicious anti-American swing of Die Zeit occurred in late 2002. But it was already occurring in the fall of 2001. Coincidence? I still remember their reaction to September 11 in the Feuilleton: "Die Weltstunde des Mohammed Atta," ending up printing what was actually a semi-admiring article with regard to Atta and his Islamist cohorts for attacking the megapower America, written by some obscure theater critic. There is a "cultured" barbarism that frequently has its home in the pages of any liberal German feuilleton. As for die Zeit, again, they NEVER printed any critical stories about Schröder, even when he was hired by Putin to work for the Russian government. Additionally, in Die Zeit, again, Schröder and the Greens were treated with kid gloves during the time they were in power. Turn to Der Tagesspiegel, which is also a Holtzbrinck-owned publication. Just some time ago, when Schröder's former go-fer Steinmeier was spouting off about China and the Dalai Lama, when there was a mild scandal, Der Tagesspiegel printed a "background story" about Steinmeier and what he was doing. It was such an utter puff piece, making him seem harmless but yet a formidable force, that I wondered to myself why they even bothered to write it at all. Now I think they were following some line, an unwritten agreement to lay off the SPD. Again, Holtzbrinck. What about the rest of their publications? However, it is more likely this: that the basic attitude of journalists and editors in the German media -- outside of the FAZ and maybe the Springer people -- is that of a German variety of the Gutmensch. So whatever they report and how they do it comes from a middle to left-wing Social Democratic frame of reference for all things. And we all know that nowadays, the SPD is a true shelter for anti-Americanism. What about the rest of the boys in the backroom in the German press corps?

[recaredo]

Koepfchen: Similar experience - I am living also out of Germany since 1970 ( frecuent visits to Germany - many times with discussions like yours).
Unbelievable the hating rate of George W. Bush ( mostly "von keiner Sachkenntnis getruebt" ) - they will be frustated when he will not be longer in office.
Recently in a discussion on Phoenix TV with Democrats and Republicans Abroad - a german journalist (woman) was insisting that Bush has to go because " we germans would like to love the americans again" - absolutely hilarious ( she forgot completely the demonstrations against Vietnam, and the so called "Nachruestungsbeschluss" in 1982 with millons of germans protesting against the US).
Consider that german media, politics and other institutions are occupied today by the "68er" - do you remember Fischer and his gang?
These people never changed their negative opinion about the United States since 1968 - very little to do with the president.
I would like to recommend the book of Kai Diekmann "Der grosse Selbstbetrug - Wie wir um unsere Zukunft gebracht werden " - an exceptional description of the 68er and their influence in german politics.

[Buckeye Abroad]

Thank you all for your posts.

Media, on both continents, have become coorindated propaganda organs with agendas to push. Reminds me of Plato's cave analogy. You cannot get most people to recognize facts or reexamine their position when they have heavily invested in a belief no matter how illogical. Its easier to wrap yourself in smug, false-self rightiousness and chant the mantra of the day then actually thinking about issues. Fortitude, honesty and logic are rare virtues these days.

[buzzhead]

I am an American, but my wife is German and I have had similar discussions with her relatives when we visit them. This is not always easy since most of them do not speak English and my German is not really good enough for a complicated political argument. It does seem to me that they want to believe in America, they just can't get over the indoctrination they get on a daily basis from the media there. Maybe I should give my brothers-in-law the link to this site and let them read about the slanting of the media for themselves.

[ex-blond]

It is probably not smart to discuss political issues with family members or friends. After some bad experiences with a friend that completely freaked out with my support of American politics, I do not start telling what I really think politically if I feel a friend or family member cannot cope with it and if I perceive any kind of rage emerging in the other person I immediately drop the subject and talk about the weather or other interesting things ;-)

[ex-blond]

(my comment was a reply to "koepfchen's" comment)