Davids Medienkritik

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Dissent is no longer patriotic in America...

For the past eight years, left-wing commentators and media such as Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Daily Kos and the Huffington Post railed virtually non-stop against President Bush and Republicans. Night after night they blasted conservatives as fascist war-mongers and law-breakers. They insisted that dissent was noble, courageous, patriotic and that they would not be muzzled by the sinister and totalitarian Bush-Cheney junta. The tone was shrill, extreme, and anything but civil.

None of that seemed to bother Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL ONLINE's America correspondent and resident expert on socks, aliens, Pabst blue-ribbon beer and the infrastructure of the United States.

Left-Wing Dissent = Patriotic; Conservative Dissent = Evil

Now that Democrats are in power, however, Marc Pitzke has suddenly identified great danger in outlandish and outspoken media personalities who dare oppose the authorities. In fact, one of his more recent articles is entitled "Right-Wing Polemicists: The Revolution is Coming!" According to SPIEGEL's (on) crack reporter, pundits like Glenn Beck of Fox News, radio host Mark Levin, and actor/blogger Chuck Norris are at the head of a dangerous and increasingly "militant" right-wing movement with close ideological associations to the militias. This despite the fact that they are criticizing the powers-that-be using essentially the same approach employed by Olberman, Maddow and Arianna Huffington for years. (Apparently, outspoken dissent is not patriotic, noble, or courageous when carried out by non-leftists...)

Pitzke goes on to crudely characterize the tea party movement as a phenomenon of the far-right. What he fails to mention is that not only Republicans, but many Democrats and Independents question the wisdom of trillion dollar budgets likely to burden future generations with mountains of debt.

Marc Pitzke to German Readers: Trust U.S. Homeland Security

And what proof does Pitzke offer to convince readers that the threat posed by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is real? The heavily criticized Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing radicalism. Of course Pitzke completely fails to mention that the report was widely panned, that the Obama administration immediately distanced itself from the paper, or that DHS Secretary Napolitano called the report "not worthy" and said it "should never have been released" - as reported by the Washington Post:

“The report was not worthy of this department, or of veterans,” Napolitano said to Rehbein, according Legion spokesman Craig Roberts, who attended the meeting. "It was very badly written and should never have been released," she said." 

But that doesn't stop Pitzke from using the report as evidence. (And by the way: Since when has SPIEGEL ONLINE accepted the United States government as a reliable source?)

To top it all off, and ensure that German readers get really scared, Pitzke mentions that Americans are buying more guns. Right-wing cowboy bastards...

Here again, Pitzke and SPIEGEL are making their own bias and lack of journalistic professionalism rather obvious to those willing to take a slightly closer look. When Democrats go out on a limb and bash the opposition it is justified and noble, when Republicans do it - it is dangerous, militant, and a grave threat to society.   

UPDATE: Commenter Helian has this to say:

"Obviously, hate peddler Pitzke was a lot more comfortable with quasi-racist Amerika bashing during the Bush Administration than he is now as just another European bootlicker for Obama. He seems increasingly disoriented and behind the curve. Take the DHS memo story, for example. Pitzke was still taking swings at the “right wing extremist” tar baby long after his more sophisticated brethren on the left had passed on to the current fair and balanced talking points. The man just can’t keep up with the narrative anymore. He really seems to think that anyone to the right of Rosa Luxemburg can be dismissed as a “neo-Nazi” in the US, as if it were a German province. Someone needs to explain the nuances of history to him. I actually find his slobbering adulation of Obama entertaining, though. Take, for example, this article, in which he informs the ever-gullible German boobeoisie that, after 100 days, “Der US-Präsident ist machtvoll und populär wie wenige Vorgänger - doch er muss aufpassen.” (The power and popularity of the US President is exceeded by few of his predecessors – but he has to watch his step.) Never mind that Obama’s popularity at the time was actually lower than that of any US President in the last 40 years except Clinton. This sort of mindless disconnect with reality is charmingly reminiscent of German journalism of days gone by. See, for example, the YouTube “Wochenschau” clips from 1945."

SPIEGEL ONLINE and the Somali Pirates: Say What?

SPIEGEL ONLINE headline: "Kidnapped Captain: Somali Pirates Make Fools of US Navy"

Big surprise: According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, members of the US military are once again humiliated fools - just as they have been in every conflict since the American Revolution.

Whoops! Looks like the Navy Seals just took out the pirates and rescued the captain. So what will SPIEGEL's reaction be now? Let us make a prediction... here are a few suggested headlines we have to offer the SPIEGEL ONLINE editors...

• Trigger Happy American Rambos Kill Impoverished Africans
• Bloodthirsty US Marines Kill Somalis Without UN Permission
• Americans Kill 3 Civilians - Break Off Peace Negotiations
• Somali Freedom Fighters Murdered in Standoff

Here's the bottom line: Whether the US military acts or not - they will always be demoralized, trigger-happy fools in the eyes of biased German media like SPIEGEL ONLINE. The true fools are the millions of readers who believe the news they get from hard-left German media on the United States to be reliable.

UPDATE: The actual reaction from SPIEGEL ONLINE: The order for the spectacular commando operation came directly from the heroic Barack Obama - the nicest President since JFK because he loves windmills and doesn't get angry when Germany refuses to send more troops into a combat zone. Still no apologies for the trigger-happy, blood-thirsty fools in the US military...

German Media: Will Anti-Americanism Disappear?

The latest Der Spiegel cover seems to offer a glimpse of what's to come...

"The Capital Crime: Anatomy of a World Crisis that has Really Just Begun"

With Obama, Spiegel and others will no longer be focusing attacks on the American executive (at least in the short-term) as was standard practice under Bush. Instead, as we have previously speculated, they will likely turn to attacking broader aspects of American society (the economic downturn is the current dominant theme) for all that is wrong in the United States and the world. Think World Scapegoat USA. Think pet peeves. Having to respect Obama just makes accomplishing what readers require a bit more demanding. Just slapping Bush and a desecrated US flag on the cover will no longer cut mustard after January 20... 

SPIEGEL's Marc Pitzke calls Bill Ayers "Widely Respected University Professor"

It's election season and - as usual - things are getting ugly at SPIEGEL ONLINE. In his most recent article, SPIEGEL ONLINE America correspondent Marc Pitzke smears John McCain as a liar and characterizes Bill Ayers as a "widely respected university professor".

Pitzke's entire article, like so much of his work, reads like a half-plagiarized mix-tape featuring a "best of" play list of the latest dogma of the American Left.  It smacks of a regurgitated mix of commentary from the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann and other popular left-wing media outlets - hastily re-blended and spoon fed by Mr. Pitzke to a German audience desperate to reinforce its own prejudices about the United States.

Returning to Ayers - let's not forget that our "widely respected university professor" stated to the New York Times right around 9/11 that he didn't regret setting bombs in the 1960s and wished he could have done more. Is Ayers "widely respected" in the United States? Hardly. If the opposite were true, he would have never become the obvious liability to the Obama campaign that he is today.   

Of course for SPIEGEL - whose readership contains a disproportionately large number of 1960s retreads who romanticize about far-left radicalism and former RAF terrorists - it is not difficult to depict Ayers as a reformed and respected old intellectual. Here again - reality is made to conform to ideology in the German press.

UPDATE: A study has revealed the obvious: Media coverage of McCain in the US has been overwhelmingly negative. Don't expect the German press to pick up on that anytime soon. ABC News of all sites has a fascinating post on the topic. Excerpt:

"Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press. (...)

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

That isn't Sen. Obama's fault: His job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so."

At least someone is willing to address this...

It's election season and - as usual - things are getting ugly at SPIEGEL ONLINE. In his most recent article, SPIEGEL ONLINE America correspondent Marc Pitzke smears John McCain as a liar and characterizes Bill Ayers as a "widely respected university professor".

Pitzke's entire article, like so much of his work, reads like a half-plagiarized mix-tape featuring a "best of" play list of the latest dogma of the American Left.  It smacks of a regurgitated mix of commentary from the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann and other popular left-wing media outlets - hastily re-blended and spoon fed by Mr. Pitzke to a German audience desperate to reinforce its own prejudices about the United States.

Returning to Ayers - let's not forget that our "widely respected university professor" stated to the New York Times right around 9/11 that he didn't regret setting bombs in the 1960s and wished he could have done more. Is Ayers "widely respected" in the United States? Hardly. If the opposite were true, he would have never become the obvious liability to the Obama campaign that he is today.   

Of course for SPIEGEL - whose readership contains a disproportionately large number of 1960s retreads who romanticize about far-left radicalism and former RAF terrorists - it is not difficult to depict Ayers as a reformed and respected old intellectual. Here again - reality is made to conform to ideology in the German press.

UPDATE: A study has revealed the obvious: Media coverage of McCain in the US has been overwhelmingly negative. Don't expect the German press to pick up on that anytime soon. ABC News of all sites has a fascinating post on the topic. Excerpt:

"Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press. (...)

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

That isn't Sen. Obama's fault: His job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so."

At least someone is willing to address this...

DER SPIEGEL Challenged by Readers on Latest Hate-America Cover

SPIEGEL and Stern: Global Economic Crisis = America's Fault

SPIEGEL ONLINE's decision to launch an English site a few years back has proven a double-edged sword. It can reach a wider audience - but - when it chooses to translate its German articles accurately - it can also be challenged on its hyper-simplified reporting on the United States. 

Der Spiegel Cover: "The Price of Arrogance: An Economic Crisis Changes the World" (Demeaning the Statue of Liberty has obviously become a favorite cover motif at DER SPIEGEL)

Case in point: When SPIEGEL attempted to exploit the current economic crisis with another decidedly anti-American cover and feature article with all the usual anti-American clichés designed to pander to the magazine's predominantly anti-American German readership, English-language readers spoke out. The headline quickly changed from "America's arrogance" to "Is America Arrogant?" The encouraging side of this is that SPIEGEL ONLINE's English site was willing to publish the critical responses. Perhaps this is the beginning of some real dialog - (or perhaps we are hopeless optimists). Here is a sampling:

"Dear SPIEGEL ONLINE,

I am not surprised by the America bashing in your magazine -- it is the European way. America is only good when you need us, and history has proven that you needed us very frequently. But you are dead wrong to count Americans out and to count capitalism out. Free markets and capitalism are the only road to prosperity.

I was having dinner with a friend last night and he brought his 26-year-old nephew to dinner with him. His nephew had just arrived from France to work here in the USA at a hedge fund. I asked him why come to America now with all this financial turmoil? His answer was that America still offered the best chance for prosperity. "France could never give me the financial opportunities that I can find here in America," he said.

Furthermore, if America is so down-and-out, why is an American education still the best in the world? Why is it that workers from France, Germany and Poland come here for a better future? Why don't they stay in Europe?

-- Michael Faustini , New York, USA

---

Dear SPIEGEL ONLINE,

Rarely have I read such overwrought wishful thinking regarding the US. The US economy is challenged, yes, but I do believe the reports of our death are greatly overstated. We will continue to be the engine that drives most of the world's economy. If this is not the case, then why are world markets begging us to move quickly to fix our problem so that business as usual can continue overseas?

German bitterness over its relegation to a B-Team economy -- take a look at your tax system, loss of technology investment, perverse immigration system, etc. -- should yield the energy to improve, not point fingers. You don't like George Bush? Wait about 31 days and he'll be history. You think our system is based upon avarice and greed? Watch our Congress move against those who tried to over-leverage our markets. The bottom line is this: The current "crisis" is less a debacle than it is an opportunity to do what the US always does, namely step up and fix the problem.

-- Steve Kopper, Washington, DC"

On a final note: Let's hope whoever wins the upcoming election in the United States does not suffer from the illusion that the sort of harmful America-bashing exemplified by the cover above will go away or even significantly abate anytime soon. The price of much of the European media's arrogance towards the United States over the past decade is an audience conditioned to blame the giant world scapegoat America for virtually any and every problem.

Update (from David): In other news (Oct. 6, 2008): European shares in biggest one-day fall ever / Comment: "Fact is, European Banks are even more highly leveraged than US banks, and many still have political appointees on their Boards (yes folks, people more venal and incompetent than Wall Street bankers DO exist, but in the US they generally are kept under control by being confined to Congress. In Europe they get to play with banks and industry too). That's why Europe is in trouble."

Update #2: Not a huge surprise, but Stern magazine also published a cover that screams: Your economic hardship is all America's fault!

"Greed and Megalomania: How the Wall Street Bosses Gambled Away Billions and led our Financial System to Ruin"

The symbolism of America as giant scapegoat is pretty obvious here. The only thing missing is a desecration of the Statue of Liberty...

Germany and NATO: "poseurs pretend they're behaving dutifully"

A worthwhile opinion article that points out the fundamental problem either Obama or McCain will face in Afghanistan with Europeans (and especially Germans) reluctant to contribute.

And - the German love affair with Obama may already be cooling. A recent SPIEGEL ONLINE headline on Obama's desire to see more European troops in Afghanistan: "Obama-Plan: Europeans Should Bleed for US Tax Cuts".

Another SPIEGEL ONLINE headline on the Obama trip asks: "Will a German Speak at the Washington Monument in 2009?". The painful answer: Would anyone in the United States - other than a select band of media, diplomats and foreign policy wonks - really care?

Opinion: "Eventually, we will all hate Obama too"

An interesting essay on Europe, Obama and anti-Americanism in the Times Online.

Excerpt:

"...there isn't an American president since Eisenhower who hasn't ended up, at some point or other, being depicted by the world's cartoonists as a cowboy astride a phallic missile. It happened to Bill Clinton when he bombed Iraq; it will happen to Mr Obama when his reinforced forces in Afghanistan or Pakistan mistake a meeting of tribal elders for an unwise gathering of Taleban and al-Qaeda. Then the new president (or, if McCain, the old president) will be the target of that mandarin Anglo-French conceit that our superior colonialism somehow gives us the standing to critique the Yank's naive and inferior imperialism."

A slowly creeping disillusionment with Obama - should he be elected - will almost certainly replace Europe's current euphoria - once the average observer realizes that American interests remain American interests - however they are packaged. 

Case in point: Over the past few months, Germany's Social Democrats have continually toasted Obama and proclaimed: "Yes, we can!" Recently, however they realized that Obama will almost certainly demand more German troops in Afghanistan and quickly reversed to: "No, we can't!!!!"

"Obama should only ask of us what we are able to deliver," Niels Annen -- a member of Germany's federal parliament, with the left wing of the SPD -- told SPIEGEL ONLINE Monday. "We won't increase our number of troops."

One has to wonder how Obama's demand for more German involvement in Afghanistan will go over with his gushing German fans. Spiegel Online has already taken a decidedly realist tone - declaring that German's love-affair with Obama may not survive his speech this week.

Obama's visit presents additional ironies: While so many Germans embrace Obamamania and a "new America" - Germany remains light years from the election or appointment of a minority to the prime ministry, presidency or any significant cabinet post.

On trade, Obama will almost certainly chart a more protectionist course - which would likely conflict with Germany's economic interests as one of the world's largest exporters. 

Finally: It is particularly striking that so many Europeans proclaim such affection for Obama - without really being able to specifically explain why they like him so much. Simply being the leading anti-Bush is enough to be loved in Europe - yet it is the Americans who are continually accused of harboring a black-and-white view of the rest of the world.

WMD: The Dishonesty of German Politics

A Wall Street Journal report, referring to several articles (1, 2, 3) in SPIEGEL:

Curveball Revisited
March 29, 2008

In the long history of U.S. intelligence fiascos, few have been as minutely examined as the "Curveball" episode – the source whose fraudulent claims were largely responsible for the pre-Iraq War view that Saddam Hussein possessed biological weapons. So it's worth noting what a new, remarkable report from the German magazine Der Spiegel tells us about the spy who lied.

According to media legend, Curveball was a creation of Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who headed the exiled Iraqi National Congress before Saddam's overthrow. That notion was destroyed in 2005 with the bipartisan Robb-Silberman report on intelligence. But the myth persists in many circles that, through Curveball, Mr. Chalabi had conned his neocon friends, who in turn had conned President Bush, who in turn had pressured a reluctant but spineless CIA into giving him the "intelligence" he needed to make the case for war.

But Curveball was nobody's stooge. On the contrary, he is Rafid Ahmed Alwan, an opportunistic Iraqi asylum-seeker who came to Germany in 1999. His claims to having inside knowledge of Saddam's illicit weapons program quickly made him a prized asset of Germany's intelligence service, the BND. So convinced were the Germans of the reliability of his information that in the fall of 2001 they purchased 35 million doses of smallpox vaccine for fear of what Saddam might be cooking up.

More remarkable is that even after September 11 – when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder promised "infinite solidarity" with the U.S. – the German government refused to allow the CIA to interview Curveball in person. Often, the Germans resorted to dishonest pretexts for their lack of cooperation, such as that Curveball didn't speak English, when in fact he spoke it fluently (and as if nobody in the CIA spoke German or Arabic). "It was a blockade that made

SPIEGEL ONLINE's Perverse Iraq Photo Gallery

To mark the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, SPIEGEL ONLINE has spewed forth a flurry of articles as predictable as they are shrill. The most recent installment is a piece complete with a 50-photo picture gallery entitled: "The Pictures of the Iraq Catastrophe: Panorama of the Perverse".

What makes this gallery truly perverse is its total omission of Saddam Hussein's twenty-four year reign of war and terror - a period that could - in fact - accurately be labelled "Iraq's Catastrophe." This conspicuous omission - the fact that German media elites once again fail to remind German readers of the horror of modern-day dictatorship while bashing ideological enemies in the United States - reminds us that they have learned far less about confronting despotism than they would have us all believe.   

SPIEGEL ONLINE Again Speaks with Two Tongues

Interestingly enough, there is a similar photo gallery on the SPIEGEL ONLINE English site that does show Saddam's victims. It also shows more about Saddam's capture and fewer Rambo-style images of US troops. Why the different presentation in German versus English? Why won't SPIEGEL ONLINE acknowledge Saddam's victims to its German readers? Why are US troops presented more negatively in German?

Finally - there is almost never any historic perspective when it comes to US military losses. Every loss is one too many, but there were single days in the Second World War in which the United States lost more men that it loses on average in a year of war in Iraq (roughly 800 to 900). And yet - the far left media continues to insist that America can't sustain such losses - and far too seldom is their credibility called into question for doing so.

Endnote: Somehow there is not nearly the level enthusiasm at SPIEGEL ONLINE when it comes to reporting how another greedy European conglomerate admitted its guilt in greasing the bloody palms of the Saddam regime for a little profit in the UN Oil-for-Food scandal. Of course - there's nothing terribly perverse about that...right?   

America's New Berlin Correspondent: Germany a Nation of Nazis, Bloodsuckers, Prostitutes, Alcoholism and Hopelessness...

Let's face it: Media tend to over-report the most vile and extreme aspects of our society. "If it bleeds - it leads" is much more than a cliche - it is a journalistic fact of life. The danger with the daily sensationalism is that it skews the viewer's perception of reality. In other words, a viewer is apt to believe that the world around him is a much more rotten than it actually is.

Interesting thought experiment: What if you were a foreign correspondent...?

Imagine you are an American correspondent in Germany. You are encouraged by your editors to report only the most extreme, outrageous, strange and dark sides of German society. Your publication chooses to ignore the 97% of issues that bring Germans and Americans together and instead focus on the 3% that most divide the two nations - such as attitudes towards prostitution, social welfare, guns, etc. This seedy sensationalism sells - and that is exactly what your editors are after. For that reason, they also strongly encourage you to write whatever you can on Neo-Nazi violence - not because the issue is genuinely troubling - (and it is) - but because it brings good ratings and reaffirms your readership's dark stereotypes of the Vaterland.

Beyond that - your editors oblige you to bring stories only on a narrow band of pet issues that they have predetermined are of "interest" to the readership. (In fact, you may have been specially selected for your job because you have an ideological propensity to dislike Germany and favor stories that make Germany look bad.) When you arrive in Berlin, you discover that Germany isn't quite the awful place you expected and - because you are a free spirit - the urge is great to report on the many complex aspects of German society. Predictably, however, your editors discourage any independent ideas that might shed a different (you might say balanced) light on things.

The pet issues and big politics are all they want. In particular, the editors want to demonstrate that Germany is a nation infatuated with pornography, cursed by extreme alcoholism and blighted by racist attitudes towards non-Germans. Every other week - if things are slow - the boss pressures you to bring a story on another hopeless unemployed wretch in East-Berlin desperate to get out of the country. He just won't publish your more "upbeat" stories or even critical stories that fall outside the narrow band of pet issues.

The editors supplement your work by sprinkling-in stories cut-and-pasted from news wires on Germans behaving badly worldwide. You eventually realize that intellectual honesty takes a distant backseat to the pet-issue template devised by your editors. Making Germans and Germany look bad at all costs - to reaffirm the stereotypes and political leanings of readers - is no longer something you can question without risking your job.

One week - your publication runs a cover depicting a giant spider drapped in a German flag and wearing lederhosen sucking the blood of a lifeless blue collar American trapped in its web. You realize that this crude reference to recent lay-offs of American automobile workers by a large German multinational is appalling and unfair. The cover sparks a slew of hateful and irrational letters-to-the-editor by readers. You want to speak out against what you now believe is hate-mongering for profit - but again - you fear for your job.

Not surprisingly, the most "self-critical" Germans - those with a particular talent for shamelessly bashing their own nation and people - are held up as heroic dissenters and showered with awards by your publication and others like it.

Finally - because quite a few other publications share the same general ideology of your own and follow the same pattern of reporting - it is not beyond the pale for your editors to proclaim that you represent the "mainstream" of American media and that you are largely fair and unbiased in reporting on Germany.

Turn the mirror around...

Now let us turn this script around. The above is a reflection of how certain influential segments of German media have operated for years now. The latest Amerika-Korrespondent for Stern magazine - Jan Christoph Wiechmann - offers an excellent example. One of his more recent articles is entitled: "Weapons Trade in the USA: An AR-15 with your Coffee?" The opening paragraph reads:

"In Europe one usually receives a cookie with their coffee. In the USA it is an assault rifle: In the Texan solitude, waitresses with highly teased hair offer the things for sale in weapon shops camouflaged as cafes. Normal daily life in Bush-Country."

The article paints a picture of daily life in the USA that is neither typical nor normal. Yet the author intentionally presents the extreme as the ordinary - not because it represents an accurate reflection of typical daily life in the United States - but because it is sure to sell and re-affirm the deeply-held stereotypes of "Stern" readers. Further, Wiechmann cleverly selects a subject - or perhaps his editors selected it for him - that has long been a favorite pet issue of left-leaning German media for years.

Another recent example is an article, entitled "US Tourist Collapses During Sex - Dead," that appeared in SPIEGEL ONLINE on an American who died after overdosing on a potency drug while engaging in sex tourism in Thailand. Certainly - had the tourist in question been Dutch, Brazilian, Russian or German - this article probably would not have made it onto the SPON website. Fellow blogger Joerg of Atlantic Review - who brought this article to my attention - hit the nail on the head:

"If it had been a German tourist, it might not have made news on Spiegel. Or maybe it would have been, if at least the pills were American."

Why is this piece newsworthy at all? The answer is simple: It offers SPIEGEL readers another choice opportunity to look down on Americans.

Looking at the larger picture...

The long-standing media patterns described above - when combined with the sort of ugly and exploitative political opportunism that marked the Schroeder re-election campaign of 2002 - serve to transform the fault lines that represent honest German-American differences of opinion (on questions such as Iraq, trade, the role of the state, etc.) into gaping chasms of misunderstanding and mutual abuse. This leads to the sort of self-reinforcing media-political feeding frenzy that we saw from 2002 to 2005, a period that produced some of the most ugly and irrational manifestations of anti-Americanism in the history of democratic Germany.

Fortunately, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have made it evident that it is possible to disagree with the United States without tapping into the overflowing keg of anti-American sentiment - fueled by the media tendencies outlined above - in their respective nations. As a result of the political changes at the very top, the level of media vitriol has ebbed over the past year or two. It is important to remember - however - that the group of people calling the shots in the German media in 2002 and 2003 are essentially still running the show today. Given the right political conditions and the media's tendency to follow larger political patterns, they would gladly return to the high-pitched anti-American hysteria that flooded German media only a few years ago.

Endnote: Allow us to offer that there is certainly some of what we describe above in American media as relates to Germany - though on a much smaller scale. It is true that some Americans still associate Germany primarily with Nazism, beer or lederhosen. If anything, however, the American media pays far too little attention to foreign issues - and it is the lack of attention to Germany and Europe that is far more troubling.

Der Spiegel on the Dollar: Exaggeration, Sensationalism and Bipolarity

Here's a question for you: Do you remember seeing an extreme cover like this at Der Spiegel when the Euro was weak just a few years back?

            Dollar Nosedive: The Downfall of the US Currency and the Dangers for the World Economy

Not only did Der Spiegel not run a derisive cover on the Euro currency in its weaker days - it virtually gushed-over with propaganda-like enthusiasm at its introduction:

           Der Spiegel in 2002: Euroland The New Money Power

Viewed in isolation - the Dollar cover might not be considered anti-American. Given the larger body of work of Der Spiegel over the past decade - however - it is difficult to characterize the "Dollar Nosedive" cover as anything but a further manifestation of the festering Hate-America bias that plagues the magazine.

Exaggeration and Sensationalism

Particularly dubious is the use of extreme vocabulary including "downfall" and "dangers". All too often, we have seen Spiegel highlight isolated or temporary problems with the American economy in an effort to convince readers that the overall US economy was on the verge of disaster and collapse. One need only recall the infamous article on unemployment in Kannapolis, North Carolina or the exaggerated claims that the American power grid was on the brink of collapse when the lights went out in New York or the claims that the US infrastructure was in "collapse" after the Minnesota bridge incident.

Euro-Nationalism as Substitute for Forbidden German Nationalism

At the same time, Der Spiegel has repeatedly avoided heaping the same sort of scorn or using the same extreme tone in highlighting the various troubles of the European economy, power grid and infrastructure despite relatively similar conditions (a weak Euro not too long ago) and incidents (power outages, train crashes, faulty infrastructure). Instead - when publishing covers on Europe - they've repeatedly engaged in overt cheerleading - (just compare these covers to these covers). Let's not forget SPIEGEL ONLINE's primative excitement when a Eurofighter apparently defeated two F-15s in a mock battle. This thinly veiled Euro-Nationalism is desirable and useful - in part - as an acceptable alternate outlet (along with large sporting events) for forbidden German feelings of national pride. Unfortunately, the Euro-Nationalism of publications such as Der Spiegel almost always counts anti-Americanism as one of its key ingredients.

Perhaps Der Spiegel could - just once - run a story on America's remarkably low unemployment rate (and the jobs it has created for millions of legal and illegal immigrants) despite record high oil prices. But let's not forget - that would call into question the carefully crafted ideological caricature of the United States as hopeless social wasteland and home to predatory global capitalism.

Bipolar Journalism

Of course one can never underestimate the bipolar inconsistency inevitably on display at Der Spiegel. (Eventually what is reported must - in some way - conform with reality - after all.) In 1999, one cover asking if Europe was a new superpower was followed only weeks later by another cover asking whether Europe could still be salvaged. The extreme contradiction can only be explained by the magazine's habitual use of the extreme to sell magazines combined with the publication's utter lack of intellectual consistency. This is nothing new - and we have seen the same sort of journalistic manic-depression on Iraq in recent weeks and months - with reporting swinging like a pendulum between utter doom and gloom - including a cover declaring the Iraq war "lost" - and reports detailing progress in Iraq and the alleged comeback of the Bush Presidency.

Der Spiegel in a Journalistic Nosedive?

The record lows experienced by the Dollar are unquestionably significant for the world economy. Unfortunately, a factual analysis of the economic advantages and disadvantages of a weaker Dollar has been obscured by the blinding light of media hyperbole and anti-American sentiment at Der Spiegel. This potent combination has worked to sell millions of magazines in the past - and there is no doubt that it will continue to sell millions of magazines in the future - as a significant segment of the German population continues to indulge its voracious appetite for virtually anything that casts the United States in a negative light.

In the case of Der Spiegel's journalistic standards - it would be quite tempting to characterize them as being in a "nosedive." That would not - however - do the magazine justice. One must, after all, attain an altitude slightly above gutter-level to first make such a drop-off possible. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Miserly Bush Deprives Poor Children of Health Care

Some of you may have seen this SPIEGEL ONLINE piece today - entitled "Bush Stops Assistance to Poor Children".

Of course for our friends at SPIEGEL, no social program is unworthy and nothing Bush does could ever be right. So the natural spin is Bush is out to get poor children and deprive them of social benefits - allegedly because they are "too expensive."

Naturally, the crack team of journalists at SPIEGEL ONLINE didn't bother to report this statement made by the President, explaining his decision:

"I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system. I do want Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a bill that focuses on the poorer children," the president said, adding the government's policy should be to help people find private insurance."

Instead of delving into both sides of the debate and analyzing the issue in all its complexity - Bush is assigned the usual role of unfeeling villain and enemy of all that is good, right and "social" in the world. The mandatory smear photo ist auch dabei...

Bush Sneering - A Common Photo Motif at SPIEGEL ONLINE

Poor Children?

In fact, as David Harnasch correctly points out in this excellent German language post, Bush argues that the bill in question unnecessarily extends a government program to provide benefits to middle class children - many of whom already have insurance - in effect creating an entitlement for the middle class and furthering the creep towards socialized medicine. Instead, Bush argues that a bill should be passed to focus on helping families in need find private insurance for their children. In other words - there is a fundamental debate about the role of government and whether the public or private sector should be relied on more to deliver health care to the children in question.

Unfortunately, SPIEGEL ONLINE bypasses the debate and goes for the ideologically satisfying oversimplification: Bush is Bad.

In other words, the publication fundamentally fails to acknowledge that both sides of the debate genuinely want to help children in need with health care - yet fundamentally disagree on the role of government in finding the best solution. Instead, SPIEGEL ONLINE clearly implies that one side is essentially out to harm children by stopping them from getting care. Sadly, this reinforcement of existing ideological bias is par for the course in their reporting on the United States.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Another Smear Photo - Another Perversion of the Facts

(...Or the War over Vietnam and Historic Revisionism...)

Skimming the web - I came across this typical smear photo on SPIEGEL ONLINE. It is one of hundreds selected over the years by various members of the media to firmly reinforce the stereotype of Bush as the arrogant-stupid-religious-zealot:

Bush with cross in background: A popular motif at SPIEGEL...

Later I received an email from our reader Helian with the following observations on the SPIEGEL ONLINE article in question, entitled: "Bush's Vietnam Comparison Outrages Democrats and Ex-Military":

"According to the article...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: "The US Military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe."

Historical consistency has never been a strong point for SPIEGEL magazine or SPIEGEL ONLINE - but this is shocking:

Just look at this article.

After years of calling Iraq a disaster, debacle and quagmire, SPIEGEL ONLINE has decided to declare the following:

"The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe."

This all stems from last week's Der SPIEGEL magazine cover feature article by Ullrich Fichtner: An enormous, fascinating and remarkably honest report on the complex situation in Iraq. (The first link above in bolded-italics leads to the English translation of that report.) SPIEGEL ONLINE is also publishing Fichtner's report that US troops are in a remarkably good mood and have high morale. That also flies directly in the face of past SPIEGEL reporting that consistently depicted US troops as demoralized, depressed, defeated, prone to suicide and suffering from low morale.

As a long-time observer of the publication, my first reaction to reading this on SPIEGEL ONLINE was: Are they on drugs?! - this directly contradicts everything they've reported for the past four years! My second reaction was: Have they finally gotten off the drugs?! Maybe reality is finally starting to sink in!

Keep in mind that less than a year ago, Der SPIEGEL published a magazine cover (depicted below) declaring Iraq a "Lost War".

Power and Lies: George W. Bush and the Lost War in Iraq

Is this abrupt about-face cynical hedging - or a genuine (and extremely sudden) change of heart? We would speculate that SPIEGEL editors have finally reached the realization that the version of reality they have painstakingly crafted for the German public since the conflict began - one of failure, disaster, debacle and quagmire for the Americans in Iraq - is no longer tenable when compared to the facts on the ground and will ultimately collapse on their heads like a flimsy house of cards. But with many American Democrats still in full irrational disaster-mode on Iraq (despite obvious recent improvement with the surge) this seems a somewhat unusual and perhaps premature move. Only time will tell...

This much we can say: For once - SPIEGEL has truly done something unpredictable in terms of its USA and Iraq coverage.

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson offers outstanding analysis that may - at least in part - explain what is going on at SPIEGEL. Excerpt:

"Yet the universal human desire to be associated in the here and now with the assumed winning side — and to shun perceived defeat — trumps them all. Throughout this war, that natural urge explains most of the volatile and shifting views of our politicians, pundits and media as they scramble to readjust to the up-and-down daily news from Iraq.

And so it is with the latest positioning about the surge that to a variety of observers seems successful — at least for now."

Read the whole thing. (Via Instapundit)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: "Collapse of the US Infrastructure"

It wasn't entirely unpredictable. When the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, we at Medienkritik realized it was only a matter of time before members of the German media would attempt to interpret the tragedy much as they interpreted the New York power outage several years ago: As a sign that America is in a state of total collapse and decay.

After the New York Power Outage, SPIEGEL Published this cover: World Power Without Power: Appearances and Reality in the USA (2003) - The Reaction to the Bridge Collapse has been Predictably Similar...

Well - we didn't have to wait long for the disingenuous sensationalism to materialize. SPIEGEL ONLINE's Marc Pitzke - the anti-American hack-of-hacks - quickly came out with a piece that headlines: "Collapse of the US Infrastructure." The article features a seven-part photo series entitled: "US Infrastructure: Decayed, Ailing, Defective."

Not only is this headline beyond constructive criticism - it is more of the same cynical bashing that we have grown accustomed to in German media. It is nothing more than the usual - cheap and arrogant - hatred that German media consumers keep slurping down and sucking up. Deep down people like Marc Pitzke want to prove to themselves - at a highly visceral, ideological level - that the American system of capitalism is inherently inferior to their own statist, socialist model. So any opportunity to claim that America is in a state of total decay and collapse is taken with great relish. (No - this has nothing to do with just reporting the plain facts.)

Little context and little desire to engage in constructive criticism have become the rule and not the exception in much of the German media coverage of the United States. Disgusting but true...

SPIEGEL magazine covers - 1997 to 2006. Representative of the magazine's "objective" coverage of the United States over the past decade...

Endnote: Ironically, Minnesota - the state responsible for maintaining the bridge - is (along with Vermont and Massachusetts) perhaps the most ideologically in tune with Europe in terms of favoring left-leaning social, political and economic policies. Nonetheless - the German media will certainly find some way to drum up the usual charge: This is all Bush's fault.