Davids Medienkritik

German Washington Correspondent at Work

Over time I have developed my own little theory that much of the anti-Americanism that can be found in the German media is the result of the deliberate and collective efforts of a special group of activists: the German correspondents in the U.S. We have collected quite a few examples (you have to scroll down the linked page) of biased reporting from this group in our blog.

And here's another striking example: Michael Backfisch. The irony is - the guy works for Germany's # 1 business daily Handelsblatt, not for some traditionally loony Left media outlet such as Frankfurter Rundschau, SPIEGEL or Stern.

During a Foreign Press Center Briefing at the U.S. Department of State on January 3, 2005, William Garvelink, U.S. Agency of International Development, and Brigadier General John Allen, U.S. Department of Defense, made a very comprehensive and detailed presentation of the American Government's assistance to the countries in South East Asia that have to cope with the devastation caused by the tsunami catastrophe. In the ensuing Q&A session with international journalists questions were asked about the enormous challenges facing the relief operation, about the security situation in some of the more remote areas, about the delay in reaction to the earth quake and the tsunami, and so on. All journalistic questions addressed serious logistics issues of the U.S. operation.

There was just one journalist who had the nerve to pose a question that was purely motivated by distrust and antipathy against the American government's relief operation:

MR. DENIG (moderator): Okay. Let's go to Germany, up front here.

QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Germany's business daily, Handelsblatt.

It's a tremendous effort you're conducting right now. And how far are there political considerations? You know, there has been high criticisms of the war in Iraq. And how far is it the attempt of the United States to present itself as the benevolent superpower and to decrease the criticism of the past, especially in countries like Indonesia, which is a very important Muslim country?

Now, Backfisch may be ideogically one-eyed - but he's not an idiot (I give him the benefit of the doubt). He couldn't possibly have expected an affirmative answer to his question, like: "You caught us, smart guy. Yes, sure, this whole help operation is just meant to present the United States as the benevolent superpower! All we want is people to forget about the Iraq war."

Instead, of course, the answer of the officials was predictably different from Backfisch's assertion:

MR. GARVELINK: Well, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Food for Peace, which respond to these disasters on behalf of the U.S. Government and the Agency for International Development, are charged to respond to humanitarian needs, wherever they occur in the world, without regard to politics. That sometimes may be a little hard to believe, but these offices respond to humanitarian needs.

So when this happened and our initial teams got on the ground and began their assessment, we're responding to the needs as we see them, as the requirements have become known to us. (emphasis added)

The sole reason for Backfisch's question was to introduce the concept of an immoral motivation of the U.S. government's help efforts to an audience of international journalists - in the hope some would pick up the story ("More and more international observers question the motives of the U.S. administrations relief efforts for the tsunami victims...")

BTW, Backfisch is no stranger to hate-filled rhetoric in qualifying the policies of the U.S. current administration. Here is an example from his blog at Handelsblatt "Transatlantischer Beobachter" ("Transatlantic observer"):

In fact there are signs of a war of the civilizations in America: Seldom has there been so much hate, pharisaicalness, crusader-mentality that reminds of witch burnings. So the newly elected Republican Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma is demaning the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions. 75 percent of Bush supporters are convinced that Saddam Hussein cooperated closely with the terror network Al-Qaeda or was even responsible for the attacks of September 11. Will it soon be taught in the schools that the earth is flat? Faith, values, religion have a high popularity in the USA that is seldom. (emphasis added)

The America correspondent of Germany's # 1 business daily Handelsblatt (I have to repeat his job description in connection with this quote) completely lost his temper describing the campaign strategy of President Bush in October 2004:

With that the born-again Christian Bush has once again revealed his true arsenal in the fight for the White House: When things get close, he fires off hate torpedos, operates with personal attacks and panic tactics. A bang-bang argument, that reminds one of the "Socialist Realism" of earlier days. Or to the agitation canonade a bit further back in history (Are we drawing comparisons to the Nazis here, Mr. Backfisch? How appropriate for a German...). The Bush camp pushes the niveau of the political contest to ever new low points. In the end it is only just about "wumm" and "peng": Pure dumbing down.

You may want to congratulate Handelsblatt (editor in chief is Bernd Ziesemer) for this gem of an unbiased, nuanced journalist. With journalistic qualifications like Mr. Backfisch's a job as a Washington correpondent for a reputable German media outlet is virtually assured.

Was the Berlin Airlift a PR Campaign?

(By Ray Drake)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: US Tsunami Aid is a Publicity Campaign

Yesterday, it appeared that SPIEGEL ONLINE was prepared to report about US relief efforts in regions affected by the tsunami in a positive way. Guess again: The old cynicism is back.

After all, the US couldn't just be helping people because it is a good country. There must be some catch...

Of course: It is all a big "PR campaign" designed to win over Asian Muslims! SPON writes:

"For the Americans the action is not just help for the desperate Indonesians, instead also an important PR campaign. They can indeed prove, that they don't just conduct wars against Muslims, but instead stand at their side in an hour of need."

That's it: The US is just trying to shore up its image. This is all about showing that the hegemon can drop something other than bombs on innocent Muslim children. We simply need to forget for a moment about the US-led Kosovo and Bosnia campaigns that saved thousands and thousands of Muslim lives. Let's also forget that the US sends far more aid to poor Muslim countries every year than any other country. Please try not to remember that the US is home to millions of Muslims who work and worship in peace and freedom.

And the world is in order again for SPIEGEL ONLINE...

SPIEGEL ONLINE Would Have Called the Berlin Airlift a PR Campaign

So does this mean that the Berlin airlift of 1948-9 was a PR campaign conducted by the US for pure political gain? Was the US simply engaged in a massive PR effort to shore up its image with Germans and prove that it could do something more than drop bombs on German children?

One thing is clear: Had SPIEGEL ONLINE been around in 1948, it certainly would have thought so. After all, the US can do no right without some sort of sinister alterior motive at play.

Little Criticism for the EU and UN

And while US helicopters are bringing lifesaving aid to tsunami victims, the EU and the UN are still in the process of "assessing" things. But SPIEGEL ONLINE and other German media have not felt the urgent desire to criticize the slowness of the two institutions. Only George W. Bush has come in for that sort of criticism despite the fact that the US has moved to rescue tsunami victims faster than any other nation or institution on the planet.

Just another day at the office for "fair and balanced" German journalism...

Not Widely Reported...

Sri Lanka is grateful for Israel's help.

Israel National News:

Israeli Teams Bring Number of Missing Down to 3

"Finding and identifying four bodies out of thousands of bodies lying here is something no one else was able to do." So says Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue-and-recovery organization.

"The Israeli delegation [in southeast Asia] has become famous," Meshi-Zahav told Yediot Acharonot. "All the other countries are looking for us, a small country with our relatively small delegation, to get advice."

The Israeli delegation, headed by Police Identification Department Head Shalom Tzarum, together with the Zaka volunteers, managed to do what

Tsunami: FAZ Senses Unwelcome American Help

Germany's conservative daily FAZ cannot refrain from adding an anti-US slant to an overview story on international help for countries hit by the tsunami:

Translation: The countries hit by the flood need help. But not each kind of help is welcome: support coming as American fleet ships or Israeli soldiers produces misgivings. Caption of picture: "Swords to Phlougshares: The USS Abraham Lincoln"

The article this summary refers to contains more subtle critique of help by American military:

Wahington sends fleet ship unit

It is not clear what the reasons are for a help offer from the US. ...the American airplane carrier "USS Abraham Lincoln" ... has left Hongkong.

Unwelcome Help

...in Thailand and South Asia in the next days American emissaries are expected to evaluate the situation. Another American fleet ship unit hast started from Guam to the Gulf of Bengal. It is as yet unclear how welcome this help is in Sri Lanka and India.

The article then goes on to quote unnamed Indian sources rejecting international assistance.

Well, there seem to be at least some people in "South Asia" who appreciate help from American military units:

Tsunami Survivors Mob U.S. Aid Copters

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer 

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN - Desperate, homeless villagers on the tsunami-ravaged island of Sumatra mobbed American

The German Media: “Criticism: US Authority Did Not Pass On Tsunami Warnings”

(By Ray Drake)

We knew it wouldn’t take long for the German media to find a way to blame the tsunami disaster on the US. Today, N24, ZDF and Focus are all reporting on the alleged failure of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to properly warn nations of the tsunami danger after a massive earthquake shook the floor of the Indian Ocean. The story is based on reports that the “US Congress is preparing to investigate” the NOAA's alleged inability to properly and rapidly pass on potentially lifesaving information to nations in the path of the tsunami.

What is troubling about this story is not its content, but the way in which it is being packaged, presented and sold to the German public. As always, whenever there is a problem in the world, the finger of blame is inevitably pointed at the United States. Instead of asking why the EU or the UN failed to detect the tsunami and promptly warn those in danger, the German media is once again turning to the usual suspect: The world scapegoat USA.

Never mind that the United Nations would have been the most appropriate organization to set up and run a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean that could have saved thousands. Never mind that the EU (that great bastion of humanitarian soft-power) completely and utterly failed to detect and warn anyone of the tsunami. Never mind that wealthy Asian nations failed to invest in a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean in their own back yard. The German media is once again telling its audience what it so desperately wants to hear: It’s America’s fault!

The Truth: The NOAA Did Issue Tsunami Warnings

The headline, “Criticism: US Authority Did Not Pass On Tsunami Warnings,” is misleading in the extreme. It implies that the NOAA negligently failed to pass on information that could have saved thousands of lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The NOAA did, in fact, pass on tsunami warnings to several nations and made repeated attempts to warn them of the potential tsunami danger. In most cases, the nations warned either could not react in time or, as was the case in Thailand, chose not to react for fear of harming the tourist industry. It must also be noted that some nations (India for example) detected the oncoming tsunami independently of the NOAA, yet were unable to take decisive action due to a lack of time, coordination and infrastructure.

The main problem facing the NOAA was that it simply did not have the proper contact information for every nation in the tsunami’s path and, absent a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, had no exact way of knowing where the tsunami was, where it was headed or whether it even existed. The NOAA’s inability to quickly contact the proper authorities due to a lack of coordination is the main issue that Congress would investigate. Here is an excerpt from the NOAA’s December 29 statement on the disaster:

“NOAA scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii went to work within minutes of getting a seismic signal that an earthquake occurred off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. NOAA issued a bulletin indicating no threat of a tsunami to Hawaii, the West Coast of North America or to other coasts in the Pacific Basin—the area served by the existing tsunami warning system established by the Pacific rim countries and operated by NOAA in Hawaii.

NOAA scientists then began an effort to notify countries about the possibility that a tsunami may have been triggered by the massive 9.0 undersea earthquake. The Pacific Basin tsunami warning system did not detect a tsunami in the Indian Ocean since there are no buoys in place there. Even without a way to detect whether a tsunami had formed in the Indian Ocean, NOAA officials tried to get the message out to other nations not a part of its Pacific warning system to alert them of the possibility of a tsunami. However, the tsunami raced across the ocean at speeds up to 500 mph.”

The fact that the German media has chosen to package the story with headlines that imply gross negligence on the part of the US government in this disaster is the truly troubling issue here. Legitimate criticism of the NOAA’s response time or lack of full coordination with affected nations is both legitimate and necessary. It is a problem, however, when the US and the NOAA are singled-out as a primary focus of criticism while the UN, EU and affected nations are largely let off the hook despite their many failings.

Conversely, it is interesting to note that the USA is not being singled-out for praise in the German media for its donation of $350 million in aid or for the fact that US helicopters were the first to bring aid to remote regions affected by the tsunami. This all further underscores the underlying bias prevalent in the German media.

Debunking the SPIEGEL ONLINE "Deepening Rift" Lie

(By Ray Drake)

The December 30 SPIEGEL ONLINE article entitled "Tsunami Deepens Rift Between UN and USA" is such a journalistic disaster that it deserves a second posting. First off, the article claimed that:

"With the emergency help for the Tsunami victims Bush is demonstratively avoiding cooperation with the UN. Instead he is relying on a hastily forged emergency alliance with India, Japan and Australia."

Yet, on the very same day the article was published and featured on SPIEGEL ONLINE's homepage, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan said the following at a press conference on the tsunami disaster:

REPORTER: "Given the magnitude of this disaster, shouldn't the United Nations, rather the United States, have taken the lead in establishing a coalition of donor and affected countries to deal with this disaster? And following up on the last two questions, shouldn't you, as Secretary-General, possibly be visiting the affected region to show moral support to the affected communities?"

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: "First of all, on the question of how we pool the international community together, I think it is important that an initiative has been taken. We ourselves were discussing our possible initiative, but I applaud what has been done by the United States Government, by the United States Administration and President Bush. As I have said, we have spoken to other countries which are also going to join the group, and that group will be in support of the efforts that the United Nations is leading. So, we are very satisfied with that."

Based on his answer, Mr. Annan certainly didn't seem to be under the impression that President Bush was "demonstratively avoiding cooperation with the UN."

The Bush administration: "Demonstratively avoiding cooperation with the UN"?

He also didn't appear to have that impression as he was meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday, December 31.

Annan's stated applause for the USA and President Bush completely undermines SPIEGEL ONLINE's premise that the tsunami disaster has led to a "deepening rift" between the US and the UN. Jan Egeland, the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today that the US was "doing a phenomenal job during this unprecedented challenge." Hardly the words of someone convinced of a "deepening rift."

It should also be noted that SPIEGEL ONLINE has given far less coverage to the commitment made by the USA to spend at least $350 million on aid than it gave to its phony "Tsunami Deepens Rift Between UN and USA" story.

Obviously the real "deepening rift" is the gaping canyon separating reality and journalistic professionalism from SPIEGEL ONLINE's biased reporting.

The 72 Hour Canard: Bush Criticized, Annan Spared

In the article "Tsunami Deepens Rift Between UN and USA," SPIEGEL ONLINE also sharply criticized George W. Bush for supposedly not responding quickly enough to the tsunami disaster: 

"It took an entire 72 hours until George Bush made a statement from his ranch in Texas after the flood catastrophe in Southeast Asia."

It now turns out that Kofi Annan also remained at his vacation home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for 72 hours after the disaster before flying back to UN headquarters in New York. Yet SPIEGEL ONLINE has decided to give Mr. Annan a free pass on the issue without so much as mentioning it. This preferential treatment for the UN General Secretary clearly underscores the fundamental bias that dominates in the German media: The US can do no right and the UN can do no wrong.

At his December 30 tsunami press conference Mr. Annan was asked why he waited 72 hours before flying back to New York. His response: 

"We live in a world where you can operate from wherever you are."

That is a point we at Medienkritik made earlier with reference to Mr. Bush, whose Texas ranch is considered to be the "Western" White House because it is fully equipped to deal with any emergency or situation the President might face. But that is a fact that SPIEGEL ONLINE chose to overlook in its rush to judgement.

Exploitation at its Worst

The facts are clear. The tsunami disaster has not led to a "deepening rift" between the UN and the USA. In fact, the very opposite is true. The US and UN have put past differences aside and are working closely together to save lives. Leaders of the UN have already praised President Bush and the US on several occasions. SPIEGEL ONLINE's article, "Tsunami Deepens Rift Between UN and USA," simply has no connection to reality.

Simply making a mistake can happen to even the best journalist. But that is not what has happened here. This article represents the very worst in campaign journalism. Why? It essentially boils down to this: SPIEGEL ONLINE is exploiting a massive human tragedy and intentionally misrepresenting the facts for one reason and one reason alone: To further discredit George W. Bush in the eyes of the German people and to satiate the hatred of their extremist readers. Perpetuating the stereotype of Bush as the arrogant unilateralist is priority number one. And it appears that SPON is prepared to stoop to virtually any depth to achieve that goal.

If it wasn't about that, or if SPIEGEL ONLINE had even one ounce of journalistic integrity, the editors would immediately remove the article from their website and publish a correction detailing the cooperation taking place between the US and the UN in the wake of the tsunami disaster. In short, they would tell the German people the truth. We don't expect that to happen though...

(Note: Emphasis ours on all quotes, click here to see our first article on this topic.)