Davids Medienkritik

Time for Uncle Sugar to Give the German Brat-Child a Spanking

Great article by Victor Davis Hanson - who notes: 

In recent polling, Germans were more anti-American than any other nation in Europe. And while about 75 percent of Americans believe the U.S. still has a good relationship with Germany, only about a third of Germans feel that way about the U.S. Nearly half the German population in some polls want U.S. troops out.

Note that Germany piles up the largest annual trade surplus with the U.S. of any nation in Europe — roughly $55 billion to $70 billion in most years. The Trump administration says the surpluses have grown in large part due to asymmetry in tariffs and duties, with Germany the far more protectionist of the two partners.

With Germany now united, rich and often angry, and with the Soviet threat largely over, it’s Germany, not the U.S., that seems to have altered its view of this once-solid relationship.

Does Merkel really believe that if her nation cuts huge deals with NATO’s historically greatest threat, polls as the most anti-American country in Europe and still refuses to honor its promises to increase defense spending, Germany still deserves a large American commitment of 36,000 troops to anchor its defense?

Germans were and are anti-American largely because of what this blog has been pointing out for nearly two decades. Few people in positions of power, save former Ambassador Grenell, have sought to address it directly - because most of them are part-and-parcel of the leftist elites that rub elbows with the Hate America media (in both Germany and the USA).

Enough is Enough: It's Time For A Major Shift in US-German Relations

Germany's is the the true story of the ultimate spoiled brat-child. America has spent decades and untold billions (perhaps trillions?) of dollars to rebuild and defend Germany while the German press and elites have bathed themselves in an unending stream of Hate America bile and bias. They profited from beneficial trade deals and being able to divert money they would have otherwise spent on defense to domestic spending on lavish social programs, all at the indirect expense of the U.S. taxpayer. 

Honestly - it's time for the United States to give the spoiled brat-child a real reason to hate it. It's time for some true tough love. Germany should either meet its defense spending obligation as a leading country in NATO - or the United States should consider options such as:

• Instituting stringent enforcement of NATO spending requirements and ejecting scofflaw nations such as Germany who fail to meet set deadlines.
• Redeploying most or all troops to other countries further east and demanding repayment in some form of the years of German freeloading on U.S. defense spending.
• Revising trade arrangements to significantly reduce German exports to the U.S.
• Appointing Ambassadors and other representatives who aggressively call-out the systemic anti-American bias that is pervasive in German media - and not allow German officials to simply dismiss it as "free speech" - but force them to recognize it for the long-standing, systemic cultural illness that it is - and address it head on.

This would be wildly unpopular with Germans - and would probably lead to the breakup of NATO anyway - or at least Germany's departure - but honestly - WHO CARES - they already bitterly resent America - and the United States has nothing to lose and everything to gain from a major and sorely overdue rebalancing of the relationship.

We need to get honest about the relationship and stop pretending it's 1986. If Germans want to sit back and continue to lecture the United States about how morally superior they are - they can do so without reaping the benefits of American defense spending and without the ability to export nearly as much product to the United States.

Simply put: It's time for a spanking!

How "Defund the Police" Worked Out After the 2015 Baltimore Riots

As reported by the arch-conservative New York Times Magazine:

"In 2016, the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concurred, releasing a report accusing the city’s Police Department of racial discrimination and excessive force. The city agreed to a “consent decree” with the federal government, a set of policing reforms that would be enforced by a federal judge. When an independent monitoring team was selected to oversee the decree, Guy was hired as its community liaison. This was where she wanted to be: at the forefront of the effort to make her city a better place.

But in the years that followed, Baltimore, by most standards, became a worse place. In 2017, it recorded 342 murders — its highest per-capita rate ever, more than double Chicago’s, far higher than any other city of 500,000 or more residents and, astonishingly, a larger absolute number of killings than in New York, a city 14 times as populous. Other elected officials, from the governor to the mayor to the state’s attorney, struggled to respond to the rise in disorder, leaving residents with the unsettling feeling that there was no one in charge. With every passing year, it was getting harder to see what gains, exactly, were delivered by the uprising. (...)

On the left, in contrast, Baltimore’s recent woes have been largely overlooked, partly because they present a challenge to those who start from the assumption that policing is inherently suspect. The national progressive story of Baltimore during this era of criminal-justice reform has been the story of the police excesses that led to Gray’s death and the uprising, not the surge of violence that has overtaken the city ever since. As a result, Baltimore has been left mostly on its own to contend with what has been happening, which has amounted to nothing less than a failure of order and governance the likes of which few American cities have seen in years."

Simply put: The "Defund the Police" approach has already been tried - and ended up turning police into a largely reactive force - devastating minority neighborhoods in Baltimore following the 2015 riots (pre-Trump) - and doing enormous harm to those it was intended to benefit. And, of course, members of the Left who pushed for the so-called "reforms" that led to the massive crime spike simply put Baltimore out-of-sight and out-of-mind when reality caught up to their false narrative.

As they say: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it...Minneapolis appears to be on the same course...

ENDNOTE: See also this article by Bernard Kerik from a year ago which completely undermines the "Defund the Police" narrative. Money quote:

"So, here’s the 2018 breakdown of the 995 people shot and killed by the police.

403 were white, 210 were black, 148 were Hispanic, 38 were classified as other, and 199 were classified as unknown.

Out of that 995, 47 were unarmed — 23 were white, 17 were black, 5 were Hispanic, and 2 were unknown.

Out of the 30-50 million interactions that the police had with the American public last year, 10 million people were arrested, and less than 0.01 percent were shot and killed by the police. Out of those 10 million people arrested, 47 of those shot and killed were unarmed, which equates to 0.00047 percent, 17 of which were black.

Remarkably, for the race baiting, cop hating, left-wing propagandists that promote the social theory that all police officers are relentlessly targeting and gunning down unarmed people of color, these statistics prove those claims could not be farther from the truth. The reality is that out of the 10,000,000 arrests made last year in the U.S., 17 black people shot and killed by the police were unarmed, which equates to 0.00017 percent.

Members of Congress, governors, mayors, the Hollywood elite, and the left-wing mainstream media outlets have gone out of their way to demonize the police with their false, misleading, and inciting claims, yet have ignored the violence and murder rates in cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee, and others. Could it be that they're just ignorant to the real facts, or, is it that they just don’t give a damn about the truth, and their rhetoric is strictly left-wing political propaganda meant to destroy community-police relations."

Also a powerful video from Candace Owens.

Eurosnobs and Never-Trump Media Making a Stink Over Denmark

Europe's elites are shocked - how dare he? 

Well - let's take a look at this Denmark situation for one moment. It started when President Trump expressed tepid interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark - saying that it wasn't a front burner item - but that it was a concept he wanted to look into.  And - just to be clear - this is not a crazy new concept that has never existed before on the planet. First - American leaders have expressed interest in Greenland more than once in decades past. Additionally, it is certainly not unheard of for nations to discuss the peaceful exchange of territories - as the United States has done with Canada over a detached section of Minnesota or Japan has done with Russia over the Kuril Islands.

Then the Danish Prime Minister - apparently so acclimated to the Eurosnob culture of disrespect towards the United States - and with the diplomatic delicacy and acuity of a rhinoceros - publicly denounced Trump's inquiry as "absurd" and stated that "I strongly hope this is not meant seriously." And this just weeks before his state visit.

Now - that being the case - would it not make sense from a Diplomacy 101 perspective for the Danish leader to relay that information privately - without insulting the leader of a major ally in public before your national press and the world? Granted - Trump's decision to cancel in the wake of her comments was abrupt (evidenced by the US Ambassador's tweet about the visit) - and it's a shame he could not still visit with the Danish Royal Family - but given how he was publicly embarrassed by Denmark's leader - what option did he really have? His tweets were actually remarkably polite and positive in contrast to the comments of the Danish PM - who then went on national television with a robotic series of platitudes about the great relationship that she just needlessly set-back by exhibiting the diplomatic skill of a dung beetle. 

But hey - don't feel too bad for Madame Frederiksen: Not surprisingly - the Eurosnob betas and American Never-Trump media elites are circling the wagons and expressing the usual contrived shock over Trump's refusal to just eat their insults and keep stupidly paying for their defense like the clueless American sugardaddies of the past.

After all - it's always Trump's fault - facts don't matter - as evidenced by the phony grandstanding now being carried out by Obama's irrelevant ex-ambassador to Denmark - who is exploiting the incident to get what are likely to be his final 15 minutes of fame. At the end of the day - the Danish-American relationship will not change significantly on a day-to-day basis - but this is a prime example of poor diplomacy and European double standards.

UPDATE: Trump's latest comments and tweets are right on. Denmark's leader publicly mocked the inquiry as absurd - acted unprofessionally - and is part of a wider culture in Old Europe that takes the United States for granted - and (despite its relative wealth) feels completely entitled to shirk its spending responsibilities as part of NATO.  

Endnote: We fully anticipate that PM Frederiksen will now be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Foreign Policy "Diplomat of the Year" award by her grateful idealogues-in-arms. Time Magazine Person of the Year could also be in the offing...At this point she is the front-runner for the newly created "Medienkritik Eurosnob of the Year" award...

Endnote #2: It looks like the two leaders made amends after PM Frederiksen put in a call to the White House and the President graciously took the call. This is a good ending. 

DER SPIEGEL After the Shootings – The Heart of Bias

What a surprise! DER SPIEGEL has it all figured out again. The shootings in the United States have a name and a face: Donald Trump. That’s right – according to Der SPIEGEL’s latest authoritative feature article on the shootings in America – Trump has created a “climate of hate” that has led to a new “White Terror” and “racial extremism”.

(Above image from Der Spiegel's feature article promo): "White Terror: USA The El Paso massacre is the consequence of a new racist extremism in the United States. Donald Trump must unite the country as President, but he created a climate of hate that he now can barely bring under control.”

Well - aside from the fact that SPIEGEL is swallowing the American Left’s portrayal of Trump as racist and the NRA as a mysterious all-powerful cabal of proto-white-supremacists – what is most notable is that they almost totally ignore the Dayton shooter. Why?  Because apparently, he was a fan of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren – and that does not compute with the pre-set SPIEGEL narrative of the United States in which the Social Justice Warriors of the Left are the noble underdog saviors being held down by the reactionary, gun-toting forces of darkness.

As a result - SPIEGEL has no appetite for any examination of the Dayton shooters’ admiration of prominent Democrats. In fact, in a prolific feature article consisting of over 40 paragraphs and 3,000 words - in which the El Paso shooter is mentioned by name 24 times in 16 paragraphs - the Dayton shooter is mentioned by name only twice in a single paragraph. And here it is strictly to downplay the influence that Democrats had on him (our translation of original German text):

“Additionally the perpetrator of Dayton, according to Trump on Wednesday, was unlike the El Paso shooter, a “fan of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. In other words, a Leftist. While it is true that he composed corresponding tweets, he seems to have, according to the FBI, sympathized with numerous violent ideologies, and furthermore investigators are still checking whether he had connections to the so-called Incels – radical woman-haters. And unlike the El Paso shooter – he did not base his actions on politics and his motive is still unclear – his sister is among the nine victims.”

So big shocker: While SPIEGEL spends thousands of words and dozens of paragraphs attempting to insinuate that Trump is directly or indirectly responsible for El Paso – NOBODY at SPIEGEL (corporate-media-to-the core dedicated to profiting from anti-Americanism since time immemorial) dares to obsess about (or even examine in the most cursory manner) the Dayton shooters’ potential political motivations and how they may have been shaped by the general climate of hostility and hatred whipped up by far-left politicians, members of academia, media networks like MSNBC or violent extremist movements like Antifa. (Do we need to mention a previous nutjob who shot up Republican Members of Congress?) 

The Heart of Bias

Let’s be honest – most adults recognize that the Dayton and El Paso shooters were and are deranged maniacs who went around shooting innocent victims who bore zero responsibility for what they believed (in their warped under-developed minds) was plaguing society or worth killing for – and no politician (whatever you may think of Trump, Sanders or Warren) can be held remotely responsible for their insane criminal actions. One shooter was a right-wing nutcase and one was a left-wing nutcase – and because SPIEGEL’s readers are far-Left and hate Trump – they choose to focus on one nutcase’s deranged motivations and tie them in any way possible to Trump - while completely downplaying and dismissing the other side.

By contrast: Whenever members of ISIS massacre innocent people at a hotel, concert or shopping center as an act of intentional, organized and pre-meditated murder – they are somehow characterized as misunderstood revolutionaries spurred on by the injustice and sins of the West. This is the insane biased thinking of the SPIEGEL Eurosnob elite where the default is to blame the forces defending (what is left of) Western civilization.

Simply put: This article is yet another example of The Heart of Bias at Der Spiegel.

Der SPIEGEL Editor to Loyal Unthinking Troops: “I love the smell of Bias in the Morning. It smells like P-R-O-F-I-T-S…”

(Endnote: The translations in quotes are ours, and we intentionally choose to omit the names of the shooters.)

UPDATE: Is Der Spiegel going to report that the rhetoric of the Angry Left has now led to the targeting of members of U.S. Law enforcement? Shots were fired at an ICE office in San Antonio - and these shots could have killed anyone inside. Looking forward to extensive coverage Der Spiegel - including a long research article on the causes and background of these increasing attacks - since we all know you are a reputable unbiased news organization.

Davids Medienkritik Precisely Described and Diagnosed the Culture that Created Relotius...Years Ago

We don't want to say "we told you so" - but just read this article we posted in 2011. We precisely described and satirized the culture and conditions in German media that created the Relotius train wreck years before it happened.

Direct quote:

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.

Further - the fictional correspondent we describe - were he in fact to surrender wholeheartedly to the insatiable demands of the editors (described by Andrei Markovits) - would be Relotius personified. Relotius simply went further than his colleagues - departing from the subtle lies of bias and omission - and fully embracing the heart of darkness... 

The Horror: Relotius is the dark and inevitable consequence of a dogmatic culture gone wrong...

Not surprisingly, no one at Spiegel was listening to us back then...

Der Spiegel Scandal: Relotius' Inventions Simply Reflect The Anti-American Boogeyman His Editors Have Demanded for Decades

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the entire Spiegel-Relotius scandal is that the lies and fabrications that he fed to his editors back in Germany were not random in the least. They followed a precisely constructed blueprint of stereotypes nourished for decades by the anti-American editors and media and political elites in Germany.

Der Spiegel's Enemy Has Many Faces and One Name: "Amerika"

In a nutshell, the Relotius lies and fabrications reflected exactly the American boogeyman that has been sold to Germans for years now. We even put together a list of these stereotypes in 2008 - THIS IS NOTHING NEW - and they are still current today if you simply replace the word "Bush" with Trump".

Stereotypes most favored by Spiegel staff include:

• Americans are overbearing war-mongers bent on global domination who falsely claim they are spreading democracy when they are just spreading McDonalds and trying to control more oil fields
• Americans are heartless purveyors of capitalism, neglect the poor, and reject social safety nets
• Americans are trying to spread their superficial bubble gum, Disney, Hollywood culture worldwide to the detriment of all indigenous peoples - including even the Germans
• Americans are xenophobic racists 
• Americans are blindly patriotic, flag waving, USA-chanting, mind-numbed robots 
• Americans are militaristic gun nuts - everyone outside New York and Washington is packing machine guns
• Americans are obese fast-food gluttons
• Americans are hyper-religious Bible-thumping zealots who reject European humanism
• Americans don't care about the rest of the world or the environment (if only they could be environmental champions like the Germans!)
• Every current and recent military conflict involving the United States = Vietnam = quagmire = defeat
• The death penalty - did we mention the death penalty?
• Guantanamo - can we still talk about Guantanamo???

In fact, the reason that Mr. Relotius was not caught sooner is because his absurd contortion of reality was NOT absurd to his editors - it was a precise reflection of the "ugly America" that they have constructed and come to demand in an effort to maximize profit and keep readers supplied with their regular fix of resentment.  

In a recently published article on Z-Man blog (via American Thinker), the author correctly notes that:

That's always the thing with these scandals.  The media big shots always come off as if they have been insulted about their shenanigans being revealed.  In this case, the other major media outfits are rallying to defend Der Spiegel.  In the dreaded private sector, competitors are always quick to take advantage of the mistakes of a competitor.  In the main stream media, the opposite is always true.  They circle the wagons and begin lecturing the hoi polloi about the dangers of questioning the media.

That is the real cause of these scandals.  For a long time, the mass media in the West has been a mono-culture.  You can't have a career in the media if you don't hold all the right opinions.  To call the media an echo chamber for the left is to understate the problem.  The better analogy is a school of fish.  Each individual just reacts to those around him, giving the effect of the school having agency as a whole.  What looks like collusion is just the result of a uniformity of mind, experience and social class.

Now allow us to remind our readers of past Spiegel articles (view our complete archive here) - all of which should be investigated for inaccuracies and fabrications as well...

From 2010:

Der Spiegel Commentary: Obama Failing because of "Hate-Mongers, Gun Freaks and Tea Party Demagogues"

A wonderful and unbiased analysis by master Amerika Experte and Spiegel author Klaus Brinkbäumer as to why Barack Obama is no longer as popular as he once was - (complete with a photo gallery compiled to feed the deeply ingrained stereotypes and Feindbilder of the German left.) 

Or 2008:

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?" 

And let's not forget our 2005 write-up on the somewhat similar SPIEGEL "expose" on Kannapolis, North Carolina.

And now just finishing our tour of the tip-of-the-iceberg - let's not forget SPIEGEL's admission to Jeff Gedmin in 2004 that the anti-American stereotypes are editors "just trying to please our million readers." Gedmin's 2004 work "Mad About Us" is just as relevant now as at any time. 

The examples go on and on and on. 

Some things just never change...sad but true... 

A wonderful and unbiased analysis by master Amerika Experte and Spiegel author Klaus Brinkbäumer as to why Barack Obama is no longer as popular as he once was - (complete with a photo gallery compiled to feed the deeply ingrained stereotypes and Feindbilder of the German left.) 

Or 2008:

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?" 

And let's not forget our 2005 write-up on the somewhat similar SPIEGEL "expose" on Kannapolis, North Carolina.

And now just finishing our tour of the tip-of-the-iceberg - let's not forget SPIEGEL's admission to Jeff Gedmin in 2004 that the anti-American stereotypes are editors "just trying to please our million readers." Gedmin's 2004 work "Mad About Us" is just as relevant now as at any time. 

The examples go on and on and on. 

Some things just never change...sad but true... 

An Open Letter to Ambassador Richard Grenell and the World: We Are Back

Davids Medienkritik is back.

Like Godzilla awakening from his volcanic slumber - we have re-emerged to global relevance to continue our rampage against bias in German media. From 2003 to 2008 - we went all-out to expose fake news in German media before the term even existed. Now we are posting again - and no less than Instapundit and the U.S. Ambassador to Germany - the Honorable Richard Grenell - have recognized the continuing relevance of our work.

"DER SPIEGEL harbors no institutional bias against the United States." -Dirk Kurbjuweit, deputy editor-in-chief, DER SPIEGEL

Just a couple days ago, after we posted our first item in years, the Ambassador tweeted out a collage we put together to demonstrate the incessant anti-Americanism-for-profit that Der Spiegel has employed for decades now. We are both honored that he would highlight our work - and grateful that he has taken up the mantle that we carried for years. Finally - a person in a position of power is highlighting the ugly truth - and confronting the so-called "Amerika Experten" who have been committing journalistic malpractice for years. It is as if our long-held wish is finally coming true.

And Mr. Ambassador - we further find it quite interesting that the "professional" ranks of editors and journalists at Spiegel did not catch Mr. Relotius' obvious fabrications even though some commenters on SPIEGEL ONLINE were pointing it out well before the scandal exploded - only to have many of their observations posted as comments deleted. It will be interesting to see if this is ever acknowledged by the Spiegel staff and leadership. 

The Editorial "Safeguards" at Der Spiegel Apparently Comparable to those of the Ford Pinto

So Mr. Ambassador - we will say this: You and our colleagues at Instapundit and around the blogosphere have inspired us by championing our cause. You have inspired us to renew our mission - to renew our work - and to once again join the fray. We hope that you - and others in positions of influence in Germany and the United States continue to publicly point-out and call-out the blatant bias that we have seen for so long at Der Spiegel (and many other media outlets) - and point out the corrosive impact it has had and continues to have on German-American relations. If there is anything we can do to contribute - don't hesitate to ask and don't hesitate to continue to highlight our work.  What amazed and frustrated us in our earlier years is that no one did what you are now doing - so thank you.

Davids Medienkritik is Back to Ruin Spiegel's Day

At the end of the day - it still comes back to this fundamental point: When supposedly "well-informed" Germans who read media like Der Spiegel live in a world clouded by lies of omission - and emphasis on the negative - is it any wonder that they have a poor and incomplete opinion of the United States and that transatlantic relations suffer as a result?

SPIEGEL Reporter Fired for Inventing Stories - Some with Anti-American Tilt

Well - that paragon of high journalism and integrity - Der Spiegel - beacon of honest, objective, and above-all "expert" reporting on the United States apparently has a problem. One of its reporters has been fired for inventing facts - and actually getting caught doing so. According to BBC News:

"German news magazine Der Spiegel has sacked an award-winning staff writer after accusing him of inventing details and quotes in numerous stories.

Claas Relotius "falsified articles on a grand scale and even invented characters", Der Spiegel said.

Among the articles in question are major features that had been nominated for or won awards, the magazine added. (...)

An investigation into a story by Mr Relotius about immigration and the US-Mexican border revealed that he had fabricated information about seeing a hand-painted sign in a town in Minnesota that read: "Mexicans Keep Out."

Fraudulent information appeared in other stories including one about inmates at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay and another about the US NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick."

Now wouldn't that have been quite fitting for the Amis to have an Auslaender Raus equivalent? Nothing would be more satisfying to the leftist-German psyche than to bring the cowboys right down to German standards - mitigating some pent-up xenophobia-guilt.

And on another front, Marc Pitzke - Amerika-Experte extraordinaire - has joined the rest of the Angry Left media in making nice with and even lauding the McCain/Bush "good Republicans" who they once bashed to no end so long as they threatened to exercise any real power. Now that they stand at odds with Trump, however, they are newfound heroes and lovable old foils. 

Mr. Relotius is perhaps just the most overt of Spiegel liars, caught and sacked for being too brazen in his journalistic malpractice. But make no mistake: The lies of omission, spin and bias that have tainted Der Spiegel and Spiegel Online for decades continue unabated on an industrial scale. Some things never change...  

Be Careful Dear Sandra...

Positive reporting like this will soon land you on the street at SPIEGEL ONLINE Frau Sperber:

Marc Pitzke hasn't made a career as Amerika-Korrespondent by being Mr. Niceguy or respecting the truth. How about you just stick to guns, fast food, racism, NSA and obesity next time? You just need to take your cute little camera phone to a gun show or a KKK meeting to get the footage we really want for SPIEGEL readers. There are plenty of worthy topics to report on when it comes to the USA without upsetting Mr. Augstein with this excessive exposure to reality.

Ex-Chancellor Schroeder: Partying with "Spotless Democrat" Vladimir Putin as Ukraine Burns

Gazprom Gerd truly has no shame - partying with "spotless democrat" pal Vladimir Putin as Russia occupies Ukraine (remember Gerd's principled objection to Iraq?) and systematically stamps out dissent with a tidal wave of paranoid state propaganda. Even SPIEGEL ONLINE can't support Gerd this time. Maybe Kim Jong Un will be available for Gerd's 80th?

The Washington Post Discovers the Tip of the Iceberg

Nice to see the center-left media in the United States finally start to acknowledge the most brutally apparent examples of flagrant anti-Americanism in European media. We've been documenting it for years. Better late than never perhaps.

Here is the article in the Washington Post, entitled: "Russian TV program links United States to treason at home".

The Legacy of Schroeder's Misrule - Germans Not Going Back

Angela Merkel wins big in Germany.

SPIEGEL Disses Obama Again: "Europe Must Protect Itself from America"

Being President isn't easy. Dropping approval ratings at home - and now this from SPIEGEL? The afterglow from the 2008 Berlin speech has clearly faded with the German media elite...Et tu Brutus?

Here's what's interesting about this article: The small headline below the article summary reads "The German Prism: Berlin Wants to Spy Too." If America's activities constitute spying - than the German government not only "wants to spy" - it has been "spying" for decades now. In many instances, Germany and other European governments have acted more aggressively than the United States.

Even Augstein tacitly acknowledges that his criticism of the United States could equally be a criticism of European governments. This is the pot calling the kettle black while simultaneously criticizing it. Put another way, Augstein's commentary is both inconsistent and incoherent.

It boils down to this: Every society must grapple with the eternal conflict between privacy and security - and in many cases - European countries come down more heavily on the side of security. America - after all - does not have a national ID card or Anmeldungspflicht.

But Augstein's work has little to do with some noble crusade to protect the privacy of European citizens. Instead, he is doing what SPIEGEL has always done: Scratching for some pretext to attack the "imperialist other" - the American boogeyman - while attempting to stoke Transatlantic conflict. This was and remains a time-tested formula for moving copy and cashing in with SPIEGEL readers. 

Celebrating Obama has outlived its usefullness. Anti-Americanism has a much longer shelf-life...

SPIEGEL's Marc Pitzke Declares GHW Bush Dead - But Hold the Phone!

Spiegel's crack Amerika-Korrespondent Marc Pitzke strikes again! Apparently - SPIEGEL Online has gotten an extra early scoop on the death of GHW Bush! 

Or perhaps its a bit of wishful thinking on the part of Marc Pitzke - who has already prepared a masterpiece of false praise, which is, in fact, a poorly disguised litany of attacks against the elder Bush's son George W. 

Pitzke gets the usual low blows in: The mandatory griping about endless war, torture and how terrible a place America has become since the first Bush governed in a more innocent time. Ah the good old days!

But most importantly - SPIEGEL gets it wrong - again. This isn't the first - but perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of the magazine's total bias and lack of professionalism. Pitzke's next story: Elvis still lives - in New York - in the studio next to mine!

Even if You Re-Elect Obama - Europe is Still Disappointed America

2012 Election Day Update: Guess What Americans - Europe is still disappointed with you and Obama - particularly since you have no socialist equivalent to give you something comparable to our "balanced" political system! Why haven't you closed Gitmo? Why do you still insist on killing terrorists with drones? Why won't you bring back Kyoto and end global warming?

Here's the bottom line: If Obama wins - get ready for 4 more years of subdued moaning in German media about how disappointed we are that America has not yet become the paragon of social justice that we expected Obama to make it. Or - if Romney scores an upset (which we see as unlikely) - a really loud return to full-on, Bush-is-back, Hate-America-Mode. A Romney win is what all German journalists secretely hope for - as it will mark the return of the age of highly profitable and socially acceptable America-bashing that accompanies any Republican administration.

And oh - by the way - SPIEGEL reminds us yet again that America is still in "downfall" mode - a state which the country has apparently been in since the foundation of SPIEGEL magazine: "The American Patient: Of the Downfall of a Great Nation"

SPIEGEL's Article on Disillusionment with Obama Predicted by Davids Medienkritik in 2008

We hate to say we told you so - but we did. This was entirely predictable. According to SPIEGEL - Germans are increasingly "disillusioned" with President Obama:

In a new global survey released on Wednesday, approval of President Barack Obama's policies has declined significantly since he first took office. Overall confidence in Obama and attitudes towards the US have slipped modestly as a consequence. By several measures some of the greatest slippage has occurred in Germany, especially with regard to America's image and Obama's foreign policies. After more than three years in office, Germans are disappointed in the US president's unilateralism; his use of force, particularly drone strikes; his inaction with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian situation and his lack of effort in curbing climate change.

And here is the top scenario Davids Medienkritik predicted in 2008 for an Obama presidency:

Analysis: The initial euphoria of an Obama victory and Republican defeat will lead some to predict a bold new era of happiness in transatlantic relations. These predictions will gradually be worn to a cool realism/cynicism by geopolitical realities which will inevitably manifest themselves through differences over trade, the use of force in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East, the unwillingness of even the Democrats to go along with Kyoto, etc. Obama may remain quite popular as a personality in the German media. The Republicans - despite their reduced role - will continue to act as foils and receive blame for all that goes wrong. The refrain that what Bush has broken will take time to fix may well grow to become a reflexive defense for some time to come among those who insist on clinging to their own initial euphoria.

But at least Obama is convincing Germans that he is making progress in transforming the American economy into a more socially-just copy of the German economy. According to the SPIEGEL piece: 

"Germans also don't see America as an economic superpower. In 2008, only 30 percent of Germans named China as the world's leading economic player. Now 62 percent do, while only 13 percent say the U.S. plays that role. No other Europeans judge American economic prowess so harshly."

But it's really too bad that Germans still don't love America now that Bush is gone - we thought that his departure would end all anti-American feeling. All there is left to say is... 

SPIEGEL ONLINE's Final Biased Iraq War Gallery

You guessed it - SPIEGEL ONLINE's post marking the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq contains a fifteen-slide photo gallery with nothing but pictures of evil American invaders, death and destruction and Iraqi suffering.

It contains no photos of Iraqi voters with ink-dipped fingers. No photos reminding us of Saddam's mass murder and destruction of his enemies. No reminders of the successful surge that Bush backed despite Reid saying the war was lost. No pictures of American troops and diplomats helping millions of Iraqis building roads, schools, power plants, providing medical care, jobs and stability. No pictures of the Sunni Awakening and the defeat of Al-Qaeda in Anbar province. In short - no pictures telling the whole story or providing any real balance.

Just pictures fitting the SPIEGEL ONLINE anti-American far-left narrative: The American military is evil. The war was all bad. The Iraqis only suffered at the hands of the terrible invaders.

With the Iraq war's apparent conclusion, one can only say of SPIEGEL ONLINE that - for a publication and readership that styles itself as so utterly nuanced and intelligent - the coverage has - in fact - been utterly one-sided and hyper-simplified propaganda - with very few exceptions. The magazine's coverage was designed to sell magazines to and please an anti-American audience from beginning to end, and the German readership will never have more than a very narrow and self-satisfying view of the conflict that in no way reflects reality.

Oh - and here's a shocker - the article and gallery are not featured on SPIEGEL ONLINE's English site homepage. Wonder why? Perhaps the English-speaking audience demands at least a fig-leaf of intellectual honesty - apparently the German audience does not...

Now back to Afghanistan...is it Vietnam yet?

When Chirac Told Bush the West Invented Corruption...

...he wasn't kidding. Maybe Schroeder and Putin can fix him up with a Gazprom gig.

American Troops Withdrawing from a Peaceful, Democratic Iraq

Is it Vietnam yet?????

Oh Snap...

Blame Bush! Canada is withdrawing from Kyoto. (Or was it just a fundamentally flawed concept from the outset...?)

Groundbreaking Report on Anti-Americanism in European Media

(By Ray D.)

Dale Hurd put together an outstanding two part report (see text version here) on anti-Americanism in European media that readers can view below. This is must-watch material for anyone interested in anti-Americanism in European media:  

Part 1 (above)

Part 2 (above)

Money quote:

"Polls clearly show that Europeans have turned against America in increasing numbers. You can blame Iraq or George Bush. But it's also true that Europeans have been fed a steady diet of media distortions about America for years.

And if you repeat a distortion long enough, it can become reality.

If you got your news about the United States only from the European media, chances are good you wouldn't like the United States either. There are a lot of reasons for the anti-American coverage in the media here, but you can start with the journalists themselves. They're mostly liberal and they're on a mission.

America gets a journalistic thumping just about every day in Europe. It's a one-way media war that our government has shown little or no interest in fighting seriously, even though it has severely damaged America's image and influence."

Perhaps the most striking statement on German media was made by Andrei Markovits, who related that a German journalist openly admitted to him that the editors back home were pushing him to provide negative material - because it sells so well. That is something we have known for years - but his statement is just further evidence. Jeff Gedmin - who possesses his own category on this site - was stellar as always. (Hoya Saxa Jeff!) Karin Quade of the German blog anti-anti-Americanism pointed to the painful reality that it is difficult to avoid negative attitudes towards the US - even in everyday conversation. Richard Miniter, another accomplished blogger I have had the pleasure to meet, discusses his time with The Wall Street Journal in Brussels.

UPDATE: Dale Hurd has also posted extensive excerpts of his interview with Andrei Markovits on his blog along with links to his report. Markovits is focused and brilliant. Watch below and check out his book "Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America"...

Special thanks to Dale Hurd. Just appearing on a program with interviewees of such high caliber was a deep honor. I must, however, mention one complaint about the presentation: In his preliminary comments, Pat Robertson implied that "most" Europeans believed Americans walked around with M16s. Very different from my observation that (some) Germans asked me if all Americans walked around with M16s - (probably after watching Bowling for Columbine.) The fact that anyone would ask such a thing is more than enough to make a strong point - and there is no evidence and no need to claim that "most" Europeans believe it.

Additionally, as someone who considers himself "secular" - I am a skeptic of Mr. Robertson and the religious right in general. I am, however, deeply grateful to CBN for taking on this subject in a highly professional manner. It is also beyond argument that individuals of faith in the United States have been unfairly vilified and targeted in European media. To conclude, let's hope that the larger mainstream media picks up on the subject of anti-Americanism in foreign media as well. Considering the general political attitude of the American mainstream media, however, (one of sympathy and empathy for the America-bashers) it is relatively unlikely that this will happen.

For those interested in the BBC report featuring Davids Medienkritik: It is on the emergence of new media. I was interviewed about blogs last year. It is a good watch.

Endnote: Now to address my decision to use my full name. Although I initially used my full name on this site for several months in 2003 and 2004, I have used my first name and last initial for quite a while now. I did this primarily because, as a graduate student, I was looking into work in the media field and I thought that my work as a blogger might work against me - though I made no secret of my blogging at my university or around those I know. Now that I have my degree (a Masters from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service) and a job (not in the media field) - and considering the fact that I have twice appeared on major media in the past year - I see little point in obscuring my full name.

American Troops Decimate Scores of Attackers in Afghanistan - So Is It Vietnam Yet?

Just wondering Spiegel and Stern - is it Vietnam yet? More evidence of demoralized American soldiers?

"No fewer than 70 Taliban died outside COP Margah on Nov. 8. At least, that’s the estimate the soldiers came up with after picking up body parts the following day — standard procedure following a major attack."

Guessing we won't see very much about this in the German media...since it doesn't fit the long-standing narrative of defeat and humiliation for the United States.

Let's Ask Again: Is It Vietnam Yet?

Somehow I doubt SPIEGEL ONLINE will carry this story: No US casualties in Iraq for August.

More proof that Iraq is a hopeless quagmire as the German media has been telling us for years now. And Bush's Middle East policy was such a disaster for the region that we now see revolutions toppling dictators everywhere and Al Qaeda being decimated. After all - if we can continue to blame Bush for the current economy - can we also blame him for the recent developments in the Middle East and in the fight against Al Qaeda?

So Who are the Real Victims?

An interesting lead article on SPIEGEL ONLINE's homepage today:

 

Headline above: "US Drone War in Afghanistan: Photos Show the Real Victims of the Silent Killers"

"Remotely controlled drones are seen as the wonder weapon in the anti-terror fight. For years, Washington has used the high-tech weapons in west Pakistan, but the suffering of the civilians is mostly hidden. Now a photographer's pictures show the entire extent of the horror. By Hasnain Kasim, Islamabad."

As it reads - the headline seems to imply the following: The real victims (and therefore the real targets) of drone strikes are innocent civilians, not the violent jihadists hell-bent on murdering anyone who does not share their worldview.

If there is any doubt amongst our German journalist friends about the kind of people the US is targeting - watch them brutally murdering sixteen Pakistani policemen here. The good, morally-superior journalists at SPIEGEL ONLINE who go to bed peacefully each night protected by American troops should have no doubt that they and their loved ones would end the same way should those the US is really targeting have the chance to effect their agenda.

This latest lead article displays the same sort of muddled logic that allowed SPIEGEL ONLINE and other like-minded media to imply earlier that the inmates at Guantanamo (for the most part) were just innocent Afghani vegetable gardeners or foreign honor students (not determined Islamic Fascists out to create a global caliphate) who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In addition - this story is essentially taking the Pakistani photographer's word for it that his photos are all actual depictions of civilian casualties. That's not to say that there have not been civilian casualties - but how many civilians have been victimized because militants chose to use them as human shields or their villages as bases of operations? Do they not at least share in the responsibility for the consequences?

And what about the victims of the Islamic militants? Perhaps SPIEGEL ONLINE would be so balanced as to run a front page post on photos of those victims. Perhaps that would be a bit too messy and not properly directed at the world's true enemy - the United States...

Oh by the way...is it Vietnam yet?

Getting Rid of Bush Has Restored America's Standing Around the World

You can't argue with the numbers.  Getting rid of Bush solved everything. 

Hey SPIEGEL - Is it Vietnam Yet???

Bring on Marc Pitzke and Peter Scholl-Latour and tell me how the US is doomed to fail now.  

Obama Keeps Guantanamo Open: Will the German Media Explode or Ignore?

Uhhh.oohhh...will they still protect him or go for the jugular - watch out Mr. President...

Question #2 for the German media "experts": Are the current freedom movements in the Middle East more proof that Bush ruined everything through his actions? By the way: Is Iraq still a Vietnam? Haven't seen that headline in a while. Wonder why...

View Davids Medienkritik Archives via the Wayback Machine

Our current site is missing some images and older files - but you can see most of it using the wayback machine. Just check this page.

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.

Davids Medienkritik: Mission Statement

(DEUTSCHE VERSION)

I. MISSION STATEMENT

Germany and the United States, like all nations, have their unique histories, cultures, geographies, national values and priorities. Considering that, it is hardly a surprise that Germans and Americans do not always agree on all of the issues. It would be strange if they did. On the other hand, both countries share a great number of values and interests. We at Davids Medienkritik believe that the shared values and interests far outweigh the differences. That said, there is nothing wrong with acknowledging and discussing differences in a constructive manner. Such a dialog should be aimed at minimizing and bridging the gap between our two nations.

Unfortunately, that is not what is happening today.

A shrill yet influential segment of the German media has repeatedly sought to exploit and exacerbate transatlantic differences. This weblog is a watchdog site dedicated to the documentation of anti-Americanism in German media and the negative influence it has on Germans’ perceptions of the United States.

German media coverage of the United States is frequently marked by one-sidedness, ideology, stereotypes, clichés and factual errors. Consider the words of ZDF's Washington, DC Bureau Chief Eberhard Piltz, one of the most influential correspondents in the German media today:

"ZDF Bureau Chief and Correspondent Eberhard Piltz, felt that ideology was a major impediment to quality coverage of the United States. Piltz spoke of “prejudice” and described it as “an intellectual arrogance that thinks that the American way of life, feeling, taste and thinking is inferior and not authentic.” He complained that many journalists see “the U.S. through an ideological lens,” and that “most of them grew up with the leftist, socialist dream and now they look for scapegoats.”

Or, take a moment to view the following statement from Andrei S. Markovits, a leading scholar and author on European anti-Americanism:

It is important to keep in mind that the examples documented on this site do not reflect the entire German media landscape. There are numerous highly professional, relatively unbiased news sources to be had from Berlin to Bavaria. That said: The biased, anti-American media coverage that we document here does reflect a large and influential segment of German media. Most importantly: The type of reporting and coverage that we document on this site is having a significant and detrimental impact on German-American relations and transatlantic understanding.

 
Above: A selection of Der SPIEGEL covers on the United States: 1997 - 2006

Although David and I are both German citizens (I am a dual US-German citizen and David is a full German citizen), we are sometimes accused of being “anti-German” because we dare to document and criticize what is going on in German media, politics and society. Our critics seem to think that it would be better if we all just stuck our collective heads in the sand and pretended the hate mongering and America bashing simply didn’t exist. We strongly disagree. The only way to change what is happening in wide segments of the German media is to confront it head on and expose it for what it is. If that makes some people uncomfortable, so be it. The fact that we have drawn millions of readers to our site is a strong indicator that we have put our finger in a gaping wound and touched an important chord. We will continue to speak out openly, honestly and with a healthy dose of humor, opinion and biting sarcasm until this problem is confronted and addressed on a societal level. Until that day, we have no plans to stop doing what we are doing.

Above all, we thank our readers for supporting and guiding us.