A great article by Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, in "The American Spectator". It won't come as a surprise to our regular visitors - I fully share his views on the growing anti-Americanism in Germany. (Hat tip Stefan Herre)
Mad About Us By Jeffrey Gedmin
I recently hosted Bianca Jagger for a debate in Berlin. ... Crossing swords with Bianca was Gen. (ret.) Joerg Schoenbohm, the center-right interior minister from the nearby state of Brandenburg. The issue: "Human Rights -- Victim in the War on Terror?" ... The room was packed. Diplomats, think tankers, students, taxi drivers, and locals sipped on their beer and peppered the speakers with questions.
Now, I had wanted to discuss subjects like whether we are turning a blind eye on Chechnya. Or what
about Qaddafi's Libya? Or the president's commitment to democracy in the Middle East? This isn't what the audience had in mind. A gentleman who works for German television provided the most crowd-pleasing question. Herr Niles wanted to know why no one seems concerned with the absence of political debate in George W. Bush's America, where a chilling conformity and group think has taken hold. Herr Niles evidently missed the 9-11 Commission and Dick Clarke's testimony in late March. Or bestsellers like Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them; Molly Irvin's Bushwhacked; David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush; Eric Alterman's The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America. Or for that matter the writings of Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Susan Sontag, and a few other brave dissenters. Ah, that stifling politburo in Washington. Poor Paul O'Neill, silenced in Siberia.
Herr Niles, alas, was pushing an idea that has become very popular in Europe. An American expat sent me a note recently, fretting about the growth of totalitarianism in the U.S. I had a German tell me in a letter that her son, who is now studying in the U.S., experiences an atmosphere so repressive that it cannot hold a candle to what the Stasi did in old East Germany. I'm not kidding. Educated people really say these things and apparently believe them. A senior foreign ministry official here in Berlin got into trouble last year when colleagues leaked to the press that he had referred to the U.S. in an in-house meeting as a "police state." ...
Now Bianca was taking the side of Herr Niles. The audience swooned and I considered, not for the first time, the real character of this indiscriminate America bashing. It's like what Michael Moore dishes up -- comfort food for people who want to feel good about feeling bad toward America. Droves of Europeans seem to be craving this junk. A writer for the German weekly Der Spiegel told me during the Iraq debate not to take offense at the crude anti-American covers of the magazine such as the ugly, bearded, drooling Rambo figure it used to show the typical GI in Iraq. "We're just trying to please our million readers," he explained.
People lap it up and an army of teachers, editors, politicians, and writers keep delivering the goods. Last year, French scholar Emmanuel Todd stood atop bestseller lists and toured the continent as the king of the interview shows. His book, The American Empire: An Obituary (the U.S. edition is entitled After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order), is best described as something between warmed up Paul Kennedy and Michael Moore with footnotes. This stuff keeps coming.
Noam Chomsky's book, Power and Terror, is quoted here these days. It reads like a mix of Soviet-era Pravda commentary of Soviet times and a PLO communiqué. One of my recent personal favorites, Schwarzbuch USA -- "The Black Book USA" -- is a 497-page catalogue of America's crimes throughout history. Charts, factoids, and statistics tell the reader that the inside jacket was not spoofing when it noted that Eric Frey, the book's Austrian author, is an established scholar, who once studied at Princeton.
Frey's chapter titles tell the story: "The Genocide Against Indians"; "Blood, Lies and Dominos -- the Vietnam War"; "Whites Have It Better"; "The Land of the Executioner -- the Popularity of the Death Penalty"; "Bushonomics -- Politics as a Self-Service Shop for the Wealthy"; "The New Witchhunt: The Campaign Against Smokers"; "One Nation Under God -- Bigotry and the Puritans"; "Parasite of the World Economy."
IT DOES NOT end here. Elmar Thevessen, a recent Washington correspondent for ZDF German television -- the more conservative German network! -- has now dipped his own oar in the water with The Bush Report: How the U.S. President Betrayed his Country and the World. Okay, nothing new you say. True, check the footnotes and you'll find illuminating works like The Emergence of the Fascist American Theocratic State, which the author recommends as a "pamphlet easy to find in an Internet search." There is deep and profound analysis such as: "The Bush Doctrine…can be summarized in two words: preemptive and unilateral"; or before September 11th, the President did nothing but "play golf and fish." Even Dick Clarke hasn't claimed that. (Emphasis added throughout)
You have to remember, the anti-Americanism of German journalists is way beyond a reasoned discourse. I guess it takes a Michael Moore to accept the extent of anti-American hate and disgust so prevalent among the German media elite...
> opposition that Savage and, for that matter, >Rush, Hannity, and all the rest face in the U.S.
I don't know where you get off criticizing Hannity and "all the rest"...whomever that might be (probably people who disagree with your leftist view of the world). But I do agree that Der Spiegel's publishers ought to be brought to justice (legally or via a public Ohrfeige) for their slander against the USA. It is encouraging to see a leftist American defend his/her country in the face of the withering assault of lies from Stern and Spiegel (and Focus...and Die SZ...and N24).
Posted by: | May 26, 2004 at 08:00 AM
> opposition that Savage and, for that matter, >Rush, Hannity, and all the rest face in the U.S.
I don't know where you get off criticizing Hannity and "all the rest"...whomever that might be (probably people who disagree with your leftist view of the world). But I do agree that Der Spiegel's publishers ought to be brought to justice (legally or via a public Ohrfeige) for their slander against the USA. It is encouraging to see a leftist American defend his/her country in the face of the withering assault of lies from Stern and Spiegel (and Focus...and Die SZ...and N24).
Posted by: Jennifer Peterson | May 26, 2004 at 08:01 AM
@Klink
I agree with Helian: You may be smart enough, Klink, but the average SPIEGEL reader isn't. ... The average German reader does not think critically, and swallows the SPIEGEL version of reality hook, line and sinker
From what I see around me, about 70%-80% of the Spiegel readers don't think critically, even though Nature, God, Allah, Big Bang etc issued them with the right tool (a smart brain). That's simply what I've been noticing for a long time.
I really don't understand how and why you can keep relativating the terrible influence Spiegel has. I have some theories:
- you sincerely believe that Spiegel isn't that influential in Germany
- you, as a critical German, are actually quite embarassed by the Spiegel and try to play down its importance in Germany, because it is embarassing
- you are blind to reality
You are free to believe what you like and I am not the type of person who tries to persuade other people to "see the light, my light". If you feel good with your belief, it's fine with me, even if I don't agree with you.
Quite frankly, in a "normal world" I couldn't care less what kind of junk Spiegel wanted to spread. The huge problem I see with the Spiegel in this abnormal world is that it widens the gap between Germany and the US. In fact, the whole German media does that.
Germany doesn't have to be a "vassal" of the US. Germany can and should go its own way, but I simply can't comprehend why this way has to widen the gap ? Because so many people believe that "Bush is a cowboy" ? Come on, this isn't school yard anymore.
Posted by: WhatDoIKnow | May 26, 2004 at 09:46 AM
@WhatDoIKnow
- you sincerely believe that Spiegel isn't that influential in Germany
- you, as a critical German, are actually quite embarassed by the Spiegel and try to play down its importance in Germany, because it is embarassing
- you are blind to reality
Lemme specify what I meant.
The SPIEGEL is a must-read in Germany, because they are damn well researchers. They constantly find juicy stuff (partially also because sources love to turn to SPIEGEL) and I can't think from scratch of giant blunders like Hitler-diaries or Daily Mirror-fake fotos.
The problem about SPIEGEL is its constant polemic spinning and their attempts to influence. (like suggesting the end of Chancellor Kohl on their cover already in 1984 the first time - did voters care about it? No.)
So of course I read occasionally SPIEGEL and regularly browse by SpOn.
But I - and I would think also the many academics Thomas cited or what you here hint at as being blind SPIEGEL-groupies - can usually differentiate between the facts of the story and the "yes, please hit the reader over the head into which direction he should think"-spin. Read things with a distance.
We talk here about the spinning, which isn't to be taken serious - not about their facts. If SPIEGEL openly directly lies, please say so. But if you'd talk with most people a bit deeper about SPIEGEL, they'll acknowledge it as well, that a lot is to smile about.
Like the recent article about German troops like "rabbits" in Kosovo. It was an interesting story with a lot of validity, but of course I smiled on the "rabbits"-quote and the underlying tone, so it was no surprise to me that I saw in the following weeks some articles in other media putting events into a bit of a different light (Sueddeutsche amongst them) and without a "like rabbits".
Btw: Daily Telegraph and many US-rightwing-blogs quoted SPIEGEL about German troops as "rabbits". I could see no corrections on them when other media painted things a tad differently. Partisanship is also on the right just as much: If a juicy quote fits your world-view, bring it. Suddenly SPIEGEL-polemics were credible to right-wingers. ROFL.
Again on the spinning: Die Hunde bellen, die Karawane zieht weiter. Tempest in a teapot. Etc, etc. I always call it "the BILD for intellectuals".
Posted by: Klink | May 26, 2004 at 12:02 PM
@Klink
I think we have different perceptions about Spiegel's level of influence. The fact is that there are no polls or studies on this subject, so none of us can really claim the truth. I can live with that.
There is one other thing though, which is obvious without any studies or polls to support it. Anti-americanism in the German media, masked as "objective journalism". I can read and I enjoy reading, at any time, a balanced critical view of the US and its policies. But those kind of views are extremely rare in the German media.
The prevalence of totally unbalanced criticism of the US in the German media is influencing people's opinions. The US boat and the German boat are drifting apart, the German media is the vigurous rower and the German public is an unsuspecting passenger, believing it is on a joy ride.
Posted by: WhatDoIKnow | May 26, 2004 at 12:30 PM
@ Niko, WhatDoIKnow, Klink
Well, this is a very decent discussion.
Equally what is said about the SPIEGEL, most of the german citizens get their information from TV.
And so you must not wonder about the public opinion about the USA, G.W.Bush and so on.
I think most of them don´t either have the time or the will getting more information, for example, through the internet.
And there is surely not a balanced information on TV. The only discussion and broadcast on IRAQ without the usual suspects like Scholl-Latour ("Europe,especially Germany should have nuclear weapons, to counter the threat from Iran", said at FRIEDMANN) and other "specialist" garbage was some month ago on ARTE. There they had people from IRAQ, Bosnia etc... for discussion. And, believe me, they had different opinions about the toppling of Saddam and so on then the usual "specialists".
In the usual TV-news you will hear/see about "a bomb here, a bomb there", only bombs and chaos and so on, but nothing about the daily life in Iraq, not to say from the progress being made there.
They measure the USA -and why not- with very high moral standards, but forget to measure Schröder´s new friends, the Paris-Berlin-Moscow-Peking-axis with similar standards. I think, if you have chosen new friends, you should do that.
Forgive me my comparision, Wilhelm Klink, but if you compare the 300.000-inhibitant cities of Fallujah and Grosny, after beiing a war in the first and a "non war" in the second: In Fallujah some buildings and the tower of a mosque came down. Grosny completely consists of ruins.
Shortly said:
There are double standards for measuring friends and there is no balanced reporting on some issues.
Balanced is not meant like: If you have shown one side, you always have to show the other side. But completely ignoring, that there are also other aspects of one thing, that´s what you call propaganda.
Grettings from Franz
Posted by: | May 26, 2004 at 10:49 PM
@ Niko, WhatDoIKnow, Klink
Well, this is a very decent discussion.
Equally what is said about the SPIEGEL, most of the german citizens get their information from TV.
And so you must not wonder about the public opinion about the USA, G.W.Bush and so on.
I think most of them don´t either have the time or the will getting more information, for example, through the internet.
And there is surely not a balanced information on TV. The only discussion and broadcast on IRAQ without the usual suspects like Scholl-Latour ("Europe,especially Germany should have nuclear weapons, to counter the threat from Iran", said at FRIEDMANN) and other "specialist" garbage was some month ago on ARTE. There they had people from IRAQ, Bosnia etc... for discussion. And, believe me, they had different opinions about the toppling of Saddam and so on then the usual "specialists".
In the usual TV-news you will hear/see about "a bomb here, a bomb there", only bombs and chaos and so on, but nothing about the daily life in Iraq, not to say from the progress being made there.
They measure the USA -and why not- with very high moral standards, but forget to measure Schröder´s new friends, the Paris-Berlin-Moscow-Peking-axis with similar standards. I think, if you have chosen new friends, you should do that.
Forgive me my comparision, Wilhelm Klink, but if you compare the 300.000-inhibitant cities of Fallujah and Grosny, after beiing a war in the first and a "non war" in the second: In Fallujah some buildings and the tower of a mosque came down. Grosny completely consists of ruins.
Shortly said:
There are double standards for measuring friends and there is no balanced reporting on some issues.
Balanced is not meant like: If you have shown one side, you always have to show the other side. But completely ignoring, that there are also other aspects of one thing, that´s what you call propaganda.
Greetings from Franz
Posted by: | May 26, 2004 at 10:49 PM
The heck!
I didn´t give my email-adress with the post, which is signed "Greetings from Franz"
So now it is done.
Franz
Posted by: Franz Hoffmann | May 26, 2004 at 10:54 PM
News Flash
"CHICAGO—Americans across the nation declared Tuesday that, after 230 years of trying to prove to England that the U.S. is a worthwhile and relevant country deserving of the European nation's respect, they are officially giving up.
...
Many Americans expressed great relief at the declaration, saying it freed them from their personal struggles to defend America's legitimacy."
http://www.theonion.com/
I can relate.
Posted by: Karl B. | May 27, 2004 at 11:03 PM
Nur ein Nachtrag zu etwas weiter oben:
Das ist eine Verschwörungstheorie, die ich so noch nicht kannte. Die USA sind also in Forschung und Wirtschaft deswegen internationale Spitzenreiter, weil sie die Deutschen ausspioniert haben? Oder, etwas abgeschwächt, es hätte einen Effekt auf die deutsche Wirtschaft, dass die Amerikaner unsere Wirtschaft ausspionieren? Interessant. (Likudniko)
Dann schauen wir mal: Selbst der frühere CIA-Chef James Woolsey räumte ein: "Ja, es stimmt, wir spionieren eure Wirtschaft aus!" Ist Mr. Woolsey für Sie/Dich (welche Anrede ist Ihnen/Dir lieber?) auch ein Verschwörungstheoretiker?
Auffällig ist andererseits, dass die amerikanische Wirtschaftsspionage doch ein bisschen zu sehr in den Vordergrund gerückt wird. Z.B. die Geheimdienste von Russland, Frankreich oder China sind hier auch "im Geschäft". Das Alles hat nichts mit Verschwörungstheorien, sondern mit Realismus zu tun.
Posted by: SRK | May 28, 2004 at 03:44 PM