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.
hey anonymous kid-
Yeah, the US does have some ghettos, and yes some people in Houston are fat. Man, have a seen some huge and fat people all over bavaria, so we all know fat people are eveywhere.
Unfortunately, what you see in miami is a mix of lunatic Haitians, Dominicans, African Americans,as well as lunatic Columbians and Brazilians.
There are indeed many people from all over the third world tht have come to the US, and have no abiltiy to handle their own fredoms and follow the laws.
Unlike the Turks, Morrocans and others in Gemrany who are looking to blow you up, here you just might lose a wallet. I could name over 1 dzen palces in berlin that you'd get a turksih knife in your arse if you visitid there, so please make a point that is a bit less juvenile.
Your comments are pretty funny in that everyone I have ever met in Germany has always asked me about where I live " Aren't you afraid of the "brown man" while living in LA"? It always made me laugh my ass off, becausse they were really referring to the "blacks".
All of them, and you, need to go out and visit the world more often.
As far as me being proud- yes, I am very proud of what the US stands for, and I am very proud the the US knocked the living hell out of germany 60 years ago, but I am not very proud that we foolishly gave you money, and stood beside you in germany while we re-built your country, helped you with democracy and kept the Soviets from taking you over. Man, that was the dumbest damn thing the US ever did, and it's 85 billion in todays money overall that went to europe.
And all of that money and re-building has done nothing but turn germany into a primarily backwards, economically crushed, and ideological starved, and intellectually impotent place here in modern times. You aren't ever going to get another check from the Uncle you now spit at from below his ankles. Prove to the world you have ANY capabilitiies within Gemrnay to get things done on your own, junior. Only then may I become impressed.
Posted by: Pato | January 10, 2005 at 05:19 PM
yeah thats indeed a country everybody would like to live........haha
Hey, kid, haven't you noticed how many people do want to live here in the US? How much immigration we have?
How many Germans applied to emigrate to the US last year? And how many Americans applied to emigrate to Germany? We're not perfect, but more people would like to live here than anywhere else.
Still don't like the US? That's fine! You're welcome to your opinion. As for me, I've been to Germany and had fun there. It's a nice country to visit. I like the US more, but that doesn't mean I have to shit on anybody else's country. What's your problem, bozo?
Posted by: hap | January 11, 2005 at 05:07 PM
Pato, our anonymous friend had the bad luck to visit America's fattest city, so ordinarily I would cut him or her some slack and say that the sample size was just too small to support the conclusion. However, our anonymous friend also picked #3 on the list of worst US crime rates for large cities. With a second uncanny selection, I begin to suspect bias. I could just as well go to the middle of the Rhine and conclude that Germany was under 5 meters of water.
A wise man once said that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
Posted by: Mitch | January 11, 2005 at 06:04 PM
@ Anthony:
"Do Germans tend to uncritically believe what they read in the papers?"
Well, I´m afraid they do. They believe what is said in the mainstream media, e.g. the FAZ has good reputation. And the two tax-payed TV-channels are even said to be more objective and of higher quality than the private ones. But their reports are very often highly anti-American. All this sounds, as if I was not German, but in fact I am. The way the German media talk about the U.S is a shame, but are they to blame or do they simply say what most Germans like to hear? Did the media create anti-Americanism? No, it existed long before. But do they reinforce it? Yes, undoubtedly, yes. Why is anti-Americanism so popular in Germany? I guess, I will never understand.
Posted by: Karin Quade | January 14, 2005 at 07:01 PM