ABC News Finally Addresses the Obvious (after 3 Years)

(By Ray D.)

This is not on German media, but it is relevant to German media. ABC News just ran a video report questioning whether media coverage of Iraq is too negative. This is LONG overdue. Unless the mainstream media catches on to this conversation soon, it will continue to lose viewers and readers in droves because far too many people realize they are getting a negatively biased picture of events. WATCH THE VIDEO. (Note the loud standing ovation after the woman's initial question.)

The situation is even worse in Germany where the news is even more extremely biased to the negative. If omissions are lies then the German people are being lied to on a massive scale on Iraq.

UPDATE: I was flipping through the channels and stopped on MSNBC and the "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" program. I literally couldn't believe what I was watching. This had to be one of the angriest, vindictive cases of attack journalism I've ever witnessed, and that is saying something. Mr. Olbermann absolutely blasted anyone and everyone suggesting the media might actually be biased. His self-righteous diatribe of attacks was punctuated by a veiled threat to the effect of: "It's a bad idea to attack the guy with the ink factory." He also went on to claim that everyone who had "attacked the messenger" from Nixon on was "O" for forever. When I watch the sort of outrageous performance given by Mr. Olbermann tonight I am incredibly motivated to keep on blogging. It reminds me why I got into blogging to begin with. This will continue to drive viewers away from profoundly biased individuals like Mr. Olbermann and his program and into the arms of the new media: Turn off, Tune out, Log In.

Comments

[Scott_H]

Well, the Warrant Officer had the correct "money" quote (pun intended): basically, violence sells, "balance" and "reality" (in this case) don't sell. The news reporter on the piece basically agreed, and almost sounded as if he was thinking, "Yeah, and what's your point...that we shouldn't be doing what sells, but rather we should try to be fair and balanced?" (my apologies to Fox News).

That attitude, that modus operandi, is the *real* story.

[neocon]

I think this is good news, that ABC (from the MSM) starts to air stuff like this.

I also have a question.
Today I had a kind of dispute with someone about the US army in Germany "providing" jobs for a lot of Germans. And that if the troops would redraw, a lot of Germans would lose their jobs. Her argument was that the soldiers live in a "bubble" (they have their own gas stations, their shops, etc), so that there are not many German jobs involved.
Could someone give me a link concerning how many German jobs involves the US army being here?

Thanks a lot

[TigerHawk]

Keith Olbermann is extremely partisan. The only reason why we don't hear more criticism of him is that he has a very small audience.

[Mike H.]

TigerHawk, are you saying that Olbermann is doing 'Fair and Balanced Defeatism' on behalf of his party?

[George M]

neocon,

"Could someone give me a link concerning how many German jobs involves the US army being here?"

I had this same argument with some German bloggers 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I have replaced my old computer with a new one and lost the links with my old computer.

I will get back to you when I find my old links. However, before 2001, 250,000 Germans were still employed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Whole communities, like the training facility at Hohenfels, Bavaria, are still dependent on the DOD for jobs. If the DOD were to close this facility, the job losses would be devastating.

There is a weekly e-mail publication in both English and German put out by the German Aussendienst. It is called "This week in Germany." One edition, put out two years ago, was a four page advertisement put out by the German foreign ministry to convince U.S. politicians and decision makers on why Germany was still a "good choice" to base American troops. Ironic, considering the outrageous statements that Germany's key politicians say about the U.S. behind our backs.

To my knowledge, 50% of U.S. personnel live off base. The other 50%, when they are not deployed, are spending generously in German stores and restaurants. In the 70s, there was so much money spent by American servicemen, that Lufthansa used to fly millions of dollars into JFK Int. airport, NY. This set the stage for the famous 4 million dollar heist depicted in the movie "Good Fellas."

[Robert]

Poland has good beer, great sausages, beautiful women and a more strategic physical position in the world than Germany. So what's the problem in moving?

[Sock Puppet of Doom]

MSNBC and Kieth have about 5 viewers left. Really they don't have the numbers of even CNN who is also in low viewership.

MSNBC all liberal spin all the time.

[Don Miguel]

Sock Puppet is right. Olbermann has the lowest ratings of any news-related show. I think on some nights his entire audience would fit into a football stadium. Since I don't watch their shows I can only give a second-hand account, but I heard Bill O'Reilly (his competition) is petitioning for MSNBC to bring back Phil Donahue, the guy MSNBC fired and replaced with Olbermann. Donahue had better ratings but was fired for low ratings. :)

I just figure MSNBC must keep an even bigger idiot like Olbermann on the air than Chris Matthews, just so Matthews won't look like such an idiot by comparison.

[neocon]

George, thanks for the info and for getting back when you'll find the link.

[blablabla]

all this video shows is the incredibly low level of debate in the US. This "Warrant Officer"'s job is apparently to film positive propaganda for the military. Funny how right-wing whackos are paranoid about big government and state intervention, but not when it's on the part of the noble military - in this case represented by a semi-literate "journalist in uniform" and his white trash wife. Just reminds me of how happy I am to have moved away from that country after living there for nearly 20 years.

[George M]

blablablaaaaa

"and his white trash wife"

"Just reminds me of how happy I am to have moved away from that country after living there for nearly 20 years."

White trash? As compared to your new neighbors?

http://cdn-30.cdn.buzznet.com/assets/users10/njoe/default/large-msg-114293592559-2.jpg

Then again, there are some pretty good real estate bargins in Europe:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kazil/etzweiler.html

I fully understand why you had to leave the U.S.

[joe]

blablablaaaaa,

A wise move on your part. I am sure you are much happier. In fact, I have never met an unhappy German.

Your departure opened up an opportunity for someone else who wanted to be in America. This you should be proud of. You have done a very good deed.

[MarkD]

blablabla,

What class, insulting a man's wife. If you can't debate the facts, change the subject. If you can't change the subject, attack the messenger. If you are afraid of the messenger, attack his wife?

I'd argue that the reenlistment rates from Iraq make a strong case for reality being different from what is being reported by the MSM. If you want to try to convince me differently, stick to the facts.

[George M]

AOL usually has a very liberal slant to its news reporting. They did a poll among their readers on whether or not media coverage of the war has been fair. Check out the results:

http://news.aol.com/dailypulse/032306?id=20060323102509990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I think this issue has hit a major nerve in the U.S.

[George M]

neocon,

I found an article in Deutsche Welle about anticipated base closings:

"A study by the University of Trier showed that the two bases alone contributed about €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) to the local economy in 2001 and support about 27,000 jobs in the region."

This article is talking about Ramstein and Spangdahlem, which are Air Force Bases. The 1.7 billion and the 27,000 jobs are most likely doubled or tripled by what the Army contributes.

The rest of the article can be found at:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1299315,00.html

[neocon]

Thanks a lot, George.
Exactly what I've been looking for.
I guess there are not many magazines writing about that in Germany.

[Scout]

@neocon & george: Particularly fascinating was when during the 90's drawdown, a number of German politicians at the Länder and local levels argued that the Americans should keep the air bases in RLP open because of the positive effects on the local economies. HOWEVER.... they shouldn't be allowed to fly or station any aircraft there.
I had to deal with some of these people. It. was. simply. unbelieveable. As it was, we ended up closing 3 out of 5 in RLP: Hahn, Zweibrücken, and Bitburg went away. At that time, Bitburg had the highest operating costs of any fighter base in the USAF.

[Don]

HOWEVER.... they shouldn't be allowed to fly or station any aircraft there.

It's the perfect solution don't you see?!!! German jobs are sacred and must be protected at all costs - particularly with the bill footed by the US taxpayer.

But at the same time the bases might be used for immoral purposes - such as fighting wars Germans deem to be illegal.

So this is the perfect solution - keep the jobs going but no planes. The German workers don't have to work as hard that way.

I'm going to ask the same quastion I always ask when this kind of proposal is made: What is in it for the US? What do we get?

The answer is always the same, that they never considered that facet - and never will.

[neocon]

@Scout:
I am not surprised to hear that from Germans.
This way, they have the jobs, and the "Amis" have no planes
Tipical win-win situation ...

[Tyranno]

I don't know if it made it into the U.S. media but, several years ago when the conversation about pulling the U.S. bases and troops out of Germany was initiated, I was living in Stuttgart. The German media ran a number of stories of a dozen or more local mayor's, with bases in their districts, getting together with lobbiest and flying to the U.S.A. to make their case for NOT CLOSING THE BASES before the U.S. Congress.

Much like in the U.S.A., what is in the Deutsch MSM daily often (usually) does not correspond with the reality in the streets.

As the medienkritik points out and proves here, daily, the bias in their media and the U.S.A. media, interestingly, goose-step in the same direction.

Tyranno

[Pat Patterson]

Keith Olbermann is like the kid in the padded helmet waving a plastic sword. His parents dearly love him and protect him but still don't let him play outside, use scissors or be left alone with his younger brothers or sisters.

[legion]

You don't need to be intelligent to work in the media. As with jihadis, it's better if you're stupid.

According to the news media, one fine sunny day Bush decided out of the blue to start a war, for no apparent reason other than he thought it would look good on his resume. Oil? Well, Saudi Arabia has more oil, and Venezuela is much closer, so oil as a rationale is questionable. No, it was a capricious and inexplicable decision. Sum it up in two words, "Bush bad." Once you reach that conclusion, everything else you read in the media follows.