We would like to remind you of our posting of Dec. 19, 2003:
Top Ten Reasons Why the German Media Think Saddam
Should be Spared the Death Penalty
Not much to correct...
A classic from Cox & Forkum:
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The Debate
- "In much of Europe's public debate, the true meaning of human rights has degenerated into a tool that gives anti-Americanism an aura of legitimacy. The real, horrendous human-rights violations in the Middle East, North Korea, China, Cuba, etc., are largely ignored or relegated to news blurs on the back pages. For front-page coverage, you need an American angle." ---The Wall Street Journal
- "I discovered that European social democracy, too, was a kind of fundamentalism, rigid and doctrinaire, yielding what Swedish writer Johan Norberg calls "one-idea states"—nations where an echo chamber of insular elites calls the shots, where monochrome media daily reiterate statist mantras and shut out contrarian views, and where teachers and professors systematically misrepresent the U.S. (millions of Europeans believe that free public schools, unemployment insurance, and pensions are unknown in America). The more I saw of the European elites' chronic distrust of the public, and the public's habitual deference to those elites, the fonder I grew of the nasty, ridiculous rough-and-tumble of American democracy..." ---Bruce Bawer
- "In the European media as well as on the public stage, prizes and publicity go overwhelmingly to Americans who serve as witnesses against their own government and nation. (...) The defense mechanism is simple enough: "After all, they are saying this, too, so how can we be accused of anti-Americanism?" A similar phenomenon attaches itself to Israel, where "post-" or anti-Zionist spokesmen are given top billing in the European media." ---Josef Joffe
- "The point is to be aware that for many of the foreigners issuing what they claim to be "simply constructive criticism", the evidence shows that criticizing America is all they do, criticizing America is all they ever have done, and criticizing America is all they ever will do." ---Erik Svane, Americans Anonymous
- "To get an impression, take a look at David's Medienkritik, a Web log in English dedicated, among other things, to exposing biased reporting on the United States in the German media. Be it stories about the war in Iraq, the conduct of U.S. soldiers abroad, American reservations regarding the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court or even the Katrina disaster, more often than not the German public is presented with a distorted picture. There are laudable exceptions. But generally the blows are low, and the public is left to form its opinion base on half-truths and false analyses." ---Julian Knapp
- "Negative sentiments and views have been driven not only - or even primarily - by what the United States does, but rather by an animus against what Europeans have believed that America is. While the politics, style, and discourse of the Bush terms - and of President Bush as a person - have undoubtedly exacerbated anti-American sentiment among Europeans and fostered a heretofore unmatched degree of unity between elite and mass opinion in Europe, they are not anti-Americanism's cause. Indeed, a change to a center-left administration in Washington, led by a Democratic president, would not bring about its abatement, let alone its disappearance." ---Andrei Markovits
- "Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery. Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness." ---C.C. Malzahn
- "The protests against nuclear weapons, for instance, concentrated on American weapons. The anti-war rallies were against American-led wars. The anti death penalty campaign focused on Texas. A pattern was emerging and has never seriously been altered. A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion - or to magnify those indiscretions - while leaving the murderers, dictators, and thieves who run other nations oddly untouched." ---Justin Webb
- The fundamental role of anti-Americanism in Europe in general, and particularly among those on the Left, is to absolve themselves of their own moral failings and intellectual errors by heaping them onto the monster scapegoat, the United States of America. For stupidity and bloodshed to vanish from Europe, the U.S. must be identified as the singular threat to democracy (contrary to every lesson of actual history)." ---Jean-François Revel
- "In five years there will be a different President and Iraq will likely be pacified. That would naturally have impacts on the strength of the resentments that have fixed themselves onto certain individuals in the present situation. But beneath the surface smolder the long-burning embers of latent anti-Americanism. It has a long tradition and will remain, also when President Bush is no longer in office and Palestine is peaceful." ---Lutz Erbring
- "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." ---Jeff Gedmin
Testimonials
- "...the best web guide to the German media is Davids Medienkritik." ---American Thinker
- "To David-- An army of you! Keep that slingshot ready!" Glenn Reynolds
- "The best blog on German politics" Andrew Sullivan
- "For daily commentary on the hostile German press, we direct you to Davids Medienkritik which we recommend reading on a regular basis." Geopolitical Review
- "I'm going to have to keep an eye on this gem of a blog."
- "David's Medienkritik is an essential read for a perspective on the European media."
- "By the way, Medienkritik is an excellent blog, and so I am adding it to the Daily Pundit blogroll."
- "I applaud David for his stance against the trashy media here in Germany"
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I know it may sound heartless to some...but, I just cannot stop smiling when I look at that comic.
Posted by: James W. | November 07, 2006 at 05:51 PM
11. He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.
Posted by: Pamela | November 07, 2006 at 06:00 PM
Recommended reading: Cesare Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene. http://www.constitution.org/cb/crim_pun28.htm (English), http://www.classicitaliani.it/varia/beccari4.htm#del28 (Italian)
The strongest argument is presented in the first two paragraphs:
1. The authority of the law is derived from the bits of liberty every citizen renounces to the state.
2. No citizen would grant the right to the state to kill him.
3. Therefore the state has no right to kill a citizen. When applying the death penalty the state is waging war against a citizen.
In the following paragraphs he argues that imprisonment is also a more effective mean of punishment.
Posted by: Wermut | November 07, 2006 at 09:53 PM
Wermut,
Just keep saying that over and over to yourself. For that matter why not say it to all your friends.
Posted by: joe | November 07, 2006 at 10:36 PM
Wermut... whatever you or I might think about it, the Iraqis are the only ones who have any say in what they do with Saddam.
And I suspect that they will execute him... not because of the Shi'ite majority, but because to leave him alive would keep him as a target for rescue by his followers. There would be endless bombings and hostages and other disruptions of society by his followers.
On the other hand, a dead Saddam can't be rescued or ransomed.
Posted by: LC Mamapajamas | November 08, 2006 at 01:21 AM
They need to execute him quick before congress cuts the funding. Here's where Vietnam comes into play.
Posted by: Mike H. | November 08, 2006 at 07:51 AM
German media like to change Bush's speeches:
WAZ: Die Todesstrafe für Saddam Hussein sei eine "große Errungenschaft" für die "junge Demokratie" im Irak, sagte Bush vor jubelnden Anhängern in Texas und später in Nebraska.
http://www.waz.de/waz/waz.infografik.startseite.php
He did not say this!
Not the death penalty was the milestone, it was the trial! It is a journalistic lie. I wonder who started it in the German media.
That's was Bush really said:
"Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal. (Applause.) Saddam Hussein trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law, and it's a major achievement for this young democracy." (Nebraska)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061105-3.html
"Today, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal for the massacres committed by his regime in the town of Dujayl. Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law -- it's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government." (Texas)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061105-1.html
Posted by: Gabi | November 08, 2006 at 08:37 AM
@Wermut aka moron
1. The authority of the law is derived from the bits of liberty every citizen renounces to the state.
There IS no liberty without law. I give you 3 examples of what would be permissable w/o law:
rape
theft
murder
Try and achieve 'liberty' without law. Now try to implement law without 'the state'. It is not 'liberty' we renounce to the authority of the state, unless you consider rape/theft/murder to be activities humans should have the 'liberty' to commit.
The law and the authority of the state that implements the law are in place in order so that we all may achieve the greatest liberty possible.
To be free of rape/theft/murder, etc.
I'll leave clean water for another post.
Posted by: Pamela | November 08, 2006 at 02:46 PM
Pamela,
Be kind to Wermut. It is a culture rationalization.
Posted by: joe | November 08, 2006 at 03:57 PM
@joe (hi joe!)
It is a culture rationalization.
Yeah, well, it's also stupid. I'm in no mood for stupid.
Posted by: Pamela | November 08, 2006 at 04:10 PM
Pamela,
No one said it was not stupid. Smart people do stupid things all the time. Need I point out to you the actions of what appears to be a majority of your fellow Virginians.
I truly think you must take a more positive attitude about these results. It should be an interesting show. M$M has their team in power now and they are going to have to report on what the home team is doing. That is going to be hard to spin much as they might try.
Besides the demos and the euros and Wermut still can hold out hope for stability in ME and in Iraq. That hope dies only when the trapdoor drops.
Remember the world was safer with Saddam. Iraq was at peace. Stability at all costs.
Posted by: joe | November 08, 2006 at 04:39 PM
@joe
Need I point out to you the actions of what appears to be a majority of your fellow Virginians.
Tell me about it. Allen ran one of the dumbest campaigns I've ever seen, and I've seen my share.
But it gets worse. Have you seen this?
HEZBOLLAH JUDGE ELECTED in MICHIGAN
I thank my lucky stars Virginia has a concealed-carry law.
Posted by: Pamela | November 08, 2006 at 05:53 PM
Pamela,
So do we here in GA. Being once from a small town near Roanoke and a classmate of Virgil Goode I tend to follow what is going on in VA with great interest. I use hit on Virgil all the time about being a demo but then again being a Republican in that part of the state was about as rare as seeing a spotted owl. He finally saw the light and did what I thought was the honorable thing – run as an independent and then the next cycle as a Republican.
Allen’s lost opens the door for someone better. I say this because to lose to Webb one really has to try and throw the election. I had the “honor” of meeting Webb when he was SECNAVY in Turkey. He was questionable then and it seems time has only confirmed my assessment. He is a real light weight but in the demo party he could be a raising star.
For me the friends and partners you choose says a lot about you as a person. So Webb has a new set of good buddies – Cerry, Durbin, Kennedy, Byrd, et al. I hope he enjoys them.
The next few years should be interesting. As so much of euroland wanted these results I hope they will be happy with the outcome. As they like big institutions a couple of the ones they hold dear might be on the endangered list.... WTO and NATO. Then there is Gitmo and Iraq. I do like the idea of bring the boys (and girls) home. Who do you think will feel the initial fallout of this decision. I can tell you it will not be Atlanta and probably not france as it is already a combat zone... the "youths" are at it again. The problem is they are so disorganized the french cannot find anyone to surrender too. The french just need to follow the lead of the demos. The demos will find someone I promise you.
Posted by: joe | November 08, 2006 at 06:45 PM
@joe
Who do you think will feel the initial fallout of this decision.
The 'neocons'. Replacing Rumsfeld may or may not be a good idea. But replacing him with Gates who: serves with Jim Baker on that Baker/Hamilton board; served under Brent Scowcroft (Condi's mentor), etc. - these are the 'realists' of the GOP.
Anybody who thought of Bush as an ideologue is going to have trouble explaining this one.
[Ah, you're in Georgia. I understand you got to vote on an amendment to your constitution to protect hunting rights. How did that turn out?]
Posted by: Pamela | November 08, 2006 at 08:13 PM
Pamela,
the most eminent thinkers of Enlightenment (some came to your conclusion) would admire your ability to treat such a delicate subject using such simple prose; excellent rebuttal!
Maybe I condendesed the argument too much; but according to Beccaria we (the citizen) agree that there are certain things we should not have the liberty to do (theft, rape, murder etc.), just as you said (but obviously either I had not made the point clear enough or maybe you did not understand it).
I am sorry to have bothered you in your narrow-mindedness, and I am disappointed that the quality of the comments does not reflect the quality of (some) articles on this blog.
Posted by: Wermut | November 09, 2006 at 01:25 AM
@Wermut
Pamela,
the most eminent thinkers of Enlightenment (some came to your conclusion) would admire your ability to treat such a delicate subject
What a hoot. Gimme 'delicate subjects', toy boy.
Sorry. I can sneer with the best of them.
Posted by: Pamela | November 09, 2006 at 10:26 AM
Pamela,
just checked back to read your reaction. Your insults do not bother me, I am not upset to be insulted by a sociopathic anonymous over the internet.
On November 8, Ray D. wrote:
>>We would also like to address the following: American conservatives have clearly been most interested in this site, there can be no denying that. But this site is and should be for everyone and anyone interested in stronger transatlantic ties, because everyone, regardless of party or political leaning, should be concerned about the problem of anti-American prejudice in Germany and around the world.<<
I will continue to read the blog, but the Stammtischniveau on the comments page is too low for me.
Posted by: Wermut | November 09, 2006 at 06:43 PM