SPIEGEL ONLINE: Breathtaking Article on Anti-Americanism by C.C. Malzahn

(By Ray D.)

UPDATE: THE ENGLISH VERSION IS UP. This is an absolute must-read.   

As we have mentioned before, every great once in a while - either Henryk Broder or Claus Christian Malzahn are allowed to post a token article on SPIEGEL ONLINE that goes against the usual anti-American grain of the magazine. The latest installment by Claus Christian Malzahn, entitled Böse Amis, arme Mullahs, is absolutely ground breaking and a must read. It is stunning in its honesty and directness - harshly criticizing the results of a survey revealing that 48% of Germans believe that the US is more dangerous than Iran - with only 31% believing the opposite. Yet, as we detail below, it omits a key element.

UPDATE #2: Katja Gloger - not exactly an unbiased bystander - also chimes in with concern at Stern over the poll results showing far more Germans see America as a threat than Iran. This has been a truly stunning week.

MAJOR PROBLEM: Neither Malzahn nor Gloger address the key role German media, particularly SPIEGEL and Stern, have played in drastically raising the level of anti-Americanism in Germany over the past several years. In that sense they and their colleagues remain - (Thomas Kleine Brockhoff comes to mind) - in a deep "state of denial." Introspection and self-criticism are painful - but to ignore the horrific malpractice and anti-Americanism in German media over the past several years is, in a sense, to play the audience for fools.

We love your article Claus Christian: But if you want to be completely honest - how about mentioning your own publication's major role in promoting German anti-Americanism?

Simply put: Although we welcome the discussion of anti-Americanism, it is disingenuous for journalists working for SPIEGEL and Stern to preach about the problem of anti-Americanism and point the finger of guilt at others without a large and hefty dose of self-criticism. Until that honest self-criticism comes - little will change in German media. Mr. Malzahn correctly notes that: "Anti-Americanism is the wonder drug of German politics." He fails to mention that it also the highly profitable wonder drug of German media - as the covers above graphically illustrate.

Token articles like these will continue to pop-up like ephemeral mushrooms whenever polls reveal the most disturbing symptoms of the Hate-America disease that has infected so many. In fact, a very similar round of token articles appeared in 2003 when polls revealed that 31% of Germans under 30 believed that the US government could have been behind the September 11 attacks. Then as now, German media wringed their hands in embarrassment and fired off a few critical articles denouncing the most extreme manifestations of Hate-America. SPIEGEL even dedicated a cover to the problem - but nothing fundamentally changed - and the German media was soon back to business as usual.

Endnote: We do have to give Mr. Malzahn some credit: He has consistently written against anti-Americanism in Germany. In his article, he even criticizes the beliefs held by many SPIEGEL ONLINE readers. Unfortunately, he does not take the painful and necessary step of criticizing his own publication. It is hard to criticize yourself, your colleagues and your entire field - no question. But, in this case, the problem will never truly be addressed or go away until someone in the field openly admits that the problem exists - as Eberhard Piltz and others did in private interviews. Finally: We have been documenting and debating the problem of anti-Americanism in German society and media for four years now - why has it taken German media so long to awaken to this problem?

Endnote #2: If you understand German - and truly want to test your sanity - check out the Hate-America comments written in the SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum on the Malzahn article. Every Hate-America opinion, conspiracy theory, resentment and one-sided, profoundly biased rant under the sun has legs on this forum.

Comments

[Mir]

But even more breathtaking is the mentioned study about which you can read more here (also in German). I'm ashamed and disgusted and can only apologize to our American friends for the state of mind that a large part of my nation displays. I know it's certainly not my fault, but anyway - it's a sad thing watching our continent go mad in a time where the free world needs to stick together just as much as it needed during the cold war.

[Pamela]

Not finished translating in my own head, but this is classic:

Even worse: The Americans won the 1945 war. (If also only with German aid, Einstein and so on).

and this -

the vilest abuses, the insanest conspiracy theories - however that is all cost-free and serves above all German self-righteousness.

[garydausz]

I am absolutely amazed to see an article like that in Der Spiegel. Pigs actually do fly.
What I am even more amazed about is the cristal clear logic of this article which is like coming straight from my heart. I wish something like this would be read as a commentary in Tagesschau but this would be too much balance expected from german state sponsored media.

[blue]

The translation is up on the Spiegel site: "Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs"

Articles in Stern (German):
Deutsche halten USA für bedrohlicher als den Iran Coverage of the survey.
Antiamerikanismus - Schämt euch, Deutsche und Amerikaner! A comment by Katja Gloger, Washington
The latter article chastises both America and Europe/Germany, but to very different degrees.

Grund zum Jammern aber hat niemand. Die Deutschen nicht, die sich eigentlich ordentlich schämen müssten über solche Umfrage-Ergebnisse und endlich aufhören sollten mit ihren scheinheiligen Grundsatzdebatten über das "gute" Wesen deutscher Außenpolitik. Schamesröte müsste es vor allem den Regierenden in Washington ins Gesicht treiben: Denn sie haben Vertrauen und ihre Rolle als weltweites Vorbild in eiskalter Berechnung verspielt. Endgültig.

[FranzisM]

One thing Malzahn got wrong, there is at least one German who never set a foot into the U.S.A.

Here´s some striking insight into German geopolitics which i found over at the Mujahideen:

My Grandpa's Right of Return

...

My grandpa believed that being a Palestinian was a blessing. "You cannot be entrusted to defend a more virtuous cause than the cause of Palestine, unless Allah has blessed you greatly," he once told me.

I often wondered what kept the old man going. He lost his home and the pride of his life, his land, and was forced at gunpoint to haul his family away and leave the village of Beit Daras where they once lived happily. He spent the rest of his life, getting old and tired in a refugee camp, for many years in a tent, then in a mud house subsidised by the United Nations. ...

The year of his death was a year that many older refugees also passed away. They were buried in a graveyard surrounded by the graves of younger refugees, mostly martyrs who fell throughout the years. ... I often wondered why old, dispossessed and ailing grandpa died in a mud house with a smile on his face. We will all die one day, rich and poor, citizens and stateless, Palestinians and Israelis, presidents and refugees. It’s that final and decisive moment, when grandpa gasped his last breath that counts. ...

Grandpa never returned to his village of Beit Daras, but I know that one day my children will.

This is a fate which is so well known in millions of German families, however with the striking difference that in the place of the United Nations mud hut, there was a home in the newly developed Schlesierstraße, and instead of the Hamas paramilitary cemetery there is a grave in the burial ground of their new civilian community. And, of course, there´s no need to postpone the holiday to Breslau for another generation. If you too have a refugee in your family, this is an instructive example how the promise of restoration of a status quo ante is a ball and chain. If Germans had the same "right of return" that Palestinians are subject to we would be much worse off.

[Ted S., Catskills, NY]

That bit in bold at the beginning (which reads like it was written by the editors and not the author himself) bothered me: »Eine Neuaflage von Re-Education«? I got the impression the editor was subtly claiming that the author was calling for propaganda.

Or does "Re-Education" not have the same connotation in German as it does in English?

[blue]

I don't see that connotation. Re-Education is a reference to the necessary re-education of the German people after WWII as carried out by the US: democracy 101, morality 101, ... and I think a German reader will read reference like this.

[WhatDoIKnow]

blue, thanks for the links.

I read some of the comments from the second link ("Anti-Americanism, shame on you Germans and Americans"), and all of them were stating clearly that they have no reason to be ashamed of the anti-Americanism in Germany. As usual, anti-Americanism is the fault of Americans.

One of the commenters was truly generous: he didn't blame the American people for the failures of the Administration because he understands that...the American people are influenced by the propaganda in the American media... Which propaganda could he mean? Well, the pro-Bush propaganda, what else...? Thank Gore for the Internet; that's how I found out from a German that the American media is a propganda tool of the current Administration. In spite of this completely ignorant statement, I bet the person who made it considers himself well informed. How couldn't he be? The German media educates him.

Are those comments just unfortunate exceptions? According to polls, those extreme, unfortunate opinions are becoming the norm in Germany.

[WhatDoIKnow]

57% of the Germans between 18 and 29 consider America to be more dangerous than Iran. I am wondering how much of that percentage is the result of indoctrination in the educational system.

[Hector07]

@Franzis,
Could your thread hijacking attempts be more blatant?

And by the way one thing you said: "One thing Malzahn got wrong, there is at least one German who never set a foot into the U.S.A." was quite ironic when combined with a line from Malzahn's story;

"The 19th-century German author Karl May taught us about the American Wild West..."

Karl May had never set foot in the American West before writing any of the books which are so popular in Germany. Never. The farthest west he ever got was Buffalo, New York. As someone who comes from the Southwest, I'm always amused when Germans have wild ideas about our region they learned from reading Karl May. They are always shocked to learn that most Americans have never heard of him and that his work would have no credibility here since he never set foot in the American West he writes about.

[Hector07]

Regardless of the surrounding issues (such as Der Spiegel and Stern's complicity in anti-Americanism), it is truly a groundbreaking event when an article like this gets published.

Now the question, how will the average German react to reading something like this? I have many friends in southern Germany who have told me that they realize how unfairly we are treated in their press (and by the SPD, Greens, PDS). What I wonder is how the northern and eastern people would...

[jwtkac]

man i just read the article - this is great. i agree with ray that he's sidestepping the role of the media, but i think it's implicitly clear that the media plays a big role.. either way i'm quite happy to see this article. step by step.

[jwtkac]

and the last line rocks. "maybe the americans should take the germans at their word for a change..."

[jwtkac]

@hector

do you have any friends in northern germany? i have a bunch of northern-german friends and they'll tell me the same thing, to my face at least. it's a lot harder to bash a country when you're talking to somebody from there who's clearly not whatever you're trying to make the country out to be.. actually the only real anti-americanism to my face i've received was in austria.. austria, incidentally, presides over an even more ingrained sense of self-righteousness vis-a-vis the united states than germany.

otherwise nearly every european i've met just tells me they "love america but hate bush," which is, as we all know, a total mound of garbage.

[Hector07]

@jwtkac,

" it's a lot harder to bash a country when you're talking to somebody from there who's clearly not whatever you're trying to make the country out to be.."

On the contrary, I've had people from all over Germany have no problem saying incredibly distorted and ugly things right to my face (but I do not count them as friends). Their usual response is to caveat it with "but you are not like the rest of those fat, stupid Americans..." My personal favorite is to listen to what people say about us when they think we don't understand them. Its so incredible I've considered producing a documentary about it.

As to your question, the only German friends I have north of the Main River are in Osnabrueck. They are just fine but I can't be sure if I can extraoplate this to areas even further north.

I agree on the Austrians and put the Swiss in the same basket of Scheinheligkeit. Having lived all over Europe for 16+ years, I find the German-speaking area to be the most vocally anti-American. Luckily, it also includes pockets of some of the friendliest, hate-free people as well. The problem is that the latter is being choked out by the former.

[ex-blond]

Well, sometimes it’s hard ...

... Just a few months ago I had a discussion with a young, very well educated and very successful american acadamien, us citizen whose points were the following:

- the USA is the most dangerous country in the world
- Bush is dumb and dangerous
- Saddam Hussein was not that bad and was certainly not a mass murder
- the US is fighting an imperialistic war in Iraq for oil
- America is a greedy and egoistic country, human life means nothing at all in politics
- the US is fighting a war against Islam
- terror is caused as a reaction to US behaviour in the world
- Iran has all rights to build an atomic bomb because other countries possess it, too
(about Israel: - why doesn’t Israel (!) agree to a two-state-solution with the palestinians, why don’t they let them live in peace? and: - anyway, it’s obvious that Israel has no right to exist as it was founded on stolen land and though we can’t rewind history – moving to Canada or somewhere else wouldn’t be such a bad idea)
- and by the way, „what is the difference between an American soldier in Iraq and a Nazi-German Wehrmacht Soldat, I mean, both of them are fighting a war“?
- ... (and a lot more) ...

I tried to explain my points of view (that were quite opposite). In the end I was told that I sounded „a little extreme“. *sigh*
It’s not only the Europeans, it’s also (a huge part of?) US citizens who consider the US to be a sinister and dangerous country.

[Helian]

@ex-blond

"I tried to explain my points of view (that were quite opposite). In the end I was told that I sounded „a little extreme“. *sigh*
It’s not only the Europeans, it’s also (a huge part of?) US citizens who consider the US to be a sinister and dangerous country."

The core beliefs of this particular flavor of ideology are the same wherever you go. Just as there were American Communists and Nazis, there are now American anti-Americans, and many of them, in fact. We always had a large contingent of "blame America firsters," so it's not surprising. They make things easy for the European media propagandists, who just say, "What? We're just repeating what the Americans are saying themselves word for word."

[Hector07]

@ex-blond,
Yes, in America there is a small group of Chomskyite types who tend to see something wrong with just about every facet of our country. The difference in Germany (and much of Europe) is that such distortions and caricatures are trumpeted by the mainstream media until they become the "truth."

This is the problem an American in Europe is that you are constantly accused with conjecture but no matter how many verifiable facts you respond with, its often not enough. Competing with their media machine (which produces so many dogmatic anti-Americans), is often just too much. Thanks to this "David" of a website, we have some chance against their "Goliath" of raw media power.

[blue]

--- OFF-TOPIC ---

@icarus
You had asked about info on the legal side of the Melissa case, I have posted some info on the thread
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/bret_stephens_o.html
That's all I can come up with, I hope this is a good enough starting point for you.

@all
I have addressed it before, participating on this blog eats up more time than I can afford, I am sorry. There have been very interesting and informative exchanges, which I value, even in cases where we disagreed. Farewell and good luck for the future to everyone.

Yours sincerely

blue

[Consul-At-Arms]

I've linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/03/re-its-safer-to-hate-us.html

[Chrisimo]

Every once in a while a usually Anti-American publication in Germany publishs an article like this. Why? To appear balanced? I think it's more a way to test the reaction of the audience.
One reason for the Anti-Americanism in the german media is that it is widely accepted by the german people. And as long as this kind of article gets 70% or more negative reactions, we won't see a change of policy by the german media. They want to sell copies, after all, and Anti-Americanism sells much better than neutrality or even Pro-Americanism.

[T_R]

@Chrisimo

You know, I was thinking the exact same thing.

[QuagmiredInTheBRD]

@Chrismo: "I think it's more a way to test the reaction of the audience."

In my opinion SPIEGELONLINE is merely doing some market reasearch and using Malzahn as bait. By publishing a commentary which is diametrically opposed to their usual drivel, they flush out responses from their dedicated readers such as this one from "BernieBerlin" (see page 4 of the SPIEGELONLINE forum dealing with the article):

"Sorry Claus Christian Malzahn, dieser Kommentar passt nun wirklich nicht in den Kontext des Spiegels. Schließlich hab ich das Nachrichtenmagazin abonniert, eben weil dort kritisch mit der imperialistisch geprägten US-Politik umgegangen wird."

Armed with comments such as the above, SPON can resume business as usual.

[Chrisimo]

@Quagmired

That is what I wanted to say.

[promachus]

I think it's too convenient. All along they played this media game of slamming the Bush administration because both the American Left( including the Democrats) and the European media are in cahoots. The American Left would argue in America that the US is losing its respect and standing in the world, while at the same time colloborating and abetting with the European elites to turn the heat on. The European establishment would gamely go along, offering the bribe to the American people, they would start respecting Americans and everything would be hunky dory once again, if only if they chucked the warmongering neocons out. Remember John Kerry's slogan "Respected Abroad."

Now, that the Democrats have at least gained back the Congress and the Senate, the Europeans have to make at least some noises to show that they were only opposed to the Bush admin not to Americans in general. But what they forgot was that their cycnical game is not entirely in their hands. And a public, fed with falsehood after falsehood will not be controlled like a faucet where anti-Americanism can be turned on and off based on the political conditions. The German media is actually surprised that they may have done some lasting damage and the German public has not seen through their elitist parlour game but has taken their Anti-Americanism at face value and imbibed it completely.

This means that if the Democrats are in power (how can they not be? according to their thinking), they will not be able to shepherd the children back into the happy fold and it will be embarassing( to say the least) to everyone concerned and hence, the soul-searching, which may be sincere but essentially ineffective because it does not address, dare I say it, the root causes of Anti-Americanism in Europe.

[Mir]

Maybe some journalists in the German media are waking up? Many Europeans (many Americans as well) still live in ivory towers and are unable to recognize the new and dangerous challenges in the post-cold-war time. But maybe - just maybe - and hopefully more and more will wake up before it's too late?

[joe]

Mir,

Those must be some good drugs you have...

Remember these are our allies.

[Chrisimo]

A very good response in the comments section of the Spiegel article. I hope it is okay to post articles in german?

"...wir belehren lieber die Amerikaner, weil es einfacher und vor allem 'politisch korrekter' ist als sich über Mullahs und Damenunterwäsche zu belustigen. Denn Belehrung bereitet uns nur dann Vergnügen, wenn man selbst nichts zu befürchten hat. Die deutsche Lust an der Belehrung ist nämlich zugleich feige. Sie scheut sich vor ernsthaften Konsequenzen. Sie dient nicht dem ehrlichen Ziel einer Verbesserung der Zustände, sondern lediglich der moralischen Erhöhung des Belehrenden durch die Erniedrigung des Belehrten. Gerade die Mullahs reagieren empfindlich auf westliche Belehrungen. Das läßt man dann lieber, bevor es ungemütlich wird. Die Amerikaner sind ein viel leichteres Opfer, zumal man sich mit Belehrungen Amerikas auch stets in einer großen Gesellschaft Gleichgesinnter befindet. Da ist es natürlich gemütlicher. Und es erfordert auch keine große Geistesleistung, die Amerikaner zu kritisieren: Man plappert einfach das nach, was schon tausendmal gesagt worden ist, ob am Arbeitsplatz, auf Studentenpartys, oder in Internetforen, und das deswegen auch nicht richtiger wird.

Aber die Welt braucht unsere Belehrungen nicht. Was die Welt hingegen braucht, sind Menschen und Regierungen, die handeln. Wo gehandelt wird, enstehen Konsequenzen, die nicht immer positiv sind. Denn wer handelt, kann auch Fehler begehen. Wer jedoch nicht handelt und nur belehrt, kann folglich auch keine Fehler begehen. Und da wir Deutschen lieber belehren als handeln, begehen wir auch keine Fehler, und darauf basiert unser reines Gewissen, das uns wiederum als moralische Basis für unsere Belehrungen dient. So lügen wir Deutschen uns einen in die Tasche."

[Helian]

@Chrisimo

"...wir belehren lieber die Amerikaner, weil es einfacher und vor allem 'politisch korrekter' ist als sich über Mullahs und Damenunterwäsche zu belustigen."

It's heartwarming to see posts like that once in awhile. There have always been a few Germans like that posting on SPON, even in the worst periods of anti-American hysteria. It's not something you can take for granted. Not every country produces people like that. Germany always has.

[Chrisimo]

Helian

Well, perhaps too many of them go to the US. And we are left with all those anti-guys. :)

I thought this comment does a good job of showing all those who "only critizise" America what they are really doing. All those "but friends/allies should be able to criticise each other" talk. It's not criticising, which in my opinion is constructive, but rather lecturing, without offering an alternative and even worse: without doing someting on their own. I don't know if this is a typical german trait but I encounter it often and it's unnerving.

[Alex N.]

"By publishing a commentary which is diametrically opposed to their usual drivel, they flush out responses from their dedicated readers such as this one from "BernieBerlin" (see page 4 of the SPIEGELONLINE forum dealing with the article):

"Sorry Claus Christian Malzahn, dieser Kommentar passt nun wirklich nicht in den Kontext des Spiegels. Schließlich hab ich das Nachrichtenmagazin abonniert, eben weil dort kritisch mit der imperialistisch geprägten US-Politik umgegangen wird.""

I want to puke, to PUKE. I tell you I CAN NOT look into the comments sections of actually ANY given newspaper or my AOL internet provider because I have to avoid reading stuff like this unless I want me to go and blow shit up. It is HARD enough to encounter it in person, but there you can take it like a wind gust, or like a fart, or often rebuke it and earn stupid faces because arguments are gone and they didn't EXPECT any Aryan to take offense with it. When you see it WRITTEN however, it will be written there 5 minutes after, and it will be written there 1000 years after, at least in theory. And it doesn't matter whether you post a reply there or not, because you know that the same drivel is written several hundred times in any other place in almost any moment. It is an unremovable testamony to mental illness of the country.

What disgusts me the most about this commentary of "BernieBerlin", this little Nazi pig, is that he basicly dismisses the commentary simply because it doesn't fit the agenda. Never mind facing ANY of the facts or points brought up in the article. Land der Dichter und Denker, MY ASS. "But they bombed Dresden!" Oh yeah, they sure did. And here's a secret for the "BernieBerlins": The next bill is already written, too.

[Chrisimo]

Alex

I know what you mean. But if you think SPON is bad in that regard, you haven't read politikforum.de. Mostly left-wing (and communists), totally Anti-American and proud of it. Some sane voices but they are the exception. I encounter more positive opionions about America in gun forums and even when they are not Pro-American they are not blindly Anti-American either. Must have something to do with those guns :)

[joe]

these are our allies too...........remember that.

[Dan Kauffman]

If that article is a "ust read"one of the article links at the bottom it is a "ust read and memorise"

The West and Islam: "Hurray! We're Capitulating!" (01/25/2007)

This part floored me

"In 1972, more than three decades ago, Danish lawyer and part-time politician Mogens Glistrup had an idea that brought him instant fame. To save taxes, he proposed that the Danish army be disbanded and an answering machine be set up in the defense ministry that would play the following message: "We capitulate!" Not only would it save money, Glistrup argued, but it would also save lives in an emergency. On the strength of this "program," Glistrup's Progress Party managed to become the second-most powerful political party in the Danish parliament in the 1973 elections."

[FranzisM]

Hector07 - I do not think that the "right of return" is offtopic. Understanding what was done right and what was done wrong in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Nazis is decisive for understanding current German emotions towards America. I have brought in an example of something that was done right, so why are you hallucinating about me holding a virtual box cutter at your throat ("thread hijacking")?

I haven´t read Karl May, from what I know about his writings I would say he is on the level of those Americans who imagine Germany as all bierzelt and lederhosen. Karl Marx, who had a solid grounding in the Anglosphere, is a reliable source about the American civil war and the contemporary ideology that it was just a war over territory not values. And I do in no way resent Carl Schurz, to name an example of a German who set his feet into the U.S.A. and never wanted to come back.

I also could have made my opening statement about India. Then I´d have been offtopic...

[FranzisM]

Ted - "Reeducation" is a codeword that anyone in the post-war generation could drop to make old Nazis just go bananas. Doesn´t work very well these days anymore though.

Today, the efficiency of "Reeducation" may be questionable, American bloggers already describe the "Al-Hurra" experiment as a failure. Though it still operates a few antennas here, "Radio Free Europe" phased out its German language broadcasts with the end of the cold war, if they were be coming back tomorrow would that be a source of anti-idiotarianism?

[Mir]

What we needed is a big media outlet, preferrably a TV channel, that reports outside and against the biased mainstream that all others more or less follow. Ain't going to happen with our state-sponsored TV (they are maybe the most biased). But would broadcasting of alternative ideas be profitable for a privat company? Unfortunately, I'm not so sure that people would WANT to listen even if they COULD.

[Hector07]

@FranzisM,
Suggest you look up the meaning of the term "thread hijacking." Boxcutters and such hyperbole are not involved but changing the subject is...

"I haven´t read Karl May, from what I know about his writings I would say he is on the level of those Americans who imagine Germany as all bierzelt and lederhosen."

Genau! The problem is that millions of Germans are convinced his stories represent reality, leading even Malzhn to mention it. As for your comment on Americans who think of Germany in terms of bierzelt and lederhosen, it is interesting you bring it up. Germans never ask us what we think of Germany but are bold enought to tell what they think we think (I've been told your bierzelt and ledeerhosen thing dozens of times). What do most Americans actually think of when they think of Germany? Beer (yes, of which German advertisers in the US are quite proud), Cars (of high quality), engineers (German cars companies are always touting the brilliance of German engineering), hard working people (even though today some of us know this image no longer fits), and finally - they think of their ancestors since almost 70 million Americans are of German descent. Of course if they all knew how the German media portrayed us, the image would change quickly.

"Karl Marx, who had a solid grounding in the Anglosphere, is a reliable source about the American civil war..."

You can't be serious. Marx, who never set foot in the United States (or Canada) and wrote on the American Civil War based upon what he read in the London newspapers (when England was siding with the slave-holding south)? So someone sitting an ocean away, reading newspapers is a "reliable source?" It seems that you and I have very different criteria of what constitutes a reliable source of information. Again, it seems a caricature from afar determines how some Germans (including you this time) view my country.

[Walter E. Wallis]

We should have let the USSR have you. I thought East Germany was cute. I want us out of Europe and NATO and into an alliance of friends yesterday. Enjoy Sharia, wunderkind.

[german observer]

The article is quite to the point, but Ray is right when it stops short of mentioning the large-scale, systematic distortion that is taking place across the German media landscape. As Ray says,

But, in this case, the problem will never truly be addressed or go away until someone in the field openly admits that the problem exists

Through DMK, I have grwon aware of my own "blind spots". It's not easy to really shake the foundations - based on daily indoctrination - that your reasoning is based on. Excellent work by Ray, David, and posters like Helian and WhatDoIKnow is very helpful in this regard.

The point I would like to make is: Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Of course, SPON have an editorial system, and its alarm bells would explode in case Malzahn adressed the true and most important point: That a propaganda battle is going on, with SPON as one of its main representants. Malzahn probably came as close as he can get to the truth without being censored or pressed. At least that is my interpretation.

[Kakerlakenzüchter]

Dear Ray, dear commenters,

Let me preface this by saying that I am one of "these Germans" discussed by Helian and Chrismo before: I have always been thankful to the US for freeing this country from Nazi terror, for protecting us against Communist aggression and for generally championing liberty and free market values worldwide. And I DID go to the U.S. to found my own company, which ironically has brought me ack to Germany since most of our customers are based here.

Now, that does not stop me from being disgusted with the political landscape here. While I am certainly no friend of President Bush (I tend to be more of a Schwarzenegger-type libertarian...), the socialist, anti-market and pro-Sharia, pro-Dhimmitude leanings off modern day Germany are inacceptable to me. I am glad a webiste like this one exists - one that I can share with my friends to show them that there is another side to the biased news they find in the german media. (By the way: If you find the forum entries on the Malzahn article interesting, you should check out the entries on the next SPON article "Iran - Spiel mit dem Feuer" (to be found here: http://forum.spiegel.de/showthread.php?t=1386). You will find gems like "nein, ganz im Gegenteil. Abgesehen von der Schuldfrage (hier traue ich persönlich der iranischen Version zu) bei der Festnahme der Soldaten sehe ich persönlich diese anscheinend bedrohliche Situation positiv. Bei den Kriegstreiber der westlichen Lage wird in Kenntnis genommmen, das ein Gewaltanwendung gegen Iran eine für den Angreifer unvorstellbare Reaktion seitens Iran und entsprechende Verluste für den Westen mit sich bringen würde. Diese Tatsache würde hoffentlich hilfreich sein, um eine Wiederholung der Irak-Katastrophe zu verhindern und alle nach einer Denkzeit an einem Tisch zu setzen. Vosausgesetzt ist natürlich, dass bei der westlichen Lage einer Restanteil an Nachsichtigkeit un Vernunft übrig geblieben ist.").

I recently had the idea to found a German-American society to battle the problem of Anti-Americanism where it is bred in the first place: In school, with the so-called "68-er" teachers. If we had a couple of pro-American volunteers with a solid knowledge of History, Psychology and Political Sciences, we could offer schools in our neighborhoods to enrich their "Gemeinschaftskunde"-lessons with discussions about America. We could go to the schools, counter the arguments put forth by teachers and students and instill a different picture - by being open to discussion, not by being preachy. I'm sure young minds would notice the difference.

"What say you?"

- Markus

[QuagmiredInTheBRD]

@german observer: "Through DMK, I have grwon aware of my own 'blind spots'[...] The point I would like to make is: Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Of course, SPON have an editorial system, and its alarm bells would explode in case Malzahn adressed the true and most important point: That a propaganda battle is going on, with SPON as one of its main representants."

You are not going to believe this but even as a US citizen living in Germany since 1978 I, too, developed 'blind spots' with the assistance of the German MSM. The same "spin" from so many media sources must mean the reporting is accurate, right? DMK has been setting the record straight for 4 years.

As far as the Malzahn editorial is concerned, I stand by the position Chrisimo and I made: the editorial was a ploy to foment an opposing response from SPON's readership and generate anti-American solidarity and, additionally, give SPON an alibi when they are accused of anti-American bias. Thus, the Malzahn editorial is a sham.

[Mir]

What a sad irony: Now I hear some lunatics in the US think THEY have to listen to OUR media because all the American media is supposed to be controlled by the "evil" Bush. Is there any low the left will not sink to? Please don't elect these guys.

[joe]

I keep wondering what is wrong with the other 52%. All I can think of is they are not paying attention.

[benperry.net]

"Stunning" is not the breathtaking revelation that Der Spiegel has no official stance on America; it would be if this blog didn't.

[Helian]

@GO

"Through DMK, I have grwon aware of my own "blind spots". It's not easy to really shake the foundations - based on daily indoctrination - that your reasoning is based on. Excellent work by Ray, David, and posters like Helian and WhatDoIKnow is very helpful in this regard."

Thanks for the good words. I have a great many "blind spots" myself, and have even become aware of some of them over my life.

[WhatDoIKnow]

german observer

Thanks for your words, but I don't think I "deserve" them. I have become unfortunately quite aggressive over the last few years when discussing the bias in the German MSM and I don't think I will change anytime soon. As I said countless times this has nothing to do with the German media not praising America and/or Bush (such a media would get boring very quickly); it has everything to do with me being literally sick and tired of a media whose main purpose is ideology and propaganda.
When I left my native Romania the last thing I expected in Germany was a media, which in *some* respects was nothing but a polished mirror image of the old Romanian Communist media. Growing up in Communist Romania, I had absolutely no clue how many of the KGB-fabricated slogans I grew up with and was fed up with actually found their way into the hearts and minds of people in the free world.
That was one of the greatest shocks of my life, and when the other side (MSM) takes their gloves off in this ideological fight and ignores all the fair-play rules (like they obviously do), I certainly won't keep my gloves on.
I am certainly a nothing when facing the German MSM, but an army of nothings (or an Army of Davids, as Instapundit says) will eventually make a difference.

[Alex N.]

WhatDoIKnow wrote: "I have become unfortunately quite aggressive over the last few years when discussing the bias in the German MSM and I don't think I will change anytime soon."

This is the exact same problem I'm facing. I reckon it as a problem, since it stands against the reason why I'm pro-American and abhor Anti-Americanism in the first place: To advance the idea of freedom as this is the only idea which will bring peace for people. But I have met too much resistance on this path by now, resistance which I can now surely say simply stems from revisionism, hatred, envy and intended ignorance, so that I had to discover that there is an end to debate at some point. There is a point where it makes no more sense to believe in dialog. This point is where the other side is no longer willing to engage in honest debate, but where you face nothing else but hatred and ignorance for the sake of it. At this point, it is time to end the debate from your own side as well (it has already ended since long from the other side). It is sad, but in fact has it ever been different in the history of mankind? Bless him who has more firepower.

[Mir]

I know exactly what you mean. I wonder how long it will take and how high a price we will have to pay until our countrymen will realize that all these times they bashed our friends and emboldened our enemies. I fear it will be too late then.

Right now, the discussion about the British hostages is a "good" example that the European "idea" is non-existent in the hearts and minds of people, that the EU is unable and unwilling to protect her members and citizens and that the UNO is a bad joke. Maybe at least the Eastern European countries will learn from it.

[WhatDoIKnow]

Maybe at least the Eastern European countries will learn from it.

I believe they "get it", but the question is how long will they resist the influence of Western European anti-Americanism, now that most Eastern European countries have become EU members? I am afraid that at some point in the future they will succumb to this poisonous influence.
Already many Romanians in the younger generations, the ones in their middle and late 20s, are strongly influenced by anti-American "Gedankengut". (By the way, as far as I can tell, the most anti-American Romanians are the ones who live in different Western countries; most of them have fully embraced the common (lack of) wisdom). It's very much like in S. Korea - the younger generations don't care about the Korean War and consider the US the bigger threat than N Korea.