Joerg of Atlantic Review points to another interesting snippet from German media - a picture on the front cover (top center) of Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily newspaper from Friday with the headline: "Distorted Perception?":
The caption reads: "US President George W. Bush reminded war weary Americans to hold on in Iraq. In a speech on Wednesday in Kansas City, he said that it was about an ideological struggle in the Gulf state as in the Second World War and Vietnam. The speech was met with outraged rejection by Democrats and ex-military. They declared that the only real lesson from Vietnam was that a change of course had to be immediately implemented in Iraq. (Page 5 and editorial page)"
Here - as in an earlier SPIEGEL ONLINE piece - it is clearly implied that the voices of a few ex-military (most notably John Johns) represent the broader consensus among ex-military in the United States. Predictably, the Tagesspiegel caption completely fails to mention that a heated debate is raging over Iraq (and the most recent Vietnam comparison) in which many voices - including those of Democrats, ex-military and left-of-center intellectuals - support the surge, see success as a real possibility with sustained commitment in Iraq, and reject calls for imminent withdrawal.
Unfortunately yet predictably, neither the caption above - nor the articles that accompany it - offer anything but a one-sided - (you might say "distorted") - picture of the heated debate currently underway. The paper makes little, if any, mention of support for the surge and opposition to rapid withdrawal.
As is so often the case, Tagesspiegel seems more interested in reinforcing its readership's Hate-Bush, Hate-America tendencies than offering them an honest, objective overview of the diverse political scene in the United States. This type of media coverage - all too common in Germany - furthers the perverted, biased version of reality that has deeply encrusted itself in segments of the national consciousness. Many readers live in a world where Iraq is the worst disaster in human history. Nothing - by definition - can ever go right. As a result, any attempt to explain or report progress in Iraq (thereby breaking with four years of reporting nothing but failure, death, misery and defeat) requires shock therapy (as employed by Der Spiegel - "The US Military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe.") or a continuance of total denial (until exposure to established fact makes that impossible). It seems that - for the time being - Tagesspiegel will remain on the path of total denial.
UPDATE: A commenter on Atlantic Review writes:
"This is nothing more but the violation of one of the fundamental principles of journalism in democracy: The separation of news and comment (opinion)."
Indeed. Of course this isn't the first time we've noticed this problem...
Endnote: This quote from the introduction of the book Uncouth Nation by Andrei Markovits hits the nail on the head:
"The West European media report almost nothing that they associate with America in a neutral, matter-of-fact manner. Most things engender a palpable tone of irritation, derision, annoyance, dismissal."
Bingo.
Germany's newspapers and magazines would be well advised to print more articles like this one:
"If Iraq Falls
By JOSEF JOFFE
August 27, 2007; Page A11
In contrast to President Bush's dark comparison between Iraq and the bloody aftermath of the Vietnam War last week, there is another, comforting version of the Vietnam analogy that's gained currency among policy makers and pundits. It goes something like this:
After that last helicopter took off from the U.S. embassy in Saigon 32 years ago, the nasty strategic consequences then predicted did not in fact materialize. The "dominoes" did not fall, the Russians and Chinese did not take over, and America remained No. 1 in Southeast Asia and in the world.
[Iraq]
But alas, cut-and-run from Iraq will not have the same serendipitous aftermath, because Iraq is not at all like Vietnam.
(...)"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118817044606009284.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
Posted by: Peacer | August 27, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Mr. Joffe claims the dominoes did not fall. Certainly true if you ignore the existence of Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam and the millions who died or were imprisoned or driven from their nations by communist thugs. Unfortunately, Mr. Joffe is another intellectual elitist who has spent a little more time inside the beltway than is probably healthy for rational individuals. I only link his book because the first half is useful - the second half is essentially empty, high-sounding fluff.
Posted by: RayD | August 27, 2007 at 01:35 PM
Point taken, RayD. Many political intellectuals are an integral part of the so-called inside-the-Beltway crowd and therefore remarkably unable to put their finger on the profound discrepancies between theory and practice. At least he comprehends the potentially devastating implications of a world without America -- from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to the skyrocketing rise of Islamic fundamentalism. As far as my understanding goes, he makes a fairly reasonable impression in comparison with guys like Germany's Peter Scholl-Latour, one of the most deeply committed anti-American demagogues the world has ever seen.
Posted by: Peacer | August 27, 2007 at 03:46 PM
"rejection by Democrats and ex-military"?
The speach was in front of ex-military and they seemed to agree. There may have even been some democrats in the audience. Any outrage was from demoaparatchiks with their oxen well gored.
Posted by: Walter E. Wallis | August 28, 2007 at 05:31 PM
I may be wrong on the English end of this, but it's probably worth pointing out, just in case, that the words in the German title are a (layman's language?) reference to a sensory distortion as you'd have from a neurological or mental illness, or drug influence. I don't knoiw the correct English term for that, but "distorted perception" sounds too harmless. The German title is calling him pathologically nuts.
Posted by: othercoast | August 29, 2007 at 07:36 PM
Spiegel online ontinues to indulge in blasphemy:
http://www.spiegel.de/spam/0,1518,grossbild-955879-502960,00.html
Posted by: german observer | August 31, 2007 at 03:27 PM
Do the guys at Tagesspiegel have any views on the armistice that ended WW I? Nothing like balanced reporting to help with a nation's balanced view of the rest of the world.
Posted by: John | September 01, 2007 at 03:22 AM