Davids Medienkritik

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Another Interview Rip-Off

One of our commenters points out the following:

"Check out the classic SPON bait and switch in this interview with economist Jagdish Bhagwati. In the blurb after the headline, which SPON usually reserves for the heavy propaganda, we read, "Im SPIEGEL-ONLINE-Interview wünscht er sich von der Administration mehr Mut zur Autonomie... und ein Ende der schleichenden Amerikanisierung." ("In an interview with SPIEGEL-ONLINE he expresses the wish that the (European) Administration would show it is serious about... putting a stop to creeping Americanization.") "Creeping Americanization" is usually a code phrase for the introduction of "U.S. social conditions" as they are represented in the alternate reality of SPON propaganda. But wait! Bhagwati doesn't quite mention "creeping Americanization" in the usual SPON sense. Let's have a look at the actual interview:

Bhagwati:  ... Die einzige echte Kritik, die ich an der EU habe, ist dass sie in gewisser Weise zu amerikanisch geworden ist.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:  Wie das?
Bhagwati: Sie will anderen Ländern zu oft ihre Sichtweisen aufzwingen. Beim Europäischen Parlament gibt es die Neigung, anderen Staaten zu sagen: Klar wollen wir Handel mit Euch, aber Ihr müsst das und das und jenes dafür erfüllen. Ihr braucht Öko-Etiketten oder wir belegen Euch mit Zöllen. Wenn Ihr im Indischen Ozean fischt, bitte nur mit bestimmten Netzen, damit keine Schildkröten darin verenden - denn dann gibt es Sanktionen. Das ist eine Art von Neokolonialismus. Beruhigt Euch! Es geht hier um arme Länder, die ihren Weg zu demokratischen Werten und einer funktionierenden Wirtschaft suchen. Sie werden schon selbst darauf kommen, was richtig ist. Sie wollen jedenfalls nicht von der EU herumgeschubst werden, auch wenn sie noch so gute Absichten hat.

Translation:
Bhagwati:  The one real criticism I can level at the EU is that, in some ways, it has become too American.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:  (Perking up their ears) In what way?
Bhagwati: It wants to force its point of view on other countries. One often sees a tendency in the European parliament to say to other countries, sure, we want to trade with you, but only if you fulfil this, that, and the other condition. You need European certification, or we'll impose fines on you. When you fish in the Indian Ocean, please, only with certain kinds of nets, so you don't kill any turtles by mistake - otherwise we'll have to impose sanctions. That's a form of neo-colonialism. Calm yourselves! We're talking about countries that are trying to feel their way towards democratic values and a functioning economy here. They will eventually do what's right on their own. In any case, they don't want to be pushed around by the EU, no matter how good their intentions are.

Voila! "Creeping Americanization" has suddenly been redefined to mean an "American" insistence that other countries not rape the environment in the process of acquiring goods they sell to us. Since this is the form of "creeping Americanization" SPON must have been referring to in its propaganda banner, does this mean the editors want the EU to stop trying to force Kyoto down our throats? Just asking."

Indeed. The assertion that Bhagwati comes out against "creeping Americanization" in the interview is nothing more than bogus interpretation intended to please and attract the Hate-America audience. In fact, Bhagwati is talking about trade practices - not about the social phenomena associated in Europe with "Americanization."

UPDATE: A commenter writes:

"I always laugh when I hear Europeans talk about Americanization. How about the centuries of Europeanization of the planet that have left an indelible mark on the entire globe? European intellectuals seem very comortable exporting European culture and ideas but then balk when someone else exports their culture and ideas to their shores."

The "Americanization" fear-mongering in Germany and elsewhere certainly is ridiculous. In many cases it is the result of cultural arrogance and condescension on the part of many Europeans for what they view as inferior or superficial American "(non)-culture" and "way-of-life."

By the way: Who is holding a gun to anyone's head in Germany forcing them to eat at McDonalds, buy blue jeans, or listen to hip-hop? These are all free and voluntary choices made by European consumers - who then turn around and cynically blame Americans for "forcing" their culture onto others - as they busily export European culture to every corner of the globe. The McDonalds that have sprouted up around Germany like so many mushrooms are not there because anyone in America forced fast food on Germans - they are there because Germans can't stuff Big-Macs and french fries into their faces fast enough. That is the plain truth - enough with the reflexive blame-America crap.

Another reader recently emailed us the following:

Did either of you see the HR1 Stadgespräch "Raus aus Afghanistan?" on TV yesterday? It was about whether Germany should pull out the Tornado fighter planes. The guest opposing the planes was a (former?) officer pilot (Jürgen Rose, Oberstleutnant ) who .. and this was shocking ... spewed cliché'd anti-Americanism in a manner that was unbelievable! He was like a paranoid, delusional, and, frankly, crazed man. But the biggest shock for me was that the VAST majority of the audience was enthusiastically applauding him when he REPEATEDLY said things like: hypocritical imperialist völkerrechtwidrige USA. Of course, no word from him about how the Taliban attacked the US first, and that the US doesn't kidnap civilians and cut their heads off, like recently happened to the poor driver of an Italian reporter.

How stupid do the Germans have to be to not be able to differentiate: Iraq invasion = questionably wrong, Afghanistan invasion = couldn't be more obviously right!

I can't tell you how depressing this was for me. To see how many Germans are thankless, ignorant, and thinking only of their own (temporary) peace. I am disgusted!"

Unfortunately, we can't find an online link to the actual discussion he is referring to - but this does not surprise us at all. After all, a majority of Germans want their troops out of Afghanistan. In other words - the oft repeated mantra that Germans are only against Iraq is nonsense. So much for the German commitment to the war on terror. Perhaps we can find our German troops a more safe development project with the Girl Scouts a little closer to home.. (Posted by Ray D.)

Hessian Broadcasting Discovers the Inhumane Israel / Der Hessische Rundfunk entdeckt das unmenschliche Israel

(Deutsche Version: siehe unten / German version: please scroll down)

English translation by Ray D.

Hessian Broadcasting Discovers the Inhumane Israel

Apparently Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting - part of the public radio system in Germany) knows no moral boundaries in its criticism of Israel. The commentary from Bettina Marx (sic!) which follows – broadcast by Hessischer Rundfunk (radio) on 22.12.2003 – finds parallels only in the anti-Semitic hate mongering of the Arabian media. (The transcript of the commentary was provided by Hessischer Rundfunk - I couldn't find the commentary on the web site of the Hessische Rundfunk.)

Lonely Shouters in the Desert – Soldiers Refusing to Serve in Israel

The soldiers of the Israeli commando unit Sayeret Matkal are the elite of the elite in the Israeli army. A small group of talented and highly motivated soldiers who have been through a difficult selection process
to be accepted into this unit directly under the command of the general staff. They enjoy the limitless admiration of the Israeli people because they are the ones who risk their lives in dangerous missions to save others. For example the liberation of a hijacked airliner at Entebbe airport in 1976. They serve as the best example for the quote often repeated by the political and military leadership, “The Israeli army is the most moral army in the world.”

It is therefore even more meaningful that thirteen of these elite soldiers have now declared that they will refuse to serve in occupied territories in the future.

They have written in a letter to Minister President Sharon that they can no longer lend a hand to maintaining a regime of oppression over millions of Palestinians. A regime of oppression that threatens the future of Israel as a democratic, Zionistic and Jewish state.

Additionally, they no longer want to carry out their reserve duty to protect settlements.

The thirteen soldiers are just a small minority within the Israeli army. A minority that also finds little support among the general public. Their open letter triggered outrage in Israel on both the left and right wings of the political spectrum. They are accused of undermining the democratic foundations of the state with their refusal to serve and with damaging Israel’s standing internationally.

But really it is exactly the other way around. The soldiers have aroused interest abroad because they embody the other Israel in the eyes of the international community, the peace-loving, humane Israel.

A German journalist makes little attempt to hide her differentiation between a “humane” and – opposite that – an, in fact, rather “inhumane” Israel! Comparable differentiations have not been heard in Germany for several decades.

At least for a few days the blurred-out pictures of the elite soldiers who couldn’t show their faces on camera replaced those well-known pictures which have repeated themselves for years of road-blocks, tanks, destroyed houses, crying mothers and dying children.

To eliminate all doubts: The “crying mothers” the “dying children” – Marx is naturally not considering the Jewish victims of Palestinian suicide attacks directed at civilians in cafes or supermarkets. And it really wouldn’t be hard to identify numerous examples…

All of the sudden it is once again there, the good Israel, the little Jewish state that was so admired because of its accomplishments, its courage and its people thrown together from all corners of the world.

It is certainly remarkable to hear the hint coming out of the mouth of a German journalist that “the little Jewish state” is inhabited by people who have been “thrown together from all corners of the world.” It might be worthwhile to Marx to get a hint as to which state “threw together” the people in Israel.

The “moral army of the world,” which for the past three years has shown only the face of a merciless occupying power, reappears, all at once, in the form of these courageous reservists who refuse to play along in this dirty game.

The only “dirty game” being played here is that being played by the Hessian Broadcasting commentator Marx. For the term “merciless occupation power” Marx has earned the “Yassir Arafat Blood order with Ribbon.” Doesn’t she know – or doesn’t she want to know-, why and against whom the Israeli army is protecting its own people?

They have put a mirror up to the Israeli people and what can be seen is hardly flattering: Women giving birth at road blocks, children who have been struck by bullets, men kneeling with bound hands on the side of the road. Dirty cities and narrow, crowded refugee camps, destroyed fields and greenhouses and uprooted olive trees.

Bettina Marx is noticeably a further regrettable victim of the frequently occurring loss of the ability to think logically on the part of leftist journalists when it comes to Israel. When the Israeli people – or any other gathering of people – looks in a mirror then it sees: itself. That’s how mirrors work.

And in the middle of the misery of the Palestinian territories rampantly growing Israeli settlements with red covered houses, green lawns and blue swimming pools.

Jews: there we have it again! While others are starving to death, they are indulging in luxury. All bloodsuckers and parasites! We are also thankful to Marx for the introduction of the term “wuchernde” (in English translatable as growing rampantly, extortionate, profiteering.) Associations arise in connection to Jews that were still self-evident and understood for our forefathers…

The Israeli public would still rather not look at these pictures. They still leave the elite soldiers standing there as lonely shouters in the desert. But when more people join them and start to shout, perhaps someday their voices will be heard.

Hessischer Rundfunk will see to that. A thoughtful, hopeful outlook.

Coming soon on Hessischer Rundfunk: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – What the Jews are planning for the long-term.” And after that: “Diligent hands working to build peace – a visit to the heroes of Hamas.”

You may want to communicate your enthusiasm about the commentary of Bettina Marx to the upper echolons of Hessischer Rundfunk. Here are some contacts:

Helmut Reitze is chairman of Hessischer Rundfunk.

Selected members of the "Rundfunkrat", a supervising council of the "Hessischer Rundfunk":

Moritz Neumann, Jewish Communities in the State of Hesse, Phone 0049 - 69 - 44 40 49 Fax: 0049 - 69 - 43 14 55

Volker Bouffier (Member of the conservative party CDU), Government of the State of Hesse

Link to this posting (English version): http://www.medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/hr.html

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