GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Anti-American Bias in the European Media — same as it ever was

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Given the happenings in Massachusetts and New York this past week, I had expected to blog more today on gay marriage. But, then again, I had expected to blog last week on the eHarmony lawsuit. For each story has much to do with the current situation of gays in America — and in our political system.

But, today after receiving an e-mail from a blog I enjoy, Davids MedienKritik-Online, which offers perhaps the best coverage of the anti-American bias in the European media, it struck me not only how that bias contributed to Europeans’ twisted views of our great nation abroad, but also how similar the attitudes of the European media elite were to attitudes I experienced in Europe approximately twenty years ago when I lived in (then-West) Germany and France. That good blog offers a must-see short two-part video report “on anti-Americanism in European media.”

In my post on the run-up to the French presidential election (won by the unashamedly pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy), I noted that while the “young French intellectuals . . . looked down on America . . ., young French professionals” were fascinated by America, “eager to learn” more about our nation and to associate with Americans. They looked up to the United States and wished their land were more like ours.

It was the élites who scorned us, often based on false images of — and inaccurate information about — our land. The report on Davids MedienKritik confirms that things haven’t much changed in Old Europe. As I learned about the latest European coverage of our homeland, it was as if I was hearing repeated the conversations I had had with European intellectuals and students from universities and secondary schools across the western sections of the continent.

One German high school student, while berating the United States for its involvement in Central America, heralded (à la Michael Moore) Cuba for its excellent health care system and vibrant economy. At least he acknowledged the political repression, but remarked that economic and social progress was more important than freedom. Without even touching his contention that Cuba had a sound economy, I commented that a German living fifty years previously could have used the same argument to justify the Nazi regime. That silenced him. And it stunned me he hadn’t made the connection until I brought it up.

Not long after my encounter with that young (and actually rather fetching) German (at the youth hostel in Perpignan), I met another German (not nearly as fetching) at the youth hostel in Verona. Stunned to learn my nationality after hearing me speak German, he naturally assumed that an American who could communicate in four languages would not have a very high opinion of the then-incumbent American president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

This young German assumed that Americans had elected Reagan because of their animosity toward other nations — and toward the less fortunate in our own land. He had never previously spoken with an American about the election of the greatest president of the second half of the twentieth century. Nor had he read anything about the United States from the American media (not that that would have been much help).

Like his more fetching fellow citizen, he was dumbfounded (again in the denotative and etymological sense of he word) by my arguments. He did not expect an American to offer a defense of the Gipper in nearly flawless German (while occasionally pausing to to communicate in Italian (or French) with the others at the hostel dinner table).

It was amazing how little both Germans knew about America, yet how strong their opinions were. The former didn’t understand that the Gipper’s policy was to shore up democracy — and fight tyranny — in Central America. Were it not for the bias of their teachers and professors and the anti-American tilt of their media, these Germans might have had a less harsh opinion of the United States — and a greater understanding of its policies, domestic as well as foreign.

Perhaps, the European media elite are so biased against us because of their knowledge of history. They have read about how Europe dominated the world, economically, militarily and culturally, when America was just a backwater. And they resent that the United States has become the world’s strongest nature while their fellow citizens love the American cultural product while (by and large) scorning their own.

Or maybe they resent that we freed their lands from Nazi tyranny. Whatever it is, this short report sums up the bias of the European media.

Please, take the time to watch both segments. And you’ll wonder, as do I, at the narrow attitudes of the European élites. You’ll question why they so hate the nation that, after freeing them from despotism, helped rebuild their nations — and defends them today against the threat of Islamo-fascism.

Were it not for the media bias in Europe, the people there would likely have a better opinion of the United States. And pro-American (or the less anti-American) parties might do better at the polls. Christian Democrat Angela Merkel would likely not have needed to form a coalition government with the Social Democats in order to become Chancellor.* And Sarkozy’s victory margin last month may well have made the Gipper’s two landslide victories seem like cliffhangers.

– B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriotWest@aol.com)

* though her relatively pro-American Christian Democratic/Christian Social Union coalition now polls much better than the more anti-American Social Democrats.

Comments

  1. By the time that WW2 ended, the most hate America broadcasts that I every heard were coming from Radio Moscow. Even though we had just saved their ass from the NAZI, it did not mean that they were going to be our friend. At the same time our news media and even our president was referring to the Communist dictator as Good Ole Uncle Joe.

  2. One German… heralded (à la Michael Moore) Cuba… At least he acknowledged the political repression, but remarked that economic and social progress was more important than freedom.

    Need I comment? Could anything better sum up what’s so f*cked up with the Germans?

  3. As for why they hate us: We’re largely people who left them. I.e., who rejected them. Then proceeded to show them up, over and over, in so many ways. What we have historically stood for (a.k.a. freedom from government tyranny) is one giant criticism of their ruling classes’ mindset. That we’ve been so successful, compounds the injury. We largely created the world they’re now forced to keep up with.

  5. Sorry this has nothing to do with your post, but I just read about the murder of Aaron Hall and how no one is covering the story. Basically some teens in Indiana tortured and murdered a man because they thought he was gay. They are going to use the “gay panic” defense. Here is a site with loads of information:

    http://bookshop.livejournal.com/834653.html

    Someone should be paying attention to this and no one is.

  6. As someone who has lived in Europe for awhile, I find it odd that so many Americans think of Europe or even the individual countries as having one attitude toward Americans.

    My experience with Europeans was their attitudes towards us, like ours towards them are multifaceted. And I have to say that their media is terribly biased, but no more so than ours is. If you didn’t know that there were significant minorities of French and German people (around 35-40%) who were in favor of the US invading Iraq in 2003, then you weren’t getting the whole story from our media. And of course the German coverage of Iraq consisted of finding any story of civilian casualties, especially pictures of bloody, injured women and children for the front page. I saw plenty of it. It’s not that those stories weren’t true. But that they weren’t reported at all in the US at the time. Certainly Germans are anti-war, but we can hardly fault them for that. We wanted an anti-war Germany and we got one. We should be glad that we didn’t wind up fighting World Wars III and IV between German and France/Britain for the second half of the 20th Century.

    But I think the biggest fallacy that I hear in the US is that Europeans are anti-American. I didn’t find any personal ill will. In fact virtually every person I met (traveling extensively in Business class on the German, Dutch and Scandinavian rail systems) knew and liked Americans and many even had relatives living here. Not only that, I found that Europeans knew what was happening in the US to a far greater extent than Americans know what is going on in the rest of the wrold. I did find a lot of instances in which they had completely misunderstood what was happening. (and honestly explaining the electoral college is not easy) But most of all there are cultural differences that make understanding each others policies difficult.

    And one last thing. A lot of their entertainment is from America. Most, to be honest. And it gives them a grossly distorted idea of how we live. I know that deep down they probably realize that not all 20-something Americans live like the cast of friends or that Ewing Oil and Denver Carrington are not representative of corporate America, but that does color how they think of us.

    It would behoove Americans to read a few foreign papers and see current events from a foreign perspective. It’s not that they are right and we are wrong. Not at all, but sometimes it is informative to read a different take from people who are not so directly involved in our politics. You also find a lot of stories that are barely covered by the American media. They have to make time to cover Paris Hilton’s every movement after all.

  7. #6 – I have to concur. I visit Europe at least once every couple of years or so, and I have never encountered any overt anti-American actions with one exception – a Left/Commie demonstration in Greece on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks where about 50-odd protestors screamed “Down with America.”

    And what was the typical man-on-the-street reaction to these doofuses? Rolled eyes.

    And Houndentenor is right – read the foreign press once in a while (Daily Mail, The London Times, Le Figaro et al) and you’ll see stuff there that our MSM never covers. Back in the 1990s, they had more on the Clintons’ scandals than anyone here would admit to. Talk about us losing respect in the world…

    Aside: Houndentenor, are you a singer by chance? Just wondering – your handle is colorful. (Reminds me of a heldentenor.)

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  9. I don’t care what the Europeans think about us… it isn’t like I think a whole lot about them. They are a dieing breed and we’ll have to deal with Islamic European Countries in the future.

    Frankly, I can’t wait until the first one does go Islam, it may wake the others up.

  12. #10 – Hey TGC: I only eat baklava, I don’t make it. However, my mom does.

    I’ve never visited Tarpon Springs, but I’ve heard about it all my life. One of these days I’ll make it out there.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  13. I think it’s extremely naive to still believe that any American president after WO2 has implemented democracy in any country. The truth is that despots like Pinochet, Videla, Duvalier and Trujillo all received extensive support from the US government. They weren’t by any means democrats, and elected leaders were often toppled to install despots alike them.

    I am convinced that you are the one that is badly informed about US policies. In a nutshell, your country is just leeching on third and second world resources, just like some European countries did in the imperial era.