And the Strongest Ally Award Goes to...

[HoreTore]

Misconceptions? i wuld be more surprised if anyone has actually heard about us....

Anyway, it was a genuine question, not a sarcastic remark or anything like that. It would be interesting to hear an americans view of how he believes european media coverage of america is... Of course, I have no personal knowledge of the coverage outside Norway, I have no idea what the media further down the continent says.

[Fisherking]

Misconceptions? i wuld be more surprised if anyone has actually heard about us....

Anyway, it was a genuine question, not a sarcastic remark or anything like that. It would be interesting to hear an americans view of how he believes european media coverage of america is... Of course, I have no personal knowledge of the coverage outside Norway, I have no idea what the media further down the continent says.

I wasn’t trying to treat it flippantly but it is seriously complex. Events are covered from different points of view. You seldom see both sides of an issue. Same old thing you hear about American media only covering from a left stand point except it is more complex than that.

Here in Germany at times you get a more conservative view but the other side is still lacking.

You could also draw the conclusion that conservative whacked out churches are all you find and that is not so either. They just make a great deal of noise at times.

People there are often concerned about issues we generally don’t hear about, except maybe here in the back room.

And as you can see Americans tend to have a limited view of the world. That is not necessarily their fault directly but more a product of the insulation of their media.

[HoreTore]

But is this particular to America?

Or is it how foreign nations are usually covered? Examples:

Does our media coverage reflect the massive support in Chna for the communist party? Or the overwhelming Russian support for Putin? Have we seen many stories about the positive sides of those two regimes? There is a reason for their massive support, and it aint all fear...

What about the Balkans? The main western covage of the conflict is that the Russian-backed Serbs are Satans little helpers, and that they are the eternal evil while everyone else is a victim. How accurate is that view?

What about the European extreme right? Seen any other viewpoints than the usual negative one?

What about all the postives in Africa? 90% of the news from Africa are about negative subjects like wars, starvation, aids and poverty. Yet most of the continent is moving in the right direction, why isn't this reflected in the media coverage?

Etc, etc

[Fisherking]

Still it has wider coverage in Europe than in America. I doubt if many of them hear anything on African immigration or anything but Mexican immigrants for that matter.

However I do have to agree with some of your points. Just because some of us are aware of the issues it doesn’t go for most of the population.

[Brenus]

“our media coverage” It is only Media Coverage, not only; Media are in fact followers or their Societies prejudices. Or what their owner told them to sell in order to make money, or to facilitate an election of their favourite etc…
E.g. not too far: We all know why the road to Paris is lined with trees. (by the way it was to stop the peasants to bite on and cultivate little bit by little bit the road)...
Not Glenn’s fault as such, he just repeats what he was told by media turned in propaganda machine…
And the usual intellectual laziness, the lack of interest in real information and the attraction of a good joke and you just insulted without really knowing 90.000 brave French soldiers dead in fighting the Germans in may and June 1940.
And the fact that he doesn’t know any French means it is not really offensive to someone important for him…

It is difficult to know who start what. If the media didn’t sold what we are interested, they won’t publish or broadcast the result of these prejudices.
But they exacerbate the prejudices. That is true for the un-employed, all presented as leeches, all immigrants as illegal or coming just to exploit the system that of course is the envy of the World, and I can carry on for pages.

So, if somebody makes a comment that contradicts the main stream, that just illuminates as a flash the usual picture.

[a completely inoffensive name]

What are you people talking about? We are jealous of America?
Are you so completely detached from the world that you think Europe hates America?
I know like 5 people who have been or are in America now and I'm one of the jealous ones who wants to go, too.
Europe views America as the white knight in shining armour that saves the world from the evil of communism.
It's only because America (see? that's also hubris because you don't really mean Canada but the USA) doesn't live up to it and too often it shows through that America only cares about itself while claiming that it cares about justice that Europeans are angry at America.
If we truly hated America we wouldn't have all kinds of american brands, prefer american movies over our own ones etc. etc.
There are some who may truly hate America but I'd say they're a minority, perhaps a loud one, or perhaps you just never notice that because you don't even know where Europe is.

By the way, so many Americans give their location as "Vancouver, BC" or "Darlington, SC" which strongly appears to me that they either assume that USA is a given, as though everyone on the internet had to be from the USA anyway or else they don't count. If that's really how many Americans see the internet, it's no surprise that they are shocked and appalled when they nottice that there is a world outside America, where people give their location as "Hamburg, GER" for example, which also has access to the internet and doesn't worship America, willing to do everything it demands. Unwilling to see the internet as American-exclusive territory as well.

Wait, I understood what you were saying until you said that American's give their location as "Vancouver, BC". Why would an American put his location as a Canadian city?

[PershsNhpios]

Laaa fleur que tu m'avais jetée dans ma prison m'était restée! Fletrie et seche! Cette fleur... gardait toujours... sa douce odeur...

Did you mix sour milk with your porridge this morning Brenus?

[rory_20_uk]

People rarely want "news", the want "olds". People access news that panders to what they already think, and so is portrayed in a certain light. A GP friend of mine mentioned he makes it a point to read the Daily Mail every day. He said he knew what he thought, and he was more interested in knowing what his patients thought.

The Internet does make it easier to access a wider variety of information, but most people (myself included are inherently lazy).

[Brenus]

“Did you mix sour milk with your porridge this morning Brenus?”
No. If I had, the answer would be more, err, robust.

No, I just took your joke and put it as example for the media not been the only one to blame for prejudices and prefabricated idea.
I don’t see how the US media would have been able to launch this past hate campaign against the French without a shared prejudice against the French. And this is valid in UK as well.
This is due to a reading of history and the propagation of it in the common culture.

Try to say to an English that they didn’t won in Waterloo but it was Blucher, or that Trafalgar didn’t save England because the Grande Armée was not any more in Calais when it happened…

Try to say to a French that perhaps Joan of Arc wasn’t who she is said to be…

[Centurion1]

i was being flippant to an extent gentlemen......

[Greyblades]

Try to say to an English that they didn't won in Waterloo but it was Blucher, or that Trafalgar didn't save England because the Grande Armée was not any more in Calais when it happened.

Uh, actually Trafalgar isn't important to us because it saved England(which it didn't; it was a french attempt to end the blockade we had on them); it proved that we had a superior navy to both the spanish and the french.

Try to say to a French that perhaps Joan of Arc wasn't who she is said to be.

A woman who entered into medieval politics who ended up burned at the stake for her troubles and was glorified well beyond her actions to serve as an inspiration to french morale?

[Brenus]

"Uh, actually Trafalgar isn't important to us because it saved England" Yeap, but if you listen popular Radio Stations at each anniversary of Trafalgar you will heard that without it "we" (means you) would speak French...

[Brenus]

People rarely want "news", the want "olds". You do read Terry Pratchett, don'y you?

[rory_20_uk]

Of course. Vetinari talking to Mr De Worde...

"The truth will make you fret"

[Greyblades]

"Uh, actually Trafalgar isn't important to us because it saved England" Yeap, but if you listen popular Radio Stations at each anniversary of Trafalgar you will heard that without it "we" (means you) would speak French...

Hrm, that seems pretty misinformed. Truthfully, I dont think even the spanish, portugese and italians would be speaking french if they won, worst case scenario would be that napoleon would have had afew months breathing room while the rest of the British fleet was recalled from the colonies.

[Subotan]

"The French from time to time put forward requests which are all out of proportion of their strength and have in certain cases ... shown unreasonable suspicions of American aims and motives" - US Secretary of State Stettinius, 1945

Gosh. What a change, eh?