Okay, since
a.) a couple of weeks ago Andrew Hammel of terrific German Joys linked to this blog
b.) the other day fabulous
c.) this blog ist on #7 in search results of a certain CCP-friendly search engine, if you enter my name and
d.) today Ray D. of Davids Medienkritik featured one of my entries which was meant as a contribution to the first German-American blog Carnival and is now one to the second blog German-American blog Carnival...
...well, I think it's time for a restart of this blog, exactly three months after it was set on stand-by due to Christmas holidays.
Problem with running my own English blog is my enduring lack of self-disclipline, plus I'm shying away from blogging in English.
FYI, since February 24, 2006, I'm a regular contributor to Bissige Liberale, a German blog, whose name roughly translates to "sarcastic liberals" ("liberal" in the European meaning of this term, that is, meaning "business-friendly" and "free markets cheerleading"). That's kinda odd, since I'm a member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which makes me far loony left to U.S. standards. Um, I think, I'm a maverick. Just call me John McLieberman ;-).
As for Davids Medienkritik, I want to make clear that I'm not too happy with their media coverage in general and with the SPD coverage in particular. In his entry concerning my post, Ray D. mentioned the anti-American spin in Germany's media. Well, Davids Medienkritik responds to this biased spin by "counter spinning" and that is certainly not my cup of tea.
4 comments:
Regarding Davids Medienkritik: He responds to the German media "anti-American" bias by presenting the truth.
FOX News presents both sides of an issue so the viewer can decide. Before FOX News, the MSM presented their news slant–take it or lump it. Appreciate the truth. Enjoyed your posts.
Patrick
Atlanta
Patrick,
thanks for your comment. You have a point, as it is possible to come near(er) to the truth by reading both the DM entries and the source they quote.
But still, I'd appreciate it, if David & Ray would be less vitriolic.
I don't know what vitriolic comments you are refering to, but nothing David has written in English would be vitriolic by American standards. Using the same word that is.
You can certainly feel his bitterness and sadness at the monopoly German media has on information.
My view is that the best results occur from adversarial methods. It doesn't matter how biased you are, so long as your arguments win out against the arguments of the opposition, who is just as biased in the opposite direction as you are.
In this contest of ideas, this competition between truth and falsity, the winner takes the prize. And David is winning, in the ideological realm.
What the German media does, doesn't seem any different than what the American media has done in the past. Which is to say one thing, and then say that they are not biased when they say it.
That is not the truth, but what is more important, a person like you Marian, will believe more easily in someone who is said to be independent than someone who has an obvious strong opinion in one way that might differs with yours.
Psychologically, it is a way of bypassing a person's mental barriers to disbelief, and programming their internal beliefs to be consistent with the facts as reported. Not all the facts, just the facts as reported.
This produces a skewed perception. A person will never know or believe his perception is skewed, however. Until that person sees something with his own eyes that contradicts what he thought was true before.
The difference between David and the German media he writes about, is probably the same difference between Fox News and the other cable and print networks. Fox News presents their positions very clearly, they are not equal, they focus only on fair and balanced. Balanced in the sense that two lawyers are balanced, and just as biased in one way and the other. Alan and Colmes.
The other news networks don't present their bias clearly, they hide it, they use deception to lull people into false beliefs and selective reporting. That is the difference, and it makes all the difference in the world in manipulating a person's beliefs.
"Business-friendly"? Marian, in my opinion people who like free markets are quite far from that. At least if they are honest.
@ymarsakar
I don't know which monopoly you are talking about. What "David's Medienkritik" actually sports is a kind of selective perception. I could show you some people who will tell you convincingly enough that the German media are in the hands of evil capitalists and US vassals, hiding the truth from the masses which otherwise would have started revolution already.
Generally, this "when you disagree you are brainwashed" thing is a very poor start for a discussion.
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