Ministry of Propaganda - 01/Feb/2005: "German Bashing"
[Previous entry: "Brightening up a Grey Sunday Morning"] [Home] [Next entry: "Employer vs. Employee?"]
German Bashing
Quality journalism by the Torygraph Telegraph: Germany forces unemployed to take jobs as prostitutes or face cuts in unemployment benefits. That's the general tenor of the report. And all over the blogs already, in particular the right wing American blogs. I wouldn't be surprised if I receive a few comments about it the next few days by friends and/or colleagues. There's only one problem with the report in the Telegraph:
It's badly researched, exaggerating what it really happening and at least partly outdated. Just try the research and comments from Snopes.com as well as this comment with some more research at MetaFilter (Thanks to Scott for the second link).
But then I'm not really surprised about this kind of reporting from the Telegraph. While I haven't experienced much (if any) anti-German hostility personally so far (apart from some of the usual football and Germans have no humour comments) in particular the more right wing and tabloid press is very quick at it. Some interesting pointers in these Exeter University pages about learning German (via Transblawg).
On the other hand some of the German press isn't much better. I don't read much German press any more, but if I do it's not uncommon that I'm appalled by the ignorance and prejudices I seem to encounter more and more often about the UK from German journalists.
So I find myself defending Germany over here in the UK and explaining the UK over in Germany. Disappointing either way.
End of entry
Entry trivia
- When writing this entry the weather was: cloudy
- When writing this entry I was listening to: BBC Radio Five Live (Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 4)
- I'm currently reading/have just finished reading this book/publication: Sunday Herald
- I recently visited this website/-page: Bloggerheads
- The last drink I had was/is: Milk
End of entry trivia
Advertising section
End of advertising section
Spread the word:
Do you like this weblog? Do you think others might be interested in it? Then please tell a friend! Thank you.