FAZ Journalist Blasts German Media on Cynical Iraq Coverage
Thomas Schmid, the political director for the FAZâs Sunday edition (FAZ = Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; conservative German daily) today gave an interesting and relatively balanced statement on the situation in Iraq one year after the war began. His initial remarks are critical of the Americans on certain points. But what makes his analysis refreshing is that it concludes with a cutting and insightful review of the German mediaâs Iraq coverage:
âI was really a supporter of the war. Why the situation in parts of Iraq is still so chaotic is really difficult to explain. The Americans are â contrary to what most here seem to think â not genetically stupid and they have at their disposal an impressive understanding of strategy.â âŠ
Americans genetically stupid...letâs think...where have I heard that before? Was it because weâre a mongrel race?
Note: The fact that Schmid finds it at all necessary to establish that âAmericans (are in fact) not genetically stupid, contrary to what most here seem to think,â provides non-German readers a sense of the brooding anti-American jungle in which the writer finds himself. âNonetheless the Americans have miscalculated on a number of things. The idea of establishing Democracy there was too naïve. I ask myself why the USA didnât behave differently: with the same pathos of freedom, but a little more skeptical. For example their almost blind faith in the Iraqi exiles, who were recognizably completely isolated in a homeland they in part no longer knew, amazes me. Why were the Americans so taken in by them? The USA is in fact a clever world power.â
Obviously this guy never heard of the Morgenthau Plan. Perhaps thereâs still time to implement it.
Taken in the context of the German media, Schmidâs critique of the USA is moderate and his praise of the USA as a âclever world powerâ is downright rare. Schmid reserves his harshest criticism for the last two sentences of his statement in which he turns his attention to the German media. His concluding remarks are a painfully accurate indictment of the German mediaâs widely cynical Iraq coverage over the past year: âWhat has angered me for a long time is the triumphant tone with which the German media reports every death, every Shiite demonstration, every call to resistance. There is a complete lack of interest in the positive developments which also exist in Iraq and which are perhaps more important than the bad news that benefit the media.â
Maybe some American papers could run this too.
Then again, isnât that what we at Davidâs Medienkritik have been pointing-out for months now? It seems that some in the mainstream media may finally be catching on⊠|