Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Denmark is xenophobic! (according to 60 minutes and Die Zeits)

Little Green Footballs brings a post about the CBS program 60 minutes reportage about Denmark. I did want to write about it as many Danish newspapers seams to be very offended by that program (though they are against the Danish government too). I've just been too lazy to get it out, so I just rip this off from LGF now:

WASHINGTON - The picture of Denmark presented by CBS and its 60 Minutes magazine on American TV as a country of aggrandizing, arrogant bigots, blond models and happy-go-lucky fools out of tune and touch with the real world has nothing in common with the country I call home. Moreover, it is home for immigrants from all over the world of all faiths and cultures who have found happiness and a safe haven for themselves and their families taking full advantage of what Denmark has to offer. They are doing much better than one would think after having watched Bob Simon’s story The State of Denmark on 60 Minutes.

This kind of journalism does not have much in common with the tradition of Ed R. Murrow or what his associate, Fred Friendly, taught me at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University when I took my degree there in the late 70ies. The snide asides and sarcasm that permeated the narrative do not mix with the high quality journalism I have learned to expect from 60 Minutes. What we got was a presentation so biased, distorted and corrupted by so many inaccuracies and innuendos that it was impossible to recognize Denmark. I am sorry to say it, but it is shameful for the profession that both Bob Simon and I belong to.

That's written by a well-known Danish journalist Samuel Rachlin (who also are jewish, family from former USSR). Also, Die Zeits, a german weekly magazine, recently published an article about Denmark's xenophobic tendencies. Amazing. Guess Denmark feels a little tiny bit of how it's to be Israel. Or jewish.

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