What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
I stumbled over this DR interview with Steen Mørup-Olsen and actually heard it all the way through. Mørup-Olsen is a 67-year-old Dane who’s been living in America for several decades, currently in Atlanta, Georgia. He moved to and has remained in America because he believed it gave him opportunities he wouldn’t have had in Denmark….
There’s an old joke about the liberal slant of New York Times news coverage encapsulated in a single representative headline: “World Ends: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.” TV2 is clearly trying to keep up with the Times. I can’t fault them entirely: they’re just following the lead of the United Nations, whose Secretary General António…
It’s the last day of August, so I want to take a moment to address one of the few things that’s always bothered me about Denmark. Here’s the Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition of autumn: Autumn, season of the year between summer and winter during which temperatures gradually decrease. It is often called fall in the United…
When an American says “ignorance of the law is no excuse” they usually mean that you’re not exempt from the consequences of breaking a law just because you didn’t know you were breaking it. For example, telling the judge you just didn’t know those speed limit signs on the highway were anything more than recommendations…
The election prognostication season has begun, and the focus seems to be narrowing down to two questions that have have no direct connection to policy or character. First: is there a silent majority of “shy Trump supporters” who are going to hand him a decisive victory in November (or whenever they finish counting the ballots)?…
An honest assessment that deserves acknowledgment. From my own American experience in theatre, radio, and publishing, the kind of self-awareness shown here by Peter Aalbæk is not something often encountered in the creative class. I’ll never forget my literary agent—a very nice guy—advising me before we embarked on a series of meetings with publishers, “Don’t…
The Democrat National Convention took place last week (and gave new meaning to the phrase “going postal”). A police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin a couple of days ago has led to more riots, looting, beatings, arson, and now some shootings. The Republican National Convention started on Monday and is still underway. And there’s still a…
In a move surprising no one, President Trump on Monday authorized the United States Postal Service (USPS) to remove public mail collection boxes (or “mailboxes”) throughout the nation. Consistent with his usual ineptitude, the president ordered the Postmaster General to focus the effort on a handful of collection locations in areas swarming with opposition activists. …
When I read an article like “Bidens rejse tilbage til fremtiden,” which appeared on DR’s website this afternoon, it isn’t the obvious bias that bothers me. It’s that there are only two possible ways that kind of bias can find its way through a newsroom and into publication as a news item, rather than an…
There’s a lot I object to in this Berlingske article (“Er der lys i mørket? Europæerne håber på, at den transatlantiske tåge letter, hvis Biden og Harris vinder præsidentvalget”) on Europe’s fervent hope for a Biden victory in November. The article can be summed up succinctly in a single sentence: “Many European heads of state…
Two items just caught my eye within a relatively short period, and taken together they illustrate some of the problems Danes and Americans have when trying to understand each other’s politics. The first item was a headline from DR: “Sundhedsministeren kan bestemme, hvad et mundbind skal koste – men han afviser at tvinge prisen ned.”…
Joe Biden said in an interview the other day that: Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly diverse attitudes about different things. You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration than you do in Arizona. So it’s a very diverse…
Google was all over the Danish news today. Here’s a summary from Berlingske (“Google ville forbyde lakridspiber. Nu har politikerne fået nok“): Sagen om DR og Google begyndte onsdag, da Google Play Team fjernede DRs børneapp »DR Ramasjang« fra deres digitale butik, Play. Ifølge en mail, som Googles Play Team har sendt til DR, og…
On August 3, The Daily Mail (UK) published police bodycam footage of the arrest and death of George Floyd. The video is just under nine minutes long. The New York Times ran an article on August 3 entitled “British Paper Publishes Police Bodycam Video of Floyd Arrest” and it dealt entirely with the fact that…
Surprising no one, Democrats and establishment media have begun to agitate for the elimination of presidential debates. The New York Times laid down its first marker with this opinion piece by Elizabeth Drew. It’s typical of the contemporary left not to argue the specific case at hand (Joe Biden should not debate Donald Trump), but…
“Don’t speak ill of the dead” used to be a thing. So did “Black lives matter.” Not at Berlingske, however. Not anymore, at least: “Kendt Trump-støtte fornægtede farligheden i coronavirus. Så slog den ham ihjel.” The “så” is a nice touch: is it the adverbial form meaning “then,” or is it being used as a…
Another day ending in -y, another Danish media “explainer” piece to help ensure the perpetual befuddlement of Denmark on all things American. This time it’s my old employer, the ostensibly “borgerlig” Berlingske. “FBI, coronavirus og kongresmedlemmer: Sådan vokser konspirationsteorierne i USA.” It caught my eye because I thought someone at Berlingske was on the ball. …