What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
Show me a headline that tells me you’re one of Denmark’s ace U.S. correspondents without telling me you’re one of Denmark’s ace U.S. correspondents. Here’s the best-selling car in Europe and the best-selling in America. Americans are killing each other with giant cars. That’s yesterdau’s Berlingske’s headline over an article by ace U.S. correspondent Mikkel…
On September 26 last year—exactly five months ago tomorrow—a couple of underwater explosions 70 meters beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea caused three leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines. There is no question of the event having been anything but sabotage. Western governments still have no idea who was responsible. Given the resources available…
News of the collected works of Roald Dahl having been edited for sensitivity came to my attention at some point over the weekend. It was impossible to miss on the anglophonic internet. As culture war stories go, it’s a good one, but it seemed less significant to me than the one that was bobbing around…
There are fourteen independent nations in the world today that used to be Soviet states, and many more that were Soviet clients. If we focus on continental Europe, there are six countries that can be counted among the former and even more than can be counted among the latter. This map of 1990 Europe from…
Berlingske’s (ace) US and Asia correspondents, Mikkel Danielsen and Alexander Sjöberg, have joined forces to write an article that dares to ask the question America’s renowned intelligence agencies appear to want them to ask: was the whole Chinese spy balloon thing just a nutty misunderstanding? The question is right out there in their headline: The…
A guest column in today’s Berlingske is a good reminder that when anyone in the politics or media says freedom of speech is important, but we also have to respect religion, they’re full of it. The column is entitled “Jesus thinks whatever you want.” Its author is Anders Stjernholm, identified by Berlingske as a comedian,…
Anyone who’s followed the news this week, in American or in Denmark, knows about the Chinese Balloon spotted drifting over Montana a few days ago. “Spy balloon!” cried America. “Weather balloon!” shouted the CCP. I didn’t follow the story very closely because it seemed awfully trivial and stupid, but that just goes to show how…
In its Sunday opinion section, Berlingske ran a “debate interview” with Alex Vanopslagh, the chairman of Denmark’s libertarian Liberal Alliance party. The first three sentences set the table: On the bookshelf in Alex Vanopslagh’s office in Christiansborg stands a copy of a dangerous book. A book whose author can get both (communist green party) Enhedslisten’s…
Substack Note: there’s new content over at Nagan of Copenhagen, including a lengthy article featuring a substantive interview with the apparently uber-woke ChatGPT. Anyone who’s followed this blog for any length of time knows that Berlingske Tidende’s U.S. correspondent Mikkel Danielsen might as well be a paid shill for the Democratic National Committee. I’ve chronicled…
Rasmus Paludan is back in the international spotlight. I’ll just cite the lede from Danmarks Radio (DR): Rasmus Paludan burned a Koran in Stockholm on Saturday. Now Turkey will not support Swedish membership in NATO. Danmark’s Foreign Minister called that both shaming and shameful—the buring of the Koran, obviously, not a sovereign nation responding to…
Over the weekend I started up a Substack publication. If you’re interested, you can access it here: NaganOfCopenhagen. It was work enough just to get the settings configured, so the only post over there for the time being is an introductory one that’s probably entirely redundant to anyone who’s visited this blog more than a…
I’ll pick off right where I left off yesterday: Analysis: Biden’s advanced age is suddenly a political strength. A frail old man does not look like a criminalKristian Mouritzen, Berlingske.dk, January 18 Kristian Mouritzen, the author of this bizarre piece, appears to be acting as the very personification of Danish media. Everything he gets wrong…
First, a quick reminder of Michael Crichton’s Gell-Mann Amnesia phenomenon: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or…
The poor darlings don’t know what to do. Here are screencaps of actual news searches I performed on “Biden” on Berlingske.dk and DR.dk at about noon (CET) on Tuesday, January 17, 2023: Berlingske: Danmarks Radio (DR.dk): Berlingske’s most recent news item that’s actually about the American president is already three days old (“Another five classified…
Danmarks Radio (DR) ran an interesting article over the weekend: You’re being cheated more than you think: here’s how to see through companies’ green liesKasper Madsbøll Christensen, DR.dk, January 14 The ostensible purpose of the article is to help readers recognize when to be skeptical about product claims of climate friendliness. The answer is always,…
The headlines aren’t splashy. DanmarksRadio (DR): Biden after find of secret papers: “I don’t know what’s in them.” Berlingske (using Ritzau): Find of secret papers at previous office surprises Biden TV2 News (using Ritzau): Find of secret papers at previous office surprises Biden Politiken (using Ritzau): Secret Papers from Biden’s time as vice-president found in…
In the most (and maybe only) memorable line of the movie A Few Good Man, the character Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) lashes out at Lieutenant Kaffee (Tom Cruise) from the witness stand: “You can’t handle the truth!“ In the context of the movie, he’s saying that comfortable civilians are incapable of handling the reality that…
