Millions of Germans get perspective on the United States from Der Spiegel's Washington correspondent Gabor Steingart. Problem is, Steingart's analysis is usually distorted and wrong. During the presidential campaign, Steingart told his readers that Barack Obama's candidacy was a "fairy tale" :he had no chance of capturing the Democratic nomination. After candidate Obama was nominated, Steingart insisted that he had no chance of beating John McCain. Meanwhile, Steingart published op/ed pieces in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal mocking Americans for wanting universal coverage for health care. Now that the Obama administration is serious about health care reform in America, Steingart blasts Barack Obama for his serious economic mistakes. (Spiegel piece in English / German):
— even to the point of re-electing him — Americans have now thrown
their support behind the debt president Obama. The mistakes of the Bush
administration are now widely accepted. The mistakes of the Obama
administration are still not recognized as such. They are seen as the
truth.
Make no mistake: the US is facing the worst economic crisis in half a century brought about by the era of deregulation and fiscal mismanagement of the Bush administration. Steingart and his neo-liberal pals in Washington were champions of the unfettered free markets. When President Bush pushed through the largest tax cut in history, leading to a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, Steingart cheered, even though the end result was a gigantic budget deficit. Now that tens of millions of Americans have lost their employment, their health insurance, their homes through foreclosure, Steingart says it is time for the US to balance the budget.
American borrowing in 2009 comprises about half of Obama's budget. The
country is living beyond its means — and it still would have been even
if it weren't for the economic crisis.
Presumably Steingart would be happier if President Obama would let the magic of the free markets get us out of our current crisis, even if it results in the dramatic increase of suffering beyond the Beltway of Washington DC, where Steingart lunches with the neocon elite.
Gabor Steingart knows nothing about Americans, and very little about America beyond Washington. He has been proven wrong over and over again, and yet he remains the principal "America Expert" for Der Spiegel. Why can't Spiegel replace him with someone who has a clue about the US, such as Alexander Osang?
0 comment
Well, maybe because the “Spiegel” likes his shitty statements. He may not have a full time job on the magazine right now, but still, they seem to make good use of him. The “Spiegel” turned from good to bad in just a few years, a period, I was able to experience myself. I do not tend to buy this magazine anymore, although I read it frome now and then: Online, of course! If he wasn´t known that well in Germany, we could ignore him. But, as a matter of fact, this guy seems to be very popular. This man is on a wrong turn. Maybe he`ll see it one day.
From Germany with greetings,
Max
P.S.
If there are any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, you have to excuse, but it´s late and I´m not used to write in English.
Hi Max,
Your English is perfect.
I read a number of the comments to Steingart’s piece and was surprised at how many of the readers seemed to agree with him.
Isn’t there any good coverage of the US in the German press?
The problem is, that the comments in germany regarding the US are either fans or haters of the US. Somehow it seems, that the majority of the german journalists isn`t able to cover the theme in a more neutral way. Maybe the “Freitag”, which is far away from the mainstream, because it also uses a lot of articles from the “Guardian”. But if you want more, as a German, in my opinion, you won`t get past reading american newspapers yourself.
Myself, I use the NYT, which is not perfect, and far away from not beeing ideological, but I get the info I want. I also like to watch Jon Stewart`s Daily Show, which is in my eyes the best and funniest way, to learn about american politics.
But how about the coverage of Germany in the US? Have you already written about that in an article?
P.S.
Thank`s for the compliment ;- )