If you watched the 8 PM news last night on German public TV Channel One (ARD), the big hype was the North Korea/South Korea story. In fact, it was so big....that as the news concluded at 8:15 PM....they launched into a special 15-minute news piece, which only had to deal with the one single topic, and would end with a live chat with a German professor who was a Korea-expert.
So as they entered this special news piece, for roughly seven minutes....they avoided mentioning any connection to this peace chat going on between the two Koreas....to the US, or President Trump. It was difficult to tell the story like this but you could sit amazed that they actually accomplished this.
Around the 8th minute of the live broadcast, as they brought on the guest professor to explain everything....he was careful to only use the words "US", and "the President". At some point, he screwed up and uttered "Trump".
It is in some way fascinating to watch the last month, and how the German public news media have attempted to craft the story and lay it out. Nothing about the story can lay any positive words over Trump, Trump-diplomacy (blunt would be the key word), or the events that occurred.
More or less, they've written the script here for what will occur. The North and South Korea groups will meet up with President Trump, and some peace treaty over the Korean War will be signed. Some long-term talks will occur over reunification, with US troops quietly leaving in increments....maybe taking a decade. And the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the North and South Korean governments (minus President Trump).
The problem with this slant? Well....for most of 2017, and up until March of 2018.....the German public news media told the story over and over of war about to break out any minute between North Korea and the US, and the entire blame must be given to President Trump. Just via ARD's nightly news, if you go back and review the past 365 evenings of that 'brand' of news....there's at least forty mentions of potential war, and on some rare occasions....suggesting nuclear war. They've wasted various hours crafting the story to fit this way.
And now? If you were a regular viewer of the ARD public news script, you might sit there and ask how they got from the potential all-out war script to a Nobel Peace Prize script? If you were looking for reasons why German public confidence isn't all that high with the public news media.....this is one of those odd reasons.
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