Tuesday, November 12, 2024

News Chatter From Last Night

 Last night as ARD (public German TV, Channel 1) ended the 8 PM news (at 8:15), they went to a special 'Brennpunkt' 45 minute show.  These are typically unscheduled, and in the emergency knowledge format.  During the Covid-era....they would run 2 or 3 a week....minimum of 20 minutes.  So last night was the special to explain Trump to the German public.

For about nine months....they've (ARD, the network) been busy telling German public that Biden (and later Harris) were guaranteed to win.  Hence....as Wednesday morning came last week....it was a shock to 99-percent of German society....that Trump won.

If you viewed social media...it was more like 90-percent in this belief, and a fair number of conservative/right-wing types....weren't buying into the ARD 'theme'....at least by what I could view.

So as the special news piece ended.....you came away with three opinions that ARD wanted get you fixed upon (remember, they were already wrong about the winner business):

1.  Trump is bringing in 'dark-knights' as part of his cabinet and team.....people you shouldn't trust.

2.  Trump will destroy or at least hinder the US economy.

3.  Ending the Ukraine-Russia war with a Trump-solution may not be a good thing....in the way they suspect (by the think-tank people that ARD interviewed in the US).

After a while pondering over the details....I came to two conclusions.  First, as much as ARD got wrong already for 2024....they have a proven record of getting getting things wrong, and you shouldn't expect that to change.   Second, there are a fair number of Germans (particularly under the age of thirty), who are disgruntled about public TV, and what they 'provide'.  I don't worry about them much from last night....they were probably watching some zombie-series on Netflix or a soccer game.

The one odd thing I've learned over the past year with public TV.....every time you have a 'talking-dog' come on.....you ought to spend three minutes looking over their career....who've they've supported, and what think-tank pays their salary.  It's 50-50 odds that you are getting a slanted view of the situation, and wasting 12 minutes that could be better spent.

Anyway....just remember....the evil-Trump can be eventually defeated.  Keep the faith.  

2 comments:

Bigus Macus said...

ARD and PBS same to operate at the same level and have similar views and predictions.

Schnitzel_Republic said...

Perhaps, but within the Constitution of Germany, it has a text piece that mandates they (ARD) must exist, for the good of the country. For the over-40 crowd, they probably have sixty-percent of the public that still views some of what they produce. Lately, they've been in trouble over salaries/cost.

PBS? Their gov't subsidy is going to be dumped next year. They swear they can continue on. A lot of that money went to state channels to exist.