How pumped up are Germans over the US? Well, almost nightly, there's some political intrigue news, economic story, or public interest story about the US on national public TV news (ARD or ZDF). I noticed two nights ago for the prime-time news on ARD's 8 PM news....Alabama became the number two news item of the day (it's abortion episode passed).
So here's the other angle of this, which I find interesting. If you view ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, or Fox News....unless there's some terror act....Germany is never mentioned in the nightly news. If you watch CNN International....Merkel might come up two or three times a week but there's really nothing much ever uttered.
You can go and ask a hundred working-class Americans about Germany, and unless they spent time while in the military in Germany....the only things they know are: (1) Berlin or Bonn is the capital (some might still think West Germany exists), (2) Merkel is the 'president' (she's actually the Chancellor), and (3) autobahns are speed-free (not really true, but they believe it).
What does this really say here? I would suggest five observations:
1. German intellectuals might care and get all hyped-up but the common German working-man isn't that peeved or caring about US news.
2. If you asked German teens over their US views, they go to NBA action, Kim Kardashian, storyline of Flash, Marvel characters, and Netflix TV show options.
3. You can actually find various German intellectuals and journalists who can name at least a dozen US Senators or Congressmen (mostly all Democrats). The same crowd seem to follow the New York Times and Washington Post on a day-by-day basis.
4. Most Germans who get entangled in US political news....seem to feel that Germany is 'enlightened' and above all that political stuff....mostly because they are intelligent, bright, and more developed as a nation.
5. This attempt to lead to a dividing line? It's more than obvious.
German shock that they aren't ever mentioned in the US news? I explained this once....that there just isn't much German hype in the news. The German wanted an explanation. It's pretty simple....I explained. We tend to look more at local news in our community or our state....and then to national news. Some international pieces will occasionally come up but it's just not that big of a deal.
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