Nasty Things About Americans

Dan Schorr and Scott Simon "analyze" the week's news. Schorr mangles the significance of the really interesting Pew Report about attitudes toward the US in Europe (see my earlier post about this). Based on absolutely NO evidence Schorr states, "Young kids grow up in any European country and they are told look at the savage Americans who torture people in Guantanamo and that's the way they are brought up now and its very sad." Kids are told? By whom? Schorr can't even entertain the idea that the results might indicate that the respondents actually read and think critcally about world events--especially about the effects of the US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. And why is it sad? In this lack of critical imagination Schorr is a lot like our Decider popping off in Europe on the "absurdity" of the poll results. Schorr goes on to state that its a "very sad commentary" that though there is cooperation among the "military aides" of the US and Europe this is followed by these Europeans going back home to "say nasty things about Americans." What's sad is this shabby analysis; we listeners deserve far better. Frankly one of the most interesting things (and surpising) about the Pew Report is the table I've posted at the beginning of this post. Notice how many US respondents consider the US in Iraq to be a "great danger"--31%! Maybe there is hope after all...