. I think someone should start a ‘Stop Mad Matt Frei’ campaign. I don’t want him reporting on the US in my name. Why can’t the BBC employ someone who actually likes the country, or at least can keep their dislike under rational lock and key? This article is I suppose intended to be light-hearted, but it’s the kind of humour that in many circles would just (or ought to) get you a smack in the face sooner or later. For a start he suggests that US companies are ‘stingy’ with holidays. Yes, Matt, but your sympathy won’t stop you ridiculing the ‘super-rich self-indulgent Yanks’ this Christmas, will it? Then he suggests that the Union compensates for it with ‘pagan’ holidays. Excuse me, when was it pagan to remember Abraham Lincoln (godly man, abolished slavery), Martin Luther-King and the Founding [I mean Pilgrim] Fathers? Just because they’re not called ‘Saint’s Days’ doesn’t make them pagan. Oh, then Frei contradicts himself somewhat by calling Thanksgiving ‘solemn’- though that’s tempered by a stab at the ‘genocidal’-my word, his implication- Founding Fathers. (re: pagan/religious- can’t he understand the ‘opt in, opt out’ aspect of US culture? Yes, but he doesn’t want to communicate it.)
Right, then we get to the meat, which is, naturally, the place where GWB gets his grilling. Do you get the Turkey motif now? It’s really clever. To sum up these paragraphs I think it is reasonable to say that the President makes Frei sick, Thanksgiving makes him sick, and American culture makes him sick. Finis. Actually, we finish with the real reason Frei is sick: he can’t see a future for the Democrats at the next election, and he can’t stand America in its patriotic mood. Frei can only stand a ‘let’s pretend’ America, which leads me to my marching slogan- ‘Mad Matt Out NOW!’ BTW, Nicholas Vance doesn’t care for Frei either (see Dec 2nd News), and Tim Blair has had fun dissing [brilliantly] the Turkey-Bush motif. Update. More Turkey-talk about anti-Bush sickness courtesy of Instapundit via Ranting Profs
He’s writing like a humorist. (Maybe he is a humorist, I’m not familiar with his name.) I *expect* this kind of article to be chock full of unfair generalizations and petty complaints. Nothing wrong with a good “let’s make fun of America” article now and then.
Try one of his previous “diaries” from America.
On having a baby in America he first to create context by siting his experience in an Asian hospital where “ancient Chinese tea ladies in blue pyjamas shuffled around the corridors pouring cups of Oolong tea” Which is all well and good, but my top concern at a hospital is the quality of care, not cultural aesthetics. However, in America “the obstetrician was clearly impatient to get back home.”
Eventually, he does concede “the experience was safe and reassuring.” Then….you know its coming….its been building all along….here’s the kicker — “Healthcare in America is wonderful if you have private insurance.”
Also, the headings the BBC has chosen for the three sections of this report are
“Efficient birth” (e.g, the patient takes a back seat to efficiency)
“Litigious” (well, no one has sued anybody, Frei god forbid, had to sign a few forms) and,
“Costly Business”
Sneer, sneer, sneer
The G
Crap, lost the last half. It reads —
The Guardian’s America-hating US correspondent uses the same technique, describe a personal experience then bring it around to some grand statement confirming the party line on America.
What if US correspondents in Europe employed the same technique —
“Well, this Parisian restaurant sure is good, but aren’t these vegetables heavily subsidized by the EU at the expense of third-world farmers.” Or,
“Christmas shopping in Munich is so festive, but aren’t these shop keepers strangled by onerous work rules and the workers by excessive taxation?”
So tiresome.
Another factual error comes right at the beginning of the article: “the maximum [holiday] tends to be a paltry two weeks a year.”
It is fairly normal for an American worker to start with 2 weeks annual vacation. However, his vacation is generally extended to 3 weeks after he has worked there for a certain period, usually 3 to 5 years. More often than not, the worker’s vacation goes to 4 weeks after a longer period with the firm — perhaps 8 to 10 years.
Peter,
LOL! Yes, I’d love to see US reporters “report” about Europe the way Euro reporters “report” about the US.
I still remember how shocked I was when I first started reading the Europress online and saw reporters presenting editorial opinion as fact in “straight” reporting, and having it be accepted with no protest by the readers.
Seems that the Frei reports have disappeared from the Americas page on BBC.com. They were there just this morning. Hmmmm.
I’d say that affectionate articles about the eccentricities of lots of countries appear in the UK press, i.e Italy=amazing food and culture but hopeless beaurocracy, Spain=laid back and friendly but can’t get anything done. I’m sure they do the same to us.
Why the problem with a US version.
Why the problem?
Because they’re absolutely deviod of affection. Not the isn’t Italy charmingly provincial sort. It’s absolute disdain.
For weeks the BBC’s correspondents have saying ‘what has Tony Blair ever got from his ‘special relationship’ with George Bush?’
The day Bush stops steel tarrifs Blair gets no credit and we are told it is because of ‘EU pressure’ and several interviews are carried out with disgruntled steel workers who are invited to say what they think of their President and who they will vote for in the next Presidential Elections.
re Peter’s comment above
On Newsnight last night Gavin Estler was interviewing the government trade minister. Estler seemed only interested in getting an admission that Blair should get no credit. As I had not heard that any credit was being claimed (government presenting a EU strength line),the BBC was getting its retaliation in first, I guess.