At a time when most newspapers are rapidly increasing their online and video content, the international television giant CNN is making a lunge in the reverse direction. At a meeting of editors at its Atlanta headquarters this week, CNN plans to unveil details of a new service, CNN Wire, which it will market to newspapers […]
While the Big Three U.S. automakers plead for massive public bail-outs, European carmakers have followed hot on their heels, asking governments for large soft loans to help keep their businesses afloat as credit markets tighten. The requests have led to a similar debate to that raging in Washington over whether the car industry deserves support […]
The European media have reacted cautiously, even skeptically, to reports that President-elect Barack Obama is considering offering the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton, his bitter rival for the Presidential nomination in the lengthy Democratic primaries. As the reports below suggest, many European commentators believe that it would be a mistake for Obama […]
Nelson D. Schwartz of the New York Times uses an example from the sorry history of the British motor industry to warn that auto bailouts, currently a hot topic in the United States, may not necessarily bring about the desired results. As a parallel with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, Schwartz describes the once-mighty British […]
The New York Times' Stephen Castle reports from Brussels that on Wednesday November 12, the European Union has mostly done away with rules that banned "extra knobbly or oddly shaped produce' from grocery stores. The previous report that we cited on the matter concluded that Mariann Fischer Boel, the Danish European Commissioner for Agriculture faced […]
The International Herald Tribune had the bright idea of asking six writers to identity what they most admired about President George W. Bush and would miss when he leaves the White House in January. Not all six were by any means Bush fans, but they all praised certain aspects of his character, often his basic […]
With a flood of U.S. election-related reporting all over the world, it's not often that particular pieces stand out from the mainstream. But, for German-speakers, it's worth a look at this post "Obama Wins?' from the weblog of Handelsblatt, the leading German business newspaper. While not the most brilliant example of European coverage of the […]
In the past week, the New York Times and the Financial Times have run stories suggesting that the United States ought to look toward the Swedish bank bail out plan of the early 1990s. Both articles suggest that the crisis in Sweden is comparable to the crisis roiling American financial markets, but fail to make […]
The Sueddeutscher Zeitung published this interesting commentary, "Enemies, Vassals and Americans' on September 12 by Russian playwright Yevgeny Grischkowez. Playing off an assertion made by George Kennan that Russia has only vassals or enemies as neighbors; Grischokwez argues that an American cannot possibly understand the complex relationship between Russia and its neighbors as America is […]
By Reginald Dale and Eve Copeland "Greening the dream that drives America: The U.S. should put the same creativity that produced the car into tackling the energy crisis it has caused' September 18, The Times of London This short essay, part observation from a motel window, part finger-wagging at America, and part book review, maintains […]
By Eve Copeland and Cecily Boggs For many months, Iran's nuclear ambitions have taken center stage in both American and European news and analytical reports. On September 15, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released what has been described by the Financial Times as "one of the most damning reports it has yet published on […]
The Times of London reported in this article as news that Sarah Palin has linked her electoral success to Kenyan pastor whom Palin "says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.' While her connection to […]
The media in the two top Western financial centers, London and New York, differed in emphasis in their reporting of Sunday's dramatic turmoil on Wall Street – including the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers – with the British media tending to highlight the human side, while their American counterparts stressed the enormity of the blow to […]
While some Americans questioned whether Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin could hold high office and simultaneously look after five children, an article in the New York Times, "Wage Gaps for Women Frustrating Germany' examined the difficulties faced by German women who want both a family and a high-flying career. The article blamed sexist attitudes […]
The Times of London is this week publishing excerpts from a book by its chief foreign commentator, Bronwen Maddox, In Defence of America, due for release September 11. The first extract, "America is not an environmental villain,’ which appeared September 1, argues that although the United States emits the second highest amount of greenhouse gases […]