TRUMP A NEAR NO-SHOW ON GERMAN TV

Unlike their American counterparts, German TV newscasters do not criticize Trump for the way he blows his nose or wipes his ass and they rarely call attention to his tweets

The 3 weeks I just got through visiting friends in Rostock, Germany was a refreshing change from American TV news broadcasts. Of course, I could not understand what the newscasters were saying, but I could tell that unlike their American counterparts, German TV newscasters do not criticize Trump for the way he blows his nose or wipes his ass and they rarely called any attention to his tweets.

Trump is a near no-show on German TV newscasts. The only coverage Trump got while I was there was the tariff he placed on steel and his on-off-on again meeting with Kim Jong-Un. The steel tariff was roundly criticized by all the European country leaders and by the head of the European Union.

The Germans were more concerned with the change in Italy’s government, unrest in Spain and Greece, Hungary’s move to the far-right and, most importantly, the Arab immigration problem.

Another refreshing difference between American and German TV news anchors is that the Germans do not fill in time with worthless personal chatter between the anchors. For the German news anchors it’s strictly the news, no yakety yak and ha, ha, has.

One of the most notable differences was that there were no black or Latino news anchors and field reporters. The news anchors were mostly women and almost all of them were middle-age blondes.

My friends had two English language TV channels, BBC and Al Jazeera. I really liked Al Jazeera’s newscasts and documentaries. While they were inclined to take the Palestinian side, they were not openly critical of Israel.

One of the first things that whacked me in the face upon my return was the TV news coverage Robert De Niro got for his ‘Fuck Trump’ tirade at Sunday night’s Tony Awards show and the standing ovation he got for his utterly shameful performance. The media had a field day with that one. I don’t doubt for a single second that the show’s producers invited De Niro knowing full-well that he would do exactly what he did.

It’s still good to be back in the good old U.S.A. with a bigger beer belly than the one I started out with 3 weeks ago.