CBS’ 60 Minutes blindsides Denmark
When I was a kid back in Sweden I was often told how great a show 60 Minutes is. Swedish journalist and author Jan Guillo repeatedly called it the best news show in the world. When I finally got a chance to watch the show I was quickly turned off by it, its pompous reporters and its overall inability to be interesting (last fall it made a point of interviewing an NFL player every Sunday, as if there isn’t an enormous glut of player interviews on TV already).
When caught a glimpse of a 60 Minutes report on the cartoon crisis the other week or so I wasn’t the least bit surprised by how one-sided and dumb it was. Henrik Bering can fill you in on the details over at The Weekly Standard’s website:
When 60 Minutes shows up on your doorstep, you have reason to fear for your good name and reputation. The Danes learned this last week, when reporter Bob Simon and his team of cameramen descended on the country to pass judgment in the controversy over the Muhammad cartoons. The result of their labors was a 12-minute segment that displayed all the customary 60 Minutes arrogance and superficiality. In the report, the respected Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, which originally printed the cartoons, came across as a publication hellbent on gratuitously offending millions of Muslims around the world, while the Danes themselves were portrayed as naive, full of themselves, xenophobic, and way too blonde for their own good. Did we forget provincial? Add that to the list of Danish foibles, too.
