Agora

This is a brilliant article by Samuel Rachlin criticising the 60 Minutes segment about Denmark which I covered here and which Expose the Left has available at this post.

Quoting from Punditokraterne. I have only quoted here, I suggest you all go there and read the full article.

The Correspondent’s New Clothes

By Samuel Rachlin

WASHINGTON The picture of Denmark presented by CBS and its 60 Minutes magazine on American TV as a country of aggrandizing, arrogant bigots, blond models and happy-go-lucky fools out of tune and touch with the real world has nothing in common with the country I call home. Moreover, it is home for immigrants from all over the world of all faiths and cultures who have found happiness and a safe haven for themselves and their families taking full advantage of what Denmark has to offer. They are doing much better than one would think after having watched Bob Simon’s story The State of Denmark on 60 Minutes.

This kind of journalism does not have much in common with the tradition of Ed R. Murrow or what his associate, Fred Friendly, taught me at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University when I took my degree there in the late 70ies. The snide asides and sarcasm that permeated the narrative do not mix with the high quality journalism I have learned to expect from 60 Minutes. What we got was a presentation so biased, distorted and corrupted by so many inaccuracies and innuendos that it was impossible to recognize Denmark. I am sorry to say it, but it is shameful for the profession that both Bob Simon and I belong to.

[…]
From speaking to colleagues at Jyllandsposten, I understand that the message from the 60 Minutes producers was that they should line up for the interviews or else… The tone and attitude were intimidating. This is 60 Minutes and we are not accustomed to be turned down. Well, we saw what “or else” means in Bob Simon’s school of journalism. It means pay back time in primetime and dressing down not only the editors but the entire country with its blurry “lines between fantasy and reality”
[…]
We have this disrespectful streak which sometimes gets us into trouble. But quite frankly, we don’t give a damn and, like the little boy in the fairy tale, we will tell anyone that they are naked, if that’s what they are. We don’t care if it is an emperor, an editor - or a correspondent.

Samuel Rachlin is a Danish TV Correspondent and writer based in Washington DC. He is a graduate of Copenhagen University and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He has worked as a Moscow Bureau Chief and Washington Bureau Chief for TV1 and TV2 - the two national networks in Denmark.

Last, a list of people who blogged about it then, so you can get a feel for the response then:
Michelle Malkin, quoting a letter from a reader:

It seems so unfair to be pictured in the ’60 minutes’ programme as silly and immature children, when in fact we bear the burden of being those who pricked the hole in the boil.

I believe in a higher justice. If anyone in this world were to handle this madness it had to be the Danes, we are phlegmatic and well-fed enough to survive it. Right now we are sitting quietly waiting for the storm to calm so that we all can address the important issue of the future role of religions.

My hometown is Odense and Hans Christian Andersen wrote in The Emperor’s Clothes that ‘it took a little boy to dare tell the truth’. I would have liked Bob Simon of CBS to have taken that cue.

Ahhh, I feel a lot better now, thank you for your time.

Marwin’s Word:

The useful idiots at CBS strike again. Another hack job, intended to undermine the security of the US. and more importantly, make Bush look bad.

Kim Priestap:

It is unfair for the Danes to be portrayed the way they were by 60 Minutes. It’s slanted journalism at its worst.

Say it somehow:

So, in a nutshell, the report portrayed Muslims as victims who were baited by the cartoonists, the newpaper, and ultimately shunned by Danes and their government. Beautiful. That’s today’s MSM for you.

MacBigot.Com:

On ‘60 Minutes’, the media professionals there decided to lay blame on the cartoonists for the violence that was intentionally baited by those who want to encourage uprisings among Muslims. Impressive journalism, there, guys.

Blue Star Chronicles:

He implied the Danes were shocked by the realities of the world focused on them. Oh really? As I was watching this display of overt propaganda, I was seroiusly offended. Of course, the fact that I was offended does not mean I’m going to be fire-bombing embassies or throwing rocks at journalists as they go by me.