David Kaspar writes about the simplistic manner in which the German media portrays the American Presidential race, focussing on a STERN profile of Kerry, but it may as well be subtitled, "How media bias cheats us all."

Davids Medienkritik: STERN Online: "Kerry Too Smart for America?"

This article could be about a thousand other news outlets in dozens of countries on both the left and the right, including here in the US. I was watching TV Japan with my wife this morning and they were doing a sort of "news for kids" in which they were explaining in rather simple terms (obviously) who John Kerry is - life story and all. Very heroic! Trouble is, the rest of the "big people" news isn't a whole lot better. Kerry good. Bush scary.

And some people wonder why some of us are somewhat less than concerned about what some in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere think of us? Because in today's age, we can not only find out what they think of us, but of how they came to hold those opinions. We can read German media, British media...al Jazeera - you name it. Sure, it still matters what they think, but in so far as we can see that much of it is based on some of the most biased portrayals 'they' like to kid themselves that the diverse American media is characterized by, how seriously should we take it. Why guide ourselves by people who have their own created reality based on half truths, when we know the whole - or at least a better percentage of it. And we're the one's with a stake in the results. And on the way, it's the bias peddler's consumers who get ripped off when they wonder how it is that the American economy and achievements keep clicking along, we haven't become a police state and George Bush is elected for a second term.