So says Koreans, or at least the ones the Joongang Ilbo asked:
The results of a worldwide survey on the role of the United States showed Koreans have a favorable opinion about Americans and believe the country’s international leadership is important, but have a personal antipathy toward President George W. Bush.
Ten countries’ leading newspapers polled their own citizens in recent weeks to find out how they perceive America and Americans, who they support between John Kerry and George W. Bush, and their views on the war in Iraq.
The 10 newspapers are Canada’s La Presse, France’s Le Monde, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, the United Kingdom’s The Guardian, Spain’s El Pais, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age of Australia, Russia’s Moscow News, Mexico’s Reforma, Israel’s Haaretz and the JoongAng Ilbo.
The newspapers polled between 522 and 1,417 people in each country with identical questions. According to the JoongAng Ilbo’s survey, 65 percent of the 1,028 Koreans polled said they felt favorable toward Americans and 67 percent said it was important for the United States to play a leadership role on the world stage. But 72 percent of the respondents felt unfavorable toward George W. Bush.
Negative attitudes towards Mr. Bush were common in all 10 countries except Israel: A majority of those surveyed in the other nine countries said they liked Americans and disliked Mr. Bush. In Israeli, 81 percent said they like Americans and 70 percent said they are pro-Bush. Anti-Bush feeling was highest in Spain (77%), followed by France (75%) and Korea (72%). All countries except Israel and Russia said they supported Mr. Kerry as the next U.S. president.
I’m just impressed Bush got the Russian vote, or at the very least, Kerry failed to win it.
Anyway, I think Conrad at the Gweilo Diaries had something to say about this phenomenon.
14 Comments
Not sure that it would make a difference, but those are the center-left and leftist papers (think New York Times) in most of those nations. It might be interesting to see if there would be any difference if the Yomiuri Shimbun, Le Figaro, ABC (Spain), FAZ (Germany), The Daily Telegraph or Times (UK) etc. were polled. Ha’aretz readers were pro-Bush, but Ha’aretz is only the third circulation (and most liberal) Israeli newspaper, too. (The two with more publish in Hebrew only, though.) Quebec is notably anti-American, too– poll National Post or any of the Sun paper readers for a different result.
After all, I bet a poll of daily New York Times readers would also be quite anti-Bush.
Israel BETTER like the US and Bush after all theyve done for them!
john t.
the article says that citizens were polled not readers of the newspapers. one would have to assume that the newspapers hired professional polling companies to do a broadbased survey, and not merely took a straw poll of their own readership which would certainly colour the results.
Newspapers across the globe color what they find fit to print. New York Times is liberal. New York Post is conservative. Chosun ilbo is conservative. OhMyNews is liberal. Newspapers enjoy this freedom to print slanted news in any given country. Almost, anyway.
TV news is what most rulers are afraid of. TV news is usually tightly controlled by whoever’s in power. I just wonder why Roh Moo Hyun still does it. Being a liberal and all. Everyone’s a hypocrite, but I’m not sure why the government wants to shape public opinion. And that’s the power of TV. TV is powerful.
My feeling is that Chirac and Schroeder are quietly hoping for a Bush victory. The French and German economies are in the toilet right now, and their anti-U.S. policies are the only ones that have any legitimacy with the public.
Hey Reptile–Ditto that for England, France, Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, El Salvador, Taiwan, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and especially SOUTH KOREA.
Umm, not to pry, but does your normal Web diet teach you that Americans make their Cinnabons with the blood of Iraqi children? Well, Indymedia certainly has contributed to the level of our public discourse. Thanks to the angry new “progressivism,” you can goose step to the pogrom, do a group reading of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, burn down a McDonalds or a synagogue in the name of (your choice) Jose Bove or bin Laden, and actually think it’s enlightened just because you’re wearing dreads and Birkenstocks.
In which case, you’d probably consider Torquemada and Pierre Laval to be great European thinkers.
Let’s say it together–progressive!
I’ve gotta question the validity of the survey in general, when they count La Presse- a French language paper, as one of the leading papers in Canada.
Oh no another survey! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Oh no another poll! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Does anyone in Korea write news stories?
Enough of the surveys Mr. Marmot. Give your readership what they really want. Korean T&A.
As for me, I don’t hate the American government; I just hate the American people.
As for me, I don??t hate the American government; I just hate the American people.
Mate that is so awesome! What else do you hate, please tell us????
I have never even heard of La Presse…
In other news, some dudes wrote a graphic novel/comic book about a English teacher in Korea, and his romance with a local girl. Looks interesting.
WJK, I would never accuse the NY Post of being conservative. It is a tabloid rag that brought the entire NYC news industry down to its level in the 70’s. Perhaps relative to the Times and Daily News it is less left-leaning, but is is a complete waste of resources like the Daily News.
L Thorne: love you, man. Don’t care what country you’re from. Go ahead, smack the other side of my face…