My only real knowledge of it has been the American coverage of the British coverage. I was wondering if it is a big of deal as the American media is making it out to be. But yeah to me it does seem to be a bit of an overreaction which seems too based primarily on a very disingenuous interpretation of what he said.
I agree that the media is over-blowing it, which I said to Rebekah, but I see that you did have a Brit reply, and you (unless I'm misreading the sarcasm) dismissed what he had to say because you don't think it can be seen as offensive. Again, I think it is harder for us to understand precisely because of what you point out in your last paragraph. We are used to being picked on, but it is our whole country, which is so much larger than theirs. They should instead (imo) be compared to a small region of ours, such as Manhattan. And, ok, if you don't think NYers get pissed off when someone attacks them about something to do with their island, I don't think you're paying attention. They will do whatever they were going to do anyway, but they will tell everyone exactly what they think about the critique. The same people may not, however, get upset if the exact same critique were leveled at America in general. I didn't explain my subject line of the first response very well, but that is where I was going with it.
First if they want to be offended by him sticking his nose in the issue they need to start with Brian Williams since he is the one who ask the questions. I find telling how many times politicians from both sides are criticized for discussing issues when all they did was answer a question then we turn around and complain that we only get group tested answers that really ignore the question. We can’t have it both ways.
I agree that it was a silly question. I was thinking about that earlier. However, you don't go to a dinner party and then tell someone in public that you didn't like the shrimp. It just seems rude, given that he can't do anything to fix anything - he can just criticize.
And we don't need it both ways. He could have said that it is really impossible for him to know, given that the two areas are so very different and that even things that can appear disconcerting are often nothing more than blips. The rest of his answer sounds something like that, in fact, so I really don't think he needed the negatives. Do you?
As for your argument that NY or really anywhere else in America would get bent out of shape because someone said something that if you squint you can find offense in I would say give me an example. America is one of the most heavily and continuous criticized countries in the world and even our friends seem to think it is OK to take shots at the US so where are the examples of public outrage of imagined slights or because someone pointed out the issues we have discussing for weeks? It isn’t like did what some European leaders have done and gave his opinion on an ongoing political race and even when they did that I don’t remember much uproar.
Even you (who seem to be very laid back about what people say) have occasionally gotten in a bit of a bunch because of silly information that circulates about Texas, so I really don't know why you think this doesn't happen. I get annoyed when someone tries to dismiss Indiana - we were all pissed when people were picking on us about the super bowl and pointing out all the things they thought could go wrong. 50% of my facebook page was outrage about that at one point. If you need some example other than this, I will bring up some links.
Are the British really that thin skinned?
- 27/07/2012 03:25:44 PM
854 Views
No, just great believers in good manners and courtesy
- 27/07/2012 04:12:01 PM
564 Views
Thats good. I thought maybe they just hated Romney but you have cleared that up *NM*
- 27/07/2012 04:42:05 PM
253 Views
Yeah, the average British person just about knew his name and that he was some politician
- 28/07/2012 10:00:26 AM
437 Views
I still haven't figured out how it was offensive but it apparently was *NM*
- 27/07/2012 04:43:23 PM
225 Views
*NM*
I think you have to be careful, because you can't see it the way they do.
- 27/07/2012 05:23:22 PM
548 Views
That is why I possed it as a question
- 27/07/2012 06:12:43 PM
501 Views
Yeah sure, we never get upset by stuff like this. 
- 27/07/2012 06:47:59 PM
565 Views
- 27/07/2012 06:47:59 PM
565 Views
It's more likely the press making a big deal out of nothing.
- 27/07/2012 05:35:20 PM
501 Views
That was what it seemed like to me. The "Mr. Leader" thing was sort of funny, though.
- 27/07/2012 08:16:11 PM
531 Views
It's more been a critique on his ability to be a statesman
- 27/07/2012 06:42:35 PM
506 Views
I agree he practiced poor statesmanship
- 27/07/2012 07:52:17 PM
514 Views
Is anything ever as bad as the morning cable guys make it out to be? *NM*
- 27/07/2012 08:48:32 PM
240 Views
The way they were going you would think he had goosed the queen *NM*
- 27/07/2012 09:40:59 PM
224 Views