Germany and England wage “tabloid war” over half-naked Merkel

[lovuian]

http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/21-04-2006/79425-merkel-0

Pravda.Ru has already written that on Easter Monday British tabloid The Sun published a small black and white photograph in which we can see a woman standing with her back to any onlookers. The top of the women’s figure is tightly wrapped in a white bathrobe, and she has a cap on her head. The woman is hitching up her bikini to change some wet clothes. In spite of the bathrobe which she has thrown on, you can see her legs and backside.





This seemingly innocuous photo has given rise to a serious conflict between two European states, members of the “Big Eight” and NATO. This is because the photo that the English tabloid newspaper printed was of Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on holiday in Italy. Under the photograph is the ambiguous headline: “I’m Big In The Bumdestag”, deliberately making a mistake in the name of the German Parliament in order to use the word “bum”.

Whilst the scandal-mongering British tabloid press is printing provocative and clearly mocking photographs, the dependable Times has made a U-turn, publicly praising Germany. The article with the headline “Merkel’s Miracle” is hinting at an old phrase referring to the post-war “German economic miracle”. The main message of the report is that Germany has long since stopped being “the sick man” of Europe and that there is no point in the English writing off the Germans.

snip.......
They probably could have kept quiet, but the German tabloids like Bild intervened to defend the honour of their head of state. After all yet another shameless English newspaper Daily Sports published a photo of the half-naked couple of Frau Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauer.

The ungentlemanly act of the British in encroaching on the dignity of not just “the first lady” but any lady cannot really be explained by them earlier printing photos of their own Prime Minister Tony Blair in swimming trunks. Three years ago the paparazzi took snaps of him on holiday on the Caribbean island of Barbados .
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I don't want to see Bush OR Cheney in their swim trunks!!!
:scared:

[Inland]

1. well, I've seen the photo, and all I can say is

that photographers saw fit to stake out the swim time of Ms. Merkel and the tabloid saw fit to print a photo of an older woman's cheeks with a dumbass pun headline says a lot bad about them. Pretty pathetic that papers are sold on that sort of crass, juvenile nationalism.

[Kellanved]

2. It's Springer vs Murdoch, not Germany vs England

And actually it's the second leg.


Nobody wants to see Merkel naked. Not Germans; not Brits.

Hoewever, Springer has a policy of not showing conservative politicians naked (no such restraints regarding Social Democrats); Murdoch has no such qualms.

Round one was Kohl in his boxers; round two is Merkel's bare butt. I mean... *merh* :puke:.