Like many media elites, CBS anchor Katie Couric [1] doesn't see the fall of the Berlin Wall as a triumph for democracy, freedom, and Western civilization. In her Couric & Co. commentary, Germany was more like a pair of twins raised apart:
The two sides of the wall were like twins who had been separated...and raised in very different environments. To the west, colorful graffiti art, tourists walking up and touching it. To the east, stark white concrete...and armed guards.
But the faces on either side were the same.
Couric's trite little commentary read like someone was trying to write a Hallmark greeting card rather than a political or historical analysis:
It would take months for the wall to be demolished...and years for the former soviet republics to build new governments.
But for those reunited with lost brothers, parents and cousins on the other side...it only took a moment to realize no one could build a wall around their hearts.
This is hardly a way for Couric to build an image of gravitas. The division of post-war Germany is hardly a geopolitical version of a divided-twins movie like The Parent Trap.
-Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.