Europeans feel as if they are aware of and know America because they receive American branded media as part of the regular daily programming.  The American media in Europe is anti-American in it's reporting (much the same way as it is in the US) and this confirms the leftist slant given by their own media.  CNN  and other American media sources  (celebitries for instance, or newspapers like the NY Times) are often more critical, in a more strident way, of America and American policies than the leftist European media.  Movies and print media received in Europe are much the same way.

Europeans have no way to know what America is truly about, but some feel as if they know everything about the US because  corrupted sound, visual and print are paraded daily before them, from American media as well as from theirs.  What Americans may see as simply biased reporting from American media is viewed in Europe as reinforcing and promoting the leftist slant.

Pakistan has few madrassas which could inculcate and reinforce anti-American views any more than American media, especially when combined with an almost solidly leftist European media.  Their message begins to sound as if it makes sense when the schools teach the same messages and political leaders espouse identical views.

Competitive media might allow some sanity to return to both the US and Europe.  Why is only leftism in media allowable as primary sources in either continent?

If you are dealing personally with European academics, and if you can choose who you work with, you should try to work with conservatives. They won't be as prone to automatic anti-Americanism.
If I was American, I think I would be particularly annoyed by anti-Americanism in the American media. I can understand why you find European mindless criticism irksome, but what is really disturbing is not the boorishness as you say, but the lack of independent thinking it betrays.

In France (I don't know how it is in other European countries), we have the opposite problem. There isn't enough criticism of how the state is run by government (although what we need is enlightened criticism: having a french Michael Moore would be no help). I think that French television stations and universities are too close to the government. They feel they are part of the system, which makes them more inclined to criticize the USA than France. We do have some left-wing criticism: french society is racist, the west is exploiting the third-world, and so on. But we have very little criticism of the lack of democracy in french political institutions.

I like to criticize France because, as a Breton living under French centralized rule, I do not enjoy the same rights as a Welshman in Britain or a Quebecker in Canada. Three years ago, French bashing had become popular on some American websites because of the French government's behavior over the Iraq war. I thought I would take advantage of the situation to make some anti-french propaganda. So, I tried to explain that french democracy is a joke, that it doesn't exist at all... But no one was interested. They were only interested in silly superficial jokes about cheese, and the French art of surrendering to the enemy. The problem with you Americans is that you are not really interested in criticizing Europe. It isn't our fault !

Please consider the overwhelming evidence of consistent rudeness by average Europeans toward average Americans

I don't really believe that !

They will need a lot of communicating to sell us the entry of Turkey into the EU !

Overlook the gratuitous insult for a moment and read this again: "I prefer the more difficult path of actually changing structures. If you want a more democratic EU, communication has to be among its core tasks." I don't see any reference to obtaining the "consent of the governed," or acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the people, do you? Is there any indication that the "changing structures" is to be done not on behalf of the people but according to the people's wishes?  Or that the "communication" is anything more than an address from the throne?

 "Democratic." Yeah, right.  The people have spoken, and they said "Get lost!"  A democratic EU would cease to exist – it has been voted out of existence every time it has been tried.
 

You wrote:  "I agree most people in Europe are not truly anti-American.  It sounds that way in the media."

Please consider the overwhelming evidence of consistent rudeness by average Europeans toward average Americans when socializing or talking one-to-one or in small groups.  The condescension is astonishing and shameless.  Read Bruce Bawer's "While Europe Slept" for the skinny on that.  He catalogues a good deal of his own experiences.  I also remember reading about an American journalist who traveled recently through Iran.  The Iranians themselves were very friendly and welcoming, but the European tourists whom the journalist encountered were extremely hostile and rude.  They would come up to his table in a cafe where he was conducting an interview and interrupt the conversation to berate him about "spreading American propaganda."  He and the Iranians being interviewed would just sit there, stunned.

You wrote:  "I don't understand why Americans should feel specifically annoyed by European smug antiamericanism, as you have a similar problem in the US: a far left minority has become too influential, and tends to encourage antiamerican activists like Michael Moore."

Actually, a "similar problem" would be smug anti-European attitudes and statements among American journalists, politicians, and academics.  Your comments remind me of the old Soviet-era joke where the Russian citizen,defending his system to an American, says, "So what if you are free to criticize your president?  We are free to criticize your president too."  Yes, there are anti-American celebrities in the United States like Michael Moore, but Americans are still annoyed by European anti-Americanism.  We feel obligated to treat foreign allies with respect, so we would like the same treatment in return.  (And, yes, the fact that the European democracies were, in living memory, liberated and protected by the American armed forces makes European boorishness even more irksome.)

You may be entirely right, Marc, about the innocence of Wallstroms remarks.  I wonder how far her anti-Americanism goes?  Checking her blog, it seems that it doesn't extend to other anti-Americans, whom she is very cozy with (She didn't even call her fat, not exactly anyway):  http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/blog_wallstrom/page/wallstrom?entry=madeleine_albright

I happen to beleive that the anti-Americanism is intentionally created.  It is done by so-called Americans, who are actually anti-American leftists, and their counterparts in Europe.  They attempt and succeed in driving wedges between those who should be natural allies.  I consider the leftist movement as being monolithic and cooperative on the higher levels.  Leftist media encourages transmission of devisive attitudes to the poplace (and hides the extent of leftist cooperation) in each country.  People are eager to blame each other's countries and policies while the leftists continue to institute policies they desire over the heads of all of us, encouraging our growing estrangement as they do so.

The only real split between the leftists of the USA and the European left is on Iraq.  Other than that, they criticize each other publicly and continue to support one another.  Even on Iraq, there is more perception of division than true division.

Why do all of us have problems with immigrants?  Why are we all feeling a threat from an enemy who was thousands of miles away until recently?  Why are we the ones who are having rights limited? These are questions we each ask no matter which country we are from.  The questions can continue indefinately.  I point to a leftist coalition that operates internationally and which care little or nothing about the citizens of the countries.  They care only for themselves and use multiculturalism, political correctness and media to keep us occupied with our own problems and blaming each other when we should be looking to our left no matter where we are.

You may have Wallstrom pegged as the unintentional idiot, but I can be suspicious.  I think you will agree with that.

Armor, I agree most people in Europe are not truly anti-American.  It sounds that way in the media, and the schools and public sources teach it and most do not agree with many US policies.  It is the same message in the US.  It is a shame that the left has been so successful in separating people who detest the left on levels where we communicate. 

In France, most subsidized cultural institutions (TV, newspapers, schools, movie industry, museums, universities...) have been dominated by the far-left for a long time. This explains why anti-american attitudes have been developing. But I think there is an ideological gap between this influential left-wing minority and most of the population, who are not really anti-american, although they are influenced by the media. The influence of the far-left bothers me because of the harm done to civilization, not because of the development of anti-american rhetoric. If civil war starts in Europe, it will be because of the same influent minority. They are responsible for the current immigration policies.
I don't understand why Americans should feel specifically annoyed by European smug antiamericanism, as you have a similar problem in the US: a far left minority has become too influential, and tends to encourage antiamerican activists like Michael Moore.

@ Flanders Fields

Probably, neither one of us knows Wallstroem well enough to make definitive judgements about her remark.  I take your point, but I am inclined to see it as a flippant remark.

I see it as a 'cheap shot' intended to seek shortsighted popularity.  Anti-Americanism is popular in contemporary West European culture, as a result of the dominance of naive-left academia and media.   Whereas I emphasize the stupidity (in terms of long-term costs) of her remark(s), you tend to see more deliberate "reasons" and "views" behind them.   We cannot be sure about that.  But, that anti-Americanism is popular is beyond question, and that politicians in general seek to be popular is also beyond question. 

We often view such remarks as being flippant mistakes when they actually are not such.  There is reason behind them.  It is just difficult sometimes to identify and deduct what it may be.  Leftists tend to be artistic and mindless, but they don't get to the top by staying that way.

http://myflandersfields.blogspot.com/2007/01/muslim-chaplain-promoted-christian.html

The article above explains views which I suspect are likely behind such statements.  I address a different subject, but the application can very well apply here. 

The point is not that American elites don't sometimes say foolish things about Europeans.  The point is that, when they do, the consensus reaction in America--in the media, among academics and artists, among politicians--is one of comdemnation and dismissal.  But when a European minister such as Wallstroem does it, the remark passes unnoticed (except on this web site, which is atypical) or it is tacitly condoned.  I assure you that when Americans host a European guest, they do not spend the evening ridiculing European culture and polticians and puffing themselves up at their guest's expense.  Can you honestly say that the reverse is not acceptable practice--that is, that European a host would refrain from showing open hostility to an American guest in front of other Europeans?  The European cultures, awash in shadenfraude, encourage cheap attacks at America and Americans.  The reverse is not true.  And the delicious irony, of course, is that Europe needs America much more than America needs Europe.  In fact, that may help to explain the resentful attitudes of the Europeans.

Yes and no.  But, really, not really.

@ Kapitein

There is no way that an American federal Cabinet member would make such a flippant remark, at least not in public, like equating superficiality with "European".  Not because Europeans couldn't be superficial, but because it is such a 'cheap shot' that nevertheless does a lot of damage to 'own' long-term interests. 

And, to think that Wallstrom is Commissioner for Communications!   The problem is that many European politicians seem to be incapable of either (1) determining who there true friends and enemies are, or (2) don't realise that insulting one's friends is more stupid (and costly) than insulting one's enemies.

Equally ignorant comments about Europe and other societies can regularly be founding issuing forth from Americans.

"When I started my job [as Commissioner for Communications] two years ago, I decided very early against the superficial – let’s call it American – way: Make up a slogan, double the advertising budget and come up with a nice campaign. I prefer the more difficult path of actually changing structures. If you want a more democratic EU, communication has to be among its core tasks. There should be a legal foundation for it: Fifty years after the founding of the European project, communication belongs in the constitution."

yay!  lets utilize synergy and add communication to the constitution!

I can hardly hold Margot Wallstroem in contempt for her foolish dig at Americans when this is precisely the sort of thing my European "friends" frequently say to my face.  Why do Europeans not hold themselves and their leaders accountable for their own stupidity and rudeness?  I look at the slump the European scientific community is in compared to the Americans and the Chinese, and I realize this is what happens when you don't hold yourself accountable -- when you tell yourself that you are always right, always superior, while the Americans, with their first-rate universities, are superificial fools.  Yet again, the Europeans make it hard for me not to gleefully welcome the coming civil war in Europe.

from the Federal Papers, to expect a government body to be open to the people without a conteracting government force holding it to account, is absurd.

But, that's so American.

The Eurorats keep talking.  No one does anything to stop them.  They push through what they want. Why should they talk with anyone else?

Does anyone in Europe really care about their own countries any more, or about the lives their children will have?

"When I started my job [as Commissioner for Communications] two years ago, I decided very early against the superficial – let’s call it American – way"

Classic Wallstrom. Just substitute American for Democratic and you will come very close to Brussels reality.