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CBS has started to put up old video clips from their archives on its website. Here is one feature called “See It Now” that takes Edward R. Murrow and his viewers to Berlin – a city marked by the Cold War, the Airlift, and bombed-out buildings. The images might be grain and dusty, but they paint a vivid picture of life in occupied West-Berlin.

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USA Erklaert blogger Scot W. Stevenson has been a guest on tapmag before. We were happy to have him also visit our seminar last week, where he gave a compact and informative guest lecture on transatlantic journalism.

Here is the video (in German). Scot mainly talks about the differences between American and German interpretations of free speech, the rights and duties of the press, and how the Internet undermines German privacy rights via American websites. Good stuff.

Last night on Rachel Maddow, Kent Jones went for a little cultural superiority talk, when discussing the Eurovision Song Contest:
“You ever wonder what happened to countries that didn’t invent Blues or Jazz or Rockabilly or R’n'B or Funk or Hip-Hop? This happens!”

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One of the greatest dangers facing American democracy today is extreme partisanship. The division of public and politics along party lines hinders political discourse and halts social progress at great costs to society. If little else, Americans can agree on that. But, as soon as you ask who is responsible for political bipolarity, people are divided: Fox News or the liberal media, fundamentalist evangelicals or the eastcoast elite, rich republicans or wealthy democrats, SUV drivers or treehuggers.

“Split: A Divided America” is a documentary that shines a light on the roots and consequences of this political divide. While it can’t solve all the problems and leaves the viewer with open questions, there are still some insights to be drawn from it.

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After Tom Cruise tried to revamp the image of the Germans in America and elsewhere with his Stauffenberg movie, it’s time for Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt to tear it apart, piece by piece. America’s favorite movie villain just won’t leave—long live the Hollywood Nazi!

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If Germans adore public figures, it is for three things: They are part of a minority, they look cute, and they are not German. Then they will go all out and prove their love with their biggest weapon in stock: Schlagersänger Howard Carpendale.

The most German of Germans—nevermind he is from South Africa—climbed up the chart ladder with his passionate and inspiring song he creatively dubbed “Yes We Can!” Now, let us all praise the new leader of mankind together.

In the good tradition of lists at the end of the year, we bring you the most memorable moments of the already historic 2008 US Presidential election. One media phenomenon was especially salient—Sarah Palin, who will be remembered for putting both hockey moms and Wasilla, Alaska on the political map.

She also sparked a movement of Sarah Palin lookalikes and video spoofs, that succeeded to push the frenzy of Obama music videos from the youtube agenda. The magnitude of her online appeal is so great that after the election, American video websites like Hulu.com have seen their traffic drop due to a post-Sarah-Palin slump.

So, without further ado, our ten favorite videos with or inspired by the moose hunter of the year. Tell us about your favorites and suggest more videos in the comments. Merry Christmas everyone!

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