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Der Spiegel operates using two methods.

1. They only print certain stories which have the inherent bias they like. Of course a major story which is carried internationally that does not fit into their agenda they will also print, that is the occasional conservative view you talk about. Example: When Bush won in 2004. It's kind of hard to ignore and pretend away at that point. However, this goes into the second point, spin.

2. Near all articles in "Der Spiegel" have a strong pro left and yes, like it or not, anti-American spin. Example: When Bush won, they ran articles how he won because of those crazy fanatical American right wing bible thumpers, more or less. All the articles covering Bush were "negative". When the Democrats took Congress in the last elections, the articles were near all "positive".

The US, is not a secular nation. Nearly 85% of Americans claim to be religious in some way. Churches over here are plentiful and large, and it's not the state that pays for them (Keine Kirschensteuer), but private donations purely. Even our Democrats are hard core Conservatives by German standards in an economic sense. Der Spiegel is a socialist paper. They favor strongly a secular socialist view, and yes, they inherently ARE anti-American and can't help themselves because of what America is. They will occasionally prop up some guy and talk nicely about him like Krugman who is often quoted in this paper because he's a socialist. The only good American to "Der Spiegel" is a socialist American (And they are the ones that get favorable coverage and quoted a lot), but that's not what America is about.

The media is inherently more left than the rest of society in most nations, just as universities and colleges. Der Spiegel is within this left oriented media landscape on the more far left edge. Go any further left and were talking about a PDS pamphlet. This can also be seen through associations, "who" people deal with and associate with. In the US, the New York Times is one of the most left papers there is. Der Spiegel and the NYT's work together, share articles, and have a permanent relationship.

No matter how you try to pretend it's not there, in Der Spiegel you will see an anti-American undertone, because the US is a Christian nation, it thinks nationally, it's economically conservative, it's English in culture predominantly. The story about this computer game is a "perfect example". A NO NAME company, a NO NAME computer game, not carried in any store, hardly known to anyone gets a major story devoted to it on line. Why? Because just as Bush was portrayed in 2004 in Der Spiegel with a Cross behind him in many pictures and presented as a radical religious zealot, this fits into their "agenda".

1. They only print certain stories which have the inherent bias they like.

Yes...presenting your world view or bias is somewhat the point of compiling a magazine. Every magazine does it to some extent. But IMO the Spiegel is enough of a professional news magazine to realize their bias and counter it to some extent, by bringing stories that are not in line with it. The last story I can remember was one I recently translated for FreeRepublic, an interview about Quaeda influence and structures in Bosnia that implicated that the former SPD/Green government had chosen the wrong side in that war.

2. Near all articles in "Der Spiegel" have a strong pro left and yes, like it or not, anti-American spin. Example: [...] Bush

Pro-left: yes, 'anti-American': no. I'll give it to you that they hate Bush and tend to report negative about his government. On the other hand, they tend to publish many articles of Henryk M. Broder, for example. Broder is a decidedly pro-conservative Jew, whose last book on the mindstate of the German war on terror bore the name: "Horray, we're surrendering!".

Der Spiegel is within this left oriented media landscape on the more far left edge.

I'll make it short and give you a through pass: Not in the German media landscape. It is the biggest news paper with a bias to the left, but by far not an extremely left paper (those, like for example the "Junge Welt", are really completely unreadable).

A NO NAME company, a NO NAME computer game, not carried in any store, hardly known to anyone gets a major story devoted to it on line. Why?

Because it's news. Anyway, that "Left Behind" series was quite a success up to now, wasn't it? And I am still waiting for you to tell me how this game needs any spin to make a negative impression. Anyway, the topic stayed on the online edition front page for about a day and was then exchanged.