Constantly.
I didn't notice it so much when I lived in Hungary but HOLY CRAP do they constantly lie in Germany and Austria. The Beeb also lies their asses off non stop. But its not just the lies. Its also the lies of omission and the constant emphasis on anything that is negative. Part of it is Butthurt. A big part is they are trying to protect "the European Social Model" ie socialism. If they admitted many things were better in the US, the peasants would start asking the Establishment some very difficult questions. We can't have that.
The vast majority of Europeans have no idea how big the US is. They think Blacks are 30% or 40% of the population and are shocked when you tell them they are only 13%. They think people are left to die in the streets if they don't have private medical insurance. They don't really understand that the US is a federation and that states really matter and have a lot of power. They think the federal government and more specifically the president run everything. For example they'll spout off to you about how "the US only spends X amount of dollars on Education" and how this is so terrible/scandalous/sucks, etc. When you simply respond that STATES pay for elementary school through college and not the federal government it barely computes. It doesn't work that way anywhere in Europe so they don't understand that it does work that way in the US.
They've been told there are few worker protections and its very easy for employers to fire employees in the US - which is true. Here comes the Lie of Omission...they are not told its much easier to get hired in the US. They European media will go on and on about the crime/murder rate in the US (this was more true in the past before they imported violent 3rd world savages by the millions). They won't admit a helluva lot of it is Black inner city drug gangs killing each other. They'll never tell their viewers that 68% of counties in the US have 1 or 0 murders per year....ie most of the country is quite safe if you're not a Black inner city drug dealer and if you don't hang around those people.
They're told about "gun deaths" in the US but are never told 2/3rds of them are suicides. They are deliberately led to think those are all murders. You can tell most of them all of the above and they'll think you're lying to them....that you're just some hyper nationalistic American trying to explain away all the bad things. Even educated Europeans overwhelmingly only go to a tiny handful of places in the US (NYC, San Francisco, Vegas, LA, Disneyworld) and will think they know the whole country from that. It doesn't even occur to them that their media has been constantly lying to them all their lives.
I quickly noticed all of the above 35 years ago when I first started living in Europe. They simply would not believe me when I contradicted any of the propaganda their media told them. Its finally starting to dawn on some of them who came and saw some actual places in America for this World Cup. This is why they're so shocked by everything. Its not at all what they were led to expect.
There is a YouTube channel by a guy whose handle is "Serpentza" who lived in Communist China for 15 years, and he made that point. He is originally from South Africa (and I believe he became an American citizen after he left China) He said that in China, many newcomers who don't know the language or the writing have no idea how abjectly racist many Chinese are, and it is a shock when they begin to learn the language. Also, your comment about how big the USA is was amusing to me after seeing a report of a bunch of Scottish guys in Boston who completely didn't understand the distance between Boston and Miami, and decided to drive, thinking it would be an easy, short trip!
Thanks for that perspective. Important to remind everyone of these things. Also, 35 years ago, Europe was in fact much safer than the US. Not today.
No different than “Vremya” in the Soviet Union.