Keith Devens .com

"""...but I constantly wonder to what extent the anti-American opinions of many of those outside the US are shaped predominantly by the opinions fed to them by their media."""

To quite a large extent. I am from the Netherlands, which is considered more "enlightened" (at least by the Dutch themselves ;-). The portrayal of the US in the Dutch media is often negative. Although I don't think the mainstream media would publish blatantly incorrect statements or stories ("Bush fired the CBS guys" etc). I imagine it would be worse if you're in, say, France, or Russia. The bottom line is, I think you can't judge until you have actually lived in the US.