Fox Business Item Draws Angry Reaction From Danish Government

(Bloomberg) -- A Fox Business item characterizing Denmark as a socialist dystopia has drawn an angry response from politicians from the Nordic country.

The Fox Business broadcast suggests that Denmark is an economic failure because of its high taxes and a lack of free-market incentives. Presenter Trish Regan makes her points during a monologue in which she juxtaposes the economy of Denmark with that of Venezuela.

Danish Finance Minister Kristian Jensen responded to Regan’s report via Twitter, and invited her to come to Denmark to learn more about the country.

“So Danes don’t want to work? 11 places better than U.S. in OECD statistics! We are working much more than Americans and at the same time ranking as the world’s best in work-life balance. You should come to Denmark if you dare to be confronted with the facts,” Jensen said. The minister then finished his tweet with a smiley face.

Jensen told the Ritzau news agency that Regan’s comments were “simply an expression of how politicized” and “completely decoupled from facts” some “American news media have become.” The minister also warned that abandoning facts in journalism ultimately hurts democracy, according to the report published by Denmark’s state broadcaster DR.

Jensen said Denmark’s high tax burden reflects the fact that citizens “get a lot back from the public coffers.”

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. is No. 20 in a ranking of national employment rates, while Denmark ranks eighth. When it comes to income equality, Denmark has the sixth-best distribution, while the U.S. is ranked seventh from the bottom, just above Turkey. In work-life-balance, Denmark ranks second-highest in the OECD (just after the Netherlands), while the U.S. ranks ninth from the bottom.

The Danish ambassador to the U.S., Lars Gert Lose, also felt compelled to respond to the Fox Business item.

“Dear Trish Regan, we did some quick research on Denmark’s global rankings.” Lose then offers the anchor some facts about Denmark, replete with links to his source material. The ambassador also suggests that Regan visit his country to see for herself.

To contact the reporters on this story: Peter Levring in Copenhagen at plevring1@bloomberg.net;Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;Nick Rigillo at nrigillo@bloomberg.net

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