"Just to be clear, I was never implying that conditions in Denmark were similar in any way to the current tragedy on the ground there in Venezuela," Trish Regan said.
“I was merely pointing out, using reports from The Atlantic, The Independent and other publications, that socialism is not the way,” she said. However, the initial comments appeared to have already hit a nerve both in Denmark and abroad, with politicians and general public taking to Twitter to crush Regan’s research.
The journalist’s sarcastic remarks that “all the kids graduating from school in Denmark…want to start cupcake cafés” and “nobody’s incentivized to do anything because they’re not going to be rewarded” were addressed without delay.
“So Danes don’t want to work?” Kristian Jensen, Denmark’s former foreign minister questioned on Twitter, attaching the most recent data on employment rates around the world. “11 places better than US 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,” he pointed out.
Most tongue-in-cheek remarks arrived from Lars Gert Lose, Denmark’s Ambassador to the US, who provided a list of facts about the social and economic welfare in Denmark, adding that those might be “useful context” to Fox’s story about “state of affairs in his country.” The top diplomat went still further inviting Regan to come to Denmark and see everything with her own eyes. “Although lack of cupcake cafés probably will be disappointing,” he sarcastically concluded.
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Denmark’s opposition party, the Social Democrats, also responded to the contentious remarks that “there’s something rotten in Denmark,” quipping in a similar way: “There’s something rotten at Fox News.” Dan Jorgensen opted to bust the journalist’s claims point by point, by posting a respective video:
Twitterians naturally speculated on the “fake news” rhetoric in connection with Fox News, reveling in Regan’s notorious “comedy bit:”
“I always heard about Denmark’s economy. It’s always been positive and then this doofus comes along from Fox News to bring Denmark down. Puhlease!!!???? Stfu & go sit somewhere facing the corner with your dunce hat on, dummy!!!” one user remarked, with another one adding that it is “inconvenient” when some assumptions are “bulldozed” by factual data:
The Danes on Twitter even rushed to invite those in doubts to their home country to check how things stand in reality.