As a foreigner living in the States, I see people falling into an inconsistency:

1) People outside the US judge the US and it’s people by what they see in the US media (as reported in their own media).

2) A lot of people (myself included) in the US spend a lot of time being annoyed by the stupidity, bias, and shallowness of their media. They realise that the media are not at all representative of America.

3) Those same people (myself included) then judge Europeans by their media.

4) Even with the above points, it is important to realise that people’s opinions are heavily affected by the media.

So I guess the main point is that the media suck, no matter your continent. They are unrepresentative and generally awful. It’s generally a mistake judging other countries’ inhabitants by their media, regardless of where you are.