> I can think of two reasons why the US is seen this way. First of all, the US is one of the countries which *can* have a significant effect on the world if it chooses to do so -- in military, economic or any other terms. I don't know if/how this affects other powerful countries, but from the viewpoint of a small and not tremendously globally significant country, that is a very big factor in how the US is perceived. Major US decisions, scandals, elections, wars and so on naturally get news coverage here, because all of those things are important to the world in general. I think it's true to say that the average NZer doesn't give a damn what goes on in US political circles, but if anything major happens there, yes, it does affect us and the rest of the world, and we want to know about it.

Ah, brilliant. Having written this paragraph as a background to the point I intended to make, I then left out the point I intended to make and just charged right on to the next paragraph.

What I meant to add was that the USA might get perceived as a bully or tyrant just because it IS able to go around affecting other countries. If you come from a country that DOESN'T affect other countries, seeing one which DOES can make it seem like that. Note: I'm not saying this is a rational conclusion, just a possible one.