It makes sense really. Let's pretend you're the German government/media:
Our unemployment rate is an embarrassingly dangerous 12%, our econonomy is free falling into the abyss, our society is being overrun by Muslim immigrants, German businesses are leaving the country due to ridiculously restrictive taxes, regulations, and labor laws, and new businesses are reluctant to start up here for the same reason. Let's see, things are falling apart here in our socialist "utopia" and we need a scapegoat to divert the attention of the masses from the actual cause. Let's continue Herr Schröder's anti-American campaign and no one will notice that our welfare state is fast becoming a huge disaster.
And it becomes worse every day: Now, more than 168,000 people are not health-insured! They´ve fallen through the so-called social net and now either have to pay for medical treatment (which they can´t often enough) or go to the doctors who help for free. This can´t be true.
I guess blaming the jews isn't good enough anymore.
"we need a scapegoat to divert the attention of the masses"
This is a tried and true strategy. The long-term cost, of course, will be paid by the significant increase of anti-German sentiment here in the US - as any European poster to this board knows only too well. This new attitude is not going away, nor is it just a "bump" in the road in German / US relations. Americans have changed their attitudes towards the French and Germans and, for many of us, we no longer see these countries as allies.