Das hab’ ich in meinen fünf Jahren bei der BBC in London gelernt: Distanz halten, sich nicht gemein machen mit einer Sache, auch nicht mit einer guten, nicht in öffentliche Betroffenheit versinken, im Umgang mit Katastrophen cool bleiben, ohne kalt zu sein. Nur so schaffst du es, dass die Zuschauer dir vertrauen, dich zu einem Familienmitglied machen, dich jeden Abend einschalten und dir zuhören. [1]
That I learned during my five years at the BBC in London: Keeping a distance, not to ally with one thing, not even with a good one, not to sink into affliction in public, stay cool in dealing with disasters without being cold. That's the only way you can get viewers to trust you, to make you a family member, so they look at you at every night and listen to you. [1]This is a way of working that is attributed to the German journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs. Whether he is the author and whether Friedrich has always done justice to it is not the topic here. But the idea is essential because what the supposedly good thing is can change. And then something wrong can be done in the name of good. Anyone who has experienced a communist or socialist government or has relatives from that time knows such stories.
In fact journalists can commit serious mistakes. People may knowingly or unknowingly select or interpret information in a way that confirms their own expectations. This behavior can also be seen in the fact that people are more likely to remember events that confirm their own expectations. Such behavior is called confirmation bias. Another such mistakes is the misinterpretion by omission. This is not a direct lie but the deliberate omission of informations that does not confirm your own expectations. Such behavior is also called lying by omission.
see also:
[Fake News] Claas Relotius and the German Lügenpresse
The case of Relotius is no exception. [2] Tom Kummer deceived the SZ magazine in 2000 with fake interviews. [3] And in 2005 Kummer deceived the Berliner Zeitung (Berlin newspaper) by simply putting together a report from old articles and declaring it as new. [4] In 2011 the Spiegel editor Rene Pfister had to return the Henri Nannen Prize. Pfister has falsely claimed to have met with a politician. [5] And in 2012 Heribert Prantl also falsely claimed to have met with the President of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) Andreas Voßkuhle. [6]
Despite such problems there is no shortage of prizes for journalists. In Germany there are several hundred prizes for journalists. There are 69 awards for junior journalism, 29 for politics and law, 14 for Europe, 44 for society and social affairs and 30 for business and finance. [7]
Relotius has also manipulated for this corresponding narrative. His colleagues Anja Reschke and Georg Restle from public broadcaste also suggest this. Both criticize the neutrality requirement for journalists. Both have called for journalism to report oriented on values and demonstrate their attitude. Restle admits that journalists always include their own attitude when selecting and sorting out news. Instead of a balanced, critical and neutral reporting he argues that journalists should be humanistic. Reschke directly paints the oversized straw man. According to her democracy is endangered in Germany and the political situation is comparable to the Weimar Republic. The threat is allegedly from the right. However she does not provide any evidence for this. So both want to cancel the neutrality requirement in favor of a supposedly good cause. [8] [9,S.44-45] [10] [11]
However when journalists do not focus on the facts but on an attitude then this is reflected in the reporting. So the question is what kind of attitude journalists have. According to a study on the views and voting behavior of journalists in Germany a quarter of the journalists choose the vote for the Green-Party. And almost half of the journalists choose the left-wing and Green parties. The conservative CDU/CSU and the marcet-liberal FDP account for only 9 and 7.4 percent respectively. Left and Greens are thus over-represented while other parties are dramatically underrepresented. [20,S.18]
The case of Relotius sheds a glaring light on the methods and arrogance of some journalists. And if the journalists do not draw conclusions then readers have to do it. Criticism of the press is therefore not just serving the wrong people. Because of the Relotius-affair it is even more important to say what is. If the truth supposedly serves the wrong people then something is odd about the right people.
[1] Cool bleiben, nicht kalt 1995-03-27
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9176410.html
[1] Der Spiegel 52 2018-12-22
http://www.spiegel.de/media/media-43950.pdf
[3] Als Tom Kummer die Welt zum Narren hielt 2010-10-25
http://www.focus.de/kultur/medien/media-box-als-tom-kummer-die-welt-zum-narren-hielt_aid_565446.html
[4] Der Fälscher der Wahrheit 2011-05-03
http://nachrichten.rp-online.de/kultur/der-faelscher-der-wahrheit-1.876648
[5] Jury erkennt "Spiegel"-Redakteur Nannen-Preis ab 2011-05-09
https://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article106524732/Jury-erkennt-Spiegel-Redakteur-Nannen-Preis-ab.html
[6] SZ-Autor trickst bei Voßkuhle-Porträt 2012-07-30
http://www.fr.de/kultur/netz-tv-kritik-medien/medien/vorwurf-gegen-sueddeutsche-zeitung-sz-autor-trickst-bei-vosskuhle-portraet-a-830696
[7] Journalistenpreise
http://www.journalistenpreise.de/?id=preis
[8] Georg Restle 2018-07-03
https://twitter.com/georgrestle/status/1014133298245853184/photo/1
[9] print Juli/August 2018
http://print.wdr.de/2018-07_08/
[10] Anja Reschke: "Dagegen halten - Mund aufmachen" NDR 2015-08-05
https://youtu.be/i9kv-rmvGKg
[11] Haltung zeigen! - mit Anja Reschke 2018-12-27
https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/srfglobal/video/haltung-zeigen-mit-anja-reschke?id=7d4dc80c-8f00-4df6-9d9e-1de8056b0508&startTime=198.067514&station=dd0fa1ba-4ff6-4e1a-ab74-d7e49057d96f
https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/srfglobal/haltung-zeigen-mit-anja-reschke
[12] POLITIKJOURNALISTINNEN UND -JOURNALISTEN 2010-05
https://www.dfjv.de/documents/10180/178294/DFJV_Studie_Politikjournalistinnen_und_Journalisten.pdf
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