[Fake News] Quo Vadis - Claas Relotius and the Spiegel 2019-06-09

The discovery of the fakes Claas Relotius caused a sensation in December 2018. The journalist wrote mainly for the Spiegel but also for the newspapers taz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt, Zeit Online, Zeit Wissen, Cicero, NZZ am Sonntag and the Weltwoche. The Spiegel then focused on it summoned a reconnaissance commission and now published a final report. See: Claas Relotius

Die gute Nachricht: Es wurden keine Hinweise darauf gefunden, dass jemand im Haus von den Fälschungen wusste, sie deckte oder gar an ihnen beteiligt war.

The good news: No evidence was found that anyone in the house knew, covered or even participated in the fakes. [1,p.1]

This commission began work in January 2019 and was able to move around freely in the house and hold discussions but was not bound by instructions. In the course of its work the Commission has been investigating the dimensions of the fakes how they were made and what motives have caused them. The final report was published in May 2019. [1,p.2]

Die schlechte Nachricht: Wir haben uns von Relotius einwickeln lassen und in einem Ausmaß Fehler gemacht, das gemessen an den Maßstäben dieses Haus unwürdig ist. Und: Wir sind, als erste Zweifel aufkamen, viel zu langsam in die Gänge gekommen und haben Relotius’ immer neuen Lügen zu lange geglaubt. In seiner Verdichtung zeichnet der Bericht da ein verheerendes Bild.

The bad news: We got ourselves entangled by Relotius and made mistakes to an extent that is unworthy of the scale for this house. And: When the first doubts arose we got up much too slowly and believed Relotius' ever new lies for too long. In short the report paints a devastating picture. [1,p.1]

1. The First Consequence
2. The Dimensions of the Fakes
3. How it could happen
4. The Motivation for the Fakes

The First Consequence

In March 2019 two months before the final report was published it became known that the editor-in-chief of Spiegel Ullrich Fichtner and Matthias Geyer had been entrusted with new tasks and both of them were not taking on the management functions and chief editor as originally intended for them. According to the commission Ullrich Fichtner and Matthias Geyer are not to blame for the fakes. According to the Spiegel both take responsibility to meet the standards and to dispel any doubts about the integrity of the Spiegel. [1,p.5ff] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

On behalf of the editor-in-chief Fichtner will push ahead with major projects while designing and writing cover stories. And Geyer gives up as the head of the department of society at his own request and will work also on behalf of the editor in chief as an editor for special tasks in future. It is interesting that this happened before the final report. [1,p.5ff] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

The Dimensions of the Fakes

In 2017 Relotius wrote about the small town of Fergus Falls (USA) in which he served the readership various fairy tales of the same kind. Allegedly the war movie American Sniper runs in the local cinema for two years, at the entrance there is a sign saying Mexicans Keep Out, a school would be protected with a metal detector and three armored glass doors and much more and thus mainly served the prejudices about rural America. From 2016 to 2018 Relotius has written several articles about the war in Syria in which he like many of his colleagues confirms the image of Bashar al-Assad as a barrel bomb-throwing dictator. Like many of his colleagues Relotius also claimed that the war in Syria was a civil war that broke out after a young boy one day painted graffiti against the government, was thus arrested and tortured in custody. See: Claas Relotius

In addition Relotius together with his colleagues reported sympathetically on the ship Lifeline of Captain Claus-Peter Reisch and confirmed the narrative of the righteous rescuers off the Libyan coast without any alternative. Like many of his colleagues Relotius has not said that ships like the Lifeline do not save people in the Mediterranean but rather pick them up off the coast. However even the shortest route from the Libyan coast to the Italian island of Lampedusa is over 200 km (125 miles) and can not be found without a location system and the next route from the Libyan coast to the Sicilian coast is over 500 km (300 miles) and is out of reach due to an inevitable shortage of water, food and fuel even for a middle boat. On August 26, 2018 Relotius conducted an interview with Traute Lafrenz in South Carolina the last surviving member of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance organization. In it Relotius falsely claimed that Lafrenz was outraged about the events after the murder of Daniel H. on August 25, 2018 in Chemnitz (Germany). This should have been noticed immediately because it is absurd to assume that a 99-year-old woman in the US is informed about the regional events in Germany on the very next day. See: Claas Relotius

Other Fakes of Relotius for the sake of dramaturgy are the change of places of events and that a woman only observed the G20 protests in Hamburg (Germany) in 2017 and did not take part in it. [1,p.14ff] In addition Relotius has written the climate cover story "Was der Erde droht" (What the earth is threatened with). However Relotius was not as claimed on the island of Kiribati his text was faked. [1,p.5ff]

And Relotius was uncovered because of the article "Jaegers Grenze" (Jaeger's Border) in which he and his Spanish counterpart Juan Moreno reported about a vigilante militia in the US against immigrants as well as about the people who were on their way through Mexico to enter the USA. Relotius has written about the supposedly trigger-happy xenophobia who are not been able to distinguish between Hungary and Honduras from each other and wrote from mountains where everything is flat, a media shy patrol leader who a few years ago at the center of the documentary Cartel country and an article beginning first without then with alleged shots. After reviewing the inconsistencies Moreno found that allegedly conducted conversations never took place contacted Geyer and delivered in a long E-Mail points and suspicions. [1,p.5ff]

Schon beim Telefonat am 16. November erkannte Matthias Geyer nach Ansicht der Kommission das Gewicht von Morenos Anschuldigungen. Er sagte nach eigenem Bekunden zu Moreno: »Juan, ich möchte einmal festhalten, worum es hier geht: Entweder richtest du gerade einen Kollegen hin, oder du richtest dich selber hin.« (Moreno selbst hat das Zitat etwas anders in Erinnerung: »Du weißt schon, was du da gerade tust? Du versuchst, das Leben einesjungen, talentierten Kollegen zu zerstören.«)

Already during the telephone conversation on November 16, Matthias Geyer recognized the weight of Moreno's accusations. He said by his own admission to Moreno: "Juan I want to stress what this is about: Either you're going to put a colleague down or you're going to put yourself down. " (Moreno himself remembers the quote a little differently: "You know what you're doing right now? You're trying to destroy the life of a young, talented colleague. ") [1,p.5ff]

Moreno countered with resistance. The final report says that Moreno was clear at this point that he is dealing with a process that will have consequences for one of the two involved. And while the department of society did not investigate Moreno went of its own accord to the US and clarified the case on its own. [1,p.5ff]

How it could happen

The final report shows that Relotius has repeatedly made himself suspicious by refusing a making-of-Viedo, because of critical letters for his texts and the jury of Henri Nannen Prize mistrusted Relotius. [1,p.3ff] According to the final report nobody at the Spiegel could imagine that he was working incorrectly or even falsified articles. When asked whether it is surprising that such a young colleague in delivers such extraordinary texts most have replied that they thought Relotius he was better or thought he was just always lucky. [1,p.2] However when Moreno contacted Geyer about the inconsistencies found Moreno encountered resistance. For one Geyer Moreno warned that the consequence for Relotius or Moreno would be the end of the career on the other hand Geyer took side with Relotius. [1,p.5ff]

Er hat allerdings, das muss dann nun auch mal auf den Tisch, die Gelegenheit genutzt, diffuse Drohungen auszusprechen. Er raunte, dass der Fall womöglich bald öffentlich werde, dass ihn, Moreno, bereits eine Journalistin kontaktiert habe, dass die Leute der Miliz Klagen gegen den SPIEGEL planten, solche Dinge. Seine eigene Rolle dabei blieb diffus, es war aber klar, dass er andeuten wollte, womöglich selbst illoyal zu werden. Ich habe ihm deshalb nicht nur gesagt, dass er ›Partei‹ sei, was er im juristischen Sinne ja auch war; ich sagte ihm aufgrund seiner zum Teil ziemlich schmierigen Drohungen auch, und zwar mehr oder weniger wörtlich: Juan, ganz ehrlich, du klingst grade wie eine Figur aus einem Mafiafilm.

However he has and that has to be said used the opportunity to make diffuse threats. He whispered that the case might soon be public that he (Moreno) had already contacted a journalist that people in the militia were planning lawsuits against SPIEGEL things like that. His own role remained vague but it was clear that he wanted to suggest that he himself might become disloyal. Therefore I not only told him that he was a "partisan" which in the legal sense he was; I also told him because of his sometimes quite greasy threats, more or less literally: Juan to be honest you sound like a character from a mafia movie. [1,p.7]

The final report also accuses the department of society of Relotius of shutting off criticism. This is so because the department of society is not interested in the competence of the other departments and ignores them. And since the department of society would not have to ensure a permanent cooperation with the informants on site the department of society in the respective reporting areas often leaves scorched earth behind. This has led to a conflict situation between the department of society and the rest. [1,p.11ff]

Unabhängig von der speziellen Situation im Gesellschaftsressort scheinen einige SPIEGEL -Redakteure zu glauben, dass vor allem Dokumentation und Rechtsabteilung dafür verantwortlich sind, fehlerfreie Texte zu produzieren. Zahlreiche Dokumentare äußerten in Gesprächen mit der Kommission erschreckende Dinge. So würden Redakteure etwas als Tatsache darstellen, obwohl es nur von einem Gesprächspartner gesagt worden sei; aus stilistischen Gründen werde oft unterschlagen, dass die beschriebene Tatsache nur auf einer einzigen Äußerung beruhe. Fakten, die nicht in die Stoßrichtung einer Geschichte passten, würden manchmal einfach weggelassen.

Regardless of the specific situation in the department of society some SPIEGEL editors seem to believe that it is mainly the documentation and legal department that are responsible for producing error-free texts. Many documentaries expressed alarming things in talks with the commission. So editors would represent something as a fact even though it was said only by one person; and for stylistic reasons it is often overlooked that facts described are based on only one statement. Facts that did not fit into the thrust of a story would sometimes be left out. [1,p.12]

The information campaign is not bound by instructions but has provided suggestions. Thus all quotations and events should be documented with proof and a complete documentation of the research, it should be aimed at more objectivity and less decorated texts. [1,p.16]

The Motivation for the Fakes

Relotius has denied interview requests through his lawyer. The motivation of Relotius therefore remains at least partially open. However in past statements by Relotius it was said that he was under pressure to succeed which has increased with every price and success. [1,p.2] In the final report it is also assumed that the pressure from journalist awards, the position of the department of society at the Spiegel, the lack of documentation and the internal handling of errors have promoted or even provoked the counterfeits. [1,p.8]

Innerhalb eines selbstreferenziellen Systems der medialen Blase war niemand in der Lage, das Unwahrscheinliche in Relotius’ Texten als Fälschung zu vermuten oder gar zu erkennen.

Within a self-referential system of the medial bubble nobody was able to suspect or even recognize the improbable in Relotius' texts as fakes. [1,p.10]

The former deputy editor-in-chief Susanne Beyer also confirmed in a conversation with the commission that journalist prizes had been expressly requested by the editor-in-chief. And the corporate department was in the focus. [1,p.11]

[1] Der Fall Relotius - Abschlussbericht der Aufklärungskommission 2019-05-25
https://www.spiegel.de/media/media-44509.pdf
[2] Ullrich Fichtner und Matthias Geyer - Relotius-Skandal: Spiegel lobt Vorgesetzte in Strategie-Jobs weg 2019-03-20
https://www.focus.de/kultur/medien/ullrich-fichtner-und-matthias-geyer-relotius-skandal-spiegel-lobt-vorgesetzte-in-strategie-jobs-weg_id_10478378.html
[3] Fälschungsskandal - Fall Relotius: Ullrich Fichtner wird nicht "Spiegel"-Chefredakteur 2019-03-20
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/spiegel-relotius-fichtner-geyer-1.4375593
[4] FOLGEN DER RELOTIUS-AFFÄRE : Fichtner wird nicht „Spiegel“-Chefredakteur 2019-03-20
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/affaere-um-relotius-fichtner-wird-nicht-spiegel-chefredakteur-16098691.html
[5] „Spiegel“ nach Relotius-Affäre - Schöne neue Jobs 2019-03-20
http://www.taz.de/Spiegel-nach-Relotius-Affaere/!5581335/
[6] Nach Fall Relotius beim "Spiegel" - Fichtner wird nicht Chefredakteur, Geyer nicht Blattmacher 2019-03-20
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/medien/nach-fall-relotius-beim-spiegel-fichtner-wird-nicht-chefredakteur-geyer-nicht-blattmacher/24123524.html
[7] Der «Spiegel» zieht personelle Konsequenzen aus dem Fall Relotius 2019-03-20
https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/medien/fall-relotius-als-karrierekiller-ld.1468629