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Here is a German scandal to be mad about : A german reporter who completely falsified most of his stories and was employed by one of germany most renown magazines, der Spiegel. Der Spiegel is well known in germany for its in depth invastigative pieces, comparable perhaps, to the US New Yorker. This scandal is already being used by Germanys right wing political parties in their spreading of fake news accusations against Germanys main stream media. You can read the (English version) article here: http://m.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/claas-relotius-reporter-forgery-scandal-a-1244755.html Its well worth the read: Der Spiegel posted:It has now become clear that Claas Relotius, 33 years old, one of DER SPIEGEL's best writers, winner of multiple awards and a journalistic idol of his generation, is neither a reporter nor a journalist. Rather, he produces beautifully narrated fiction. Truth and lies are mixed together in his articles and some, at least according to him, were even cleanly reported and free of fabrication. Others, he admits, were embellished with fudged quotes and other made-up facts. Still others were entirely fabricated. During his confession on Thursday, Relotius said, verbatim: "It wasn't about the next big thing. It was the fear of failure." And: "The pressure not to fail grew as I became more successful." demonicon fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Dec 20, 2018 |
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Dec 20, 2018 17:36
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:11 |
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For the relotius story you can read the link from my post (page 3). It's quite an interesting albeit very long read. Der Spiegel also tries to explain in the article why fact checking didn't always work because of the style relotius used in his writing. His style of reporting was that of a "grand story" where he would mix hard facts with personal observations and characterizations. This lead to large parts of his texts being un checkable as he would make sure he was the only one who had met his (completely invented) characters. A quote from the article: Spiegel posted:As such, there is no simple remedy. Already, every text printed in DER SPIEGEL goes through a thorough fact-checking and vetting process to review the accuracy of every fact stated in an article. When Claas Relotius wrote in his first major feature for DER SPIEGEL, "At Home in Hell," that the city of Marianna is located "an hour by car west of Tallahassee" in northern Florida, a DER SPIEGEL fact checker reviewed whether that detail was accurate. This is a huge scandal in Germany, being used by right wing parties to discredit the main stream media further, but has also sparked some (I believe) healthy discussions whether the style of reporting itself is to blame for this. As for the gynaecologists case I agree, this could have been checked. However, keep in mind that relotius was well aware of this and tried to get around that by various means. He would not release the actual names of his protagonists (claiming they wanted to stay anonymous) or ask for articles not to be released in English or even digitally. Even going so far as falsifying emails or creating fake Facebook profiles. demonicon posted:Here is a German scandal to be mad about : A german reporter who completely falsified most of his stories and was employed by one of germany most renown magazines, der Spiegel. demonicon fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Dec 23, 2018 |
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Dec 23, 2018 16:08
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In relotius case he would try to actually limit his audience. (see above added paragraph) It seems his target audience were actually other journalists and the media industry itself which would reliably reward him with prizes for his articles.
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Dec 23, 2018 16:20
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I completely agree. However, I think this is a fundemantal problem for humans not only limited to the media world. Everyone lives in his own world, filtered, as you said, by his brain. Sometimes I am surprised that we can even talk to each other because even words have totally different meanings for different people. Take climate change for example, for one person it means severe ecological danger for the human species, for the other it means bullshit thing invented by China costing me money. I do not think this is an issue we can solve and therefore we have to accept that everyone filters the world his own way, even reporters. The only thing we could do, in the reporting world, is to only ever simply report facts and not write a "story" about the facts. But I am afraid that people wouldn't want to read that. Look, for example, at the story I linked. The german version is obviously written a lot better as the translation is not that good, but even in the english version it is an interesting, sometimes even thrilling Story. Its opening paragraphs could be taken out of a novel: Spiegel posted:Shortly before the end of his journalistic career, misery and glamor crossed paths in the life of Claas Relotius. Even when reporting about the relotius case Spiegel couldn't help themselves but write in the very same style. And were actually heavily critized for it. The reason they did this, is that their audience wants this kind of writing. And It is entertaining to read.
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Dec 23, 2018 16:52
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I mostly agree. Another interesting aspect: In Germany we have state funded media who do not have to earn any money by sales and actually have the mission to be independent and neutral. They still however have a similar style of reporting because, I believe, if you simple state facts no one would even read it. If no one reads what you publish there is no sense in publishing, even if you take money out of the equation.
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Dec 23, 2018 17:06
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In Germany there is a proverb: The freedom of the press is the freedom of 100 rich people to publish their opinion.
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Dec 23, 2018 17:15
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Silver2195 posted:I don't see much of an alternative to a professional informer class, though. Most people don't have the time, expertise, or even inclination do find out what's going on in the world for themselves. Obviously newspapers get things wrong all the time, but the informal grapevine seen, e.g., on Twitter gets things wrong a lot more often. Me too. It is upon the professional informer class to do this in a reliable and professional fashion. We have to live with people who are too stupid, lazy or busy to think beyond their own tribe. It should be the mission of the free press to surprise these people. With facts.
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Dec 24, 2018 01:11
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OwlFancier posted:I'm saying that "don't trust the media" is a good statement in general. Because the media is institutionally incapable of effecting change and also institutionally incapable of providing the kind of comprehensive and effective worldview they would like to sell you. Don't put your faith in the press and don't respond to attacks on the press by supporting them as an institution. Not least because, assuming you're on the left, they will never reciprocate the favour. That is another thing they are institutionally incapable of doing. I have to disagree with your first statement. The media IS capable of effecting change or at least propagating the change. What we have learned though in our German scandal is that "the media" is comprised of exactly the same people as in any other company.
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Dec 24, 2018 01:24
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V. Illych L. posted:tbh i think it's uselessly paranoid to assume that media people are usually lying I totally agree
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Dec 24, 2018 01:26
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:11 |
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And also I don't want to make this about Germany at all, but we are the most recent western democratic people who had the opportunity to enjoy listening to state run propaganda. This is why Germany has a state funded media, not run, state funded.
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Dec 24, 2018 01:42
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