Der Spiegel says top journalist faked stories for years

[harrybarracuda]

Fake News!

The media world was stunned by the revelations that the award-winning journalist Claas Relotius had, according to the weekly, “made up stories and invented protagonists” in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in its print and online editions, warning that other outlets could also be affected.


Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam. He had written for the magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.

Earlier this month, he won Germany’s Reporterpreis (Reporter of the Year) for his story about a young Syrian boy, which the jurors praised for its “lightness, poetry and relevance”. It has since emerged that all the sources for his reportage were at best hazy, and much of what he wrote was made up.

The falsification came to light after a colleague who worked with him on a story along the US-Mexican border raised suspicions about some of the details in Relotius’s reporting, having harboured doubts about him for some time.


The colleague, Juan Moreno, eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November. Both said they had never met Relotius. Relotius had also lied about seeing a hand-painted sign that read “Mexicans keep out”, a subsequent investigation found.

Other fraudulent stories included one about a Yemeni prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, and one about the American football star Colin Kaepernick.

In a lengthy article, Spiegel, which sells about 725,000 print copies a month and has an online readership of more than 6.5 million, said it was “shocked” by the discovery and apologised to its readers and to anyone who may have been the subject of “fraudulent quotes, made-up personal details or invented scenes at fictitious places”.

The Hamburg-based magazine, which was founded in 1947 and is renowned for its in-depth investigative pieces, said Relotius had committed journalistic fraud “on a grand scale”. It described the episode as “a low point in Spiegel’s 70-year history”. An in-house commission has been set up to examine all of Relotius’ work for the weekly.

The reporter also wrote for a string of other well-known outlets, including the German newspapers taz, Welt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Sunday edition. Die Welt tweeted on Wednesday: “He abused his talent”.

Relotius told Spiegel he regretted his actions and was deeply ashamed, the magazine said. “I am sick and I need to get help,” he was quoted as saying.

Moreno, who has worked for the magazine since 2007, risked his own job when he confronted other colleagues with his suspicions, many of whom did not want to believe him. “For three to four weeks Moreno went through hell because colleagues and those senior to him did not want to believe his accusations at first,” Der Spiegel wrote in an apology to its readers. For several weeks, the magazine said, Relotius was even considered to be the victim of a cunning plot by Moreno.

“Relotius cleverly rebuffed all the attacks, all of Moreno’s well-researched pieces of evidence … until there came a point when that didn’t work any more, until he finally couldn’t sleep any more, hunted by the fear of being discovered,” the magazine wrote.

Relotius, it added, finally gave himself up last week after being confronted by a senior editor.

In his confession to his employer, he said: “It wasn’t because of the next big thing. It was fear of failing. My pressure to not be able to fail got ever bigger the more successful I became.”

The magazine, which is one of Germany’s most prominent news organisations, is now trying to rescue its reputation amid fears a magazine already challenged by the problems in the German newspaper industry will struggle to recover.

“All [his] colleagues are deeply shattered,” the magazine wrote. In particular, it said, in the Society department, where he worked, “[his] colleagues are astounded and sad … the affair feels like a death in the family.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ake-interviews

[Switch]

His TD online username is Butterfly.

[pseudolus]

CNN's journalist of the year 2014. Sounds about right.

https://www.europeanpressprize.com/a...rapped-turkey/

Like nearly all "journalism" these days his work is short on quantifiable facts and just pages of emotion tugging prose. Wonder how much of the rest of the mainstream narrative is false?

[harrybarracuda]

CNN's journalist of the year 2014. Sounds about right.

https://www.europeanpressprize.com/a...rapped-turkey/

Like nearly all "journalism" these days his work is short on quantifiable facts and just pages of emotion tugging prose. Wonder how much of the rest of the mainstream narrative is false?

He'll be OK, he's obviously well qualified for a job at RT or Xinhua.

[pseudolus]

Or with CNN and the BBC where virtually every are opinion pieces filled with quotes from "our sources" or "one person we met said".

One of their lot was caught red handed. Dealt with but they will carry on as usual.

[HuangLao]

It's all contrived, highly manipulative, and agenda driven.

And yet, we'll debate as to which propaganda machine is worthy [or not] of our defence and apologies.

The dumbing down and slumber continues along it's merry path, just as they designed it to be.

[harrybarracuda]

Or with CNN and the BBC where virtually every are opinion pieces filled with quotes from "our sources" or "one person we met said".

One of their lot was caught red handed. Dealt with but they will carry on as usual.

The difference is that if he worked for RT or Xinhua, his colleagues would have not escalated it, his bosses would already know about it and he wouldn't get sacked.

[SKkin]

Wonder how much of the rest of the mainstream narrative is false?

Did the Russians make you post that?

[pseudolus]

^Yes. A many babushkas as I can eat.

The difference is that if he worked for RT or Xinhua, his colleagues would have not escalated it, his bosses would already know about it and he wouldn't get sacked.

Sorry I forgot, you actually think the BBC / CNN do not approve of these things and their role as propaganda outlets to push the States narrative is purely coincidental and not by design.

Simpleton.

[HuangLao]

^Yes. A many babushkas as I can eat.



Sorry I forgot, you actually think the BBC / CNN do not approve of these things and their role as propaganda outlets to push the States narrative is purely coincidental and not by design.

Simpleton.

Save your breath, Sid.
Most will never get it.

[harrybarracuda]

^Yes. A many babushkas as I can eat.



Sorry I forgot, you actually think the BBC / CNN do not approve of these things and their role as propaganda outlets to push the States narrative is purely coincidental and not by design.

Simpleton.

If a journalist at either of those was found to have made up stories he'd be out on his arse.

Stop being so fucking silly.

It's Fox where they don't give a shit.

[pseudolus]

If a journalist at either of those was found to have made up stories he'd be out on his arse.

Stop being so fucking silly.

It's Fox where they don't give a shit.

All they do is make up stories you daft git. Not only that, their role is to push the lies and bullshit manufactured by State propaganda departments. You do not get a job working for the mainstream lot unless you subscribe 100% to the chosen narrative, unquestioningly believe the States line that is fed and will never question if the official narrative is bullshit. If you suddenly wake up and see it is all bullshit you are fired. Information gatekeepers. Sorry you are too dense to realise this CNNHarry.

[stroller]

His TD online username is Butterfly.

You can only wish you'd ever made it that far.

[pseudolus]

Save your breath, Sid.
Most will never get it.

Strollers here. A german I seem to recall? There is some interesting stuff around the false narrative about Keiser Wilhelm, pushed by the pretty much same media companies then that are around today (All the big Newspapers basically). One such was the rape of Belgium. Articles about Nuns being raped, children having their hands cut off, vicars being nailed to crosses etc (same shit these media fucks fill their pages with today). It was the work of.. hold the press... real US investigative journos based in the UK who called bullshit on it. One even wrote a book about it.

H.C. Peterson, Propaganda for war: The campaign against American neutrality, 1914–1917

But you know.. this is all a conspiracy theory.

[stroller]

Butters must know what really happened back then, because he's Belgian (or not).

[Switch]

The Belgian defective is probably a Frenchman hiding in a potato sack.

[Switch]

You can only wish you'd ever made it that far.

Is schmetterling more to your liking buffoon?

[Klondyke]

He'll be OK, he's obviously well qualified for a job at RT or Xinhua.

However, the respected Spiegel (as "recognized media") has paid him more to get him...

[Dragonfly]

His TD online username is Butterfly.

you have gone completely loon,

full diaper ?

[Switch]

you have gone completely loon,

full diaper ?

Just copying you my Gallic chum. Making shit up is your MO isn’t it? lol

[Dragonfly]

Just copying you my Gallic chum. Making shit up is your MO isn’t it? lol

yep, full

[foobar]

“made up stories and invented protagonists”

Sounds a lot like Harry's posts on Chinkies/Ruskies...

[Switch]

Sounds a lot like Harry's posts on Chinkies/Ruskies...

You are Ohoh and I claim my 50 yuan.