At the end of December 2018, an outstanding event happened in German journalism. Not even an event, but a scandal concerning creditable German edition of Spiegel, which plunged it into a deep crisis.
As experts write, until then the credibility of the facts reported by Spiegel journalists did not arouse even a slight shadow of suspicion. And so, the star of the outlet, a young, talented journalist Claas Relotius, winner of all possible awards for journalistic merit and, most importantly, “for the accuracy of information”, was caught in a lie. For several years, he supplied fake news.
This story was marked by tense excitement not only in Germany, but even on other continents. The US ambassador to Germany made a special statement on this matter, which increased the degree of scandal. Everybody knows that President Trump refers to fake news with considerable bias.
As mentioned above, Spiegel has an impeccable reputation. The magazine was not suspected in providing false information. But is it really so?
Let’s take the events of the last year connected with Russia – for example, the Skripal case, not mentioning systematic accusations of Russia’s use of chemical warfare agents not only for allegedly “poisoning of Skripals”, but massively against the civilian population in Syria. All this was vibrantly presented in Spiegel.
Don’t forget of lies in the coverage of events in Ukraine, including the downed Boeing and the Crimea that returned to Russia by legal means? The list will be very long.
Here you can also take video clips about a Syrian boy or girl, who have repeatedly changed their affiliation to different countries in video reports on the “crimes” of regimes that are not acceptable to NATO countries. After all, not only Relotius composed these fakes. And even more…
There is a single line of the mainstream media in the West. This propaganda of transatlantic geopolitics and psychological weapons against their own people – a constant lie about democracy, supposedly existing in these countries.
In fact, real politics does not take into account the will of the people. The media supports the opinion among the people that true democracy can only be present in the West. This propaganda is directed simultaneously to the peoples of other countries in order to introduce Western “democracy” there.
And Spiegel is one of the leading Western media distributed in many countries, in Russia too. Virtually all mainstream media exist to manipulate facts as a political tool. All western media space adheres to the main line, set in the days of Goebbels: “The essence of propaganda is simplicity and repetition.”
A striking example of a propaganda tool is the Marshall Plan, in which America financed Germany and other European countries after the war to help them recover, in fact making them vassals of the United States.
It is known that all major Western media serve the politics and economy of the United States, respectively, receive investments from there. Mass media are included in election campaigns, in economic wars, etc.
The performance of the media fluctuates, orders must be fulfilled, funding must be cost-effective. Media wars go to a new level. In recognition of sane Western politicians, there was no such heat of Russophobia even during the Cold War with the USSR.
So why suddenly such a successful young journalist was caught by the hand and fired? Why didn’t they shut up, but highlighted a scandal?
There is a version that they wanted to hush up, but their fellow journalist Juan, who was with Claas on this trip to the US-Mexico border, prevented it. A colleague suspected that there were inconsistencies in Claas’s material and not everything looked plausible. He advised Claas not to publish this material as unreliable, but the latter did not listen to good advice.
In addition, the Spiegel authorities, having learned of this, condemned the colleague of the young talent and Juan was threatened with dismissal for undermining the authority of the best journalist and outlet itself. But the editorial office had to behave differently.
The Spiegel’s editorial presented to the world a relatively plausible story about the activities of a special inspection department, which also found a fake from Claas, but in a different material.
But the real reason why the scandal still sounded, most likely, is different. Claas could not resist in the matrix of fakes, which has existed for a long time in mainstream media. Fakes should be systemic. And Claas went beyond what is permitted.
In addition, he tried to circumvent his colleagues by twisting fictional vignettes on fake facts, which made him popular and gave so many awards – not for journalism, but for fascinating literary works.
And the Spiegel’s editorial office wants to save face. Of course, this case will not undermine Spiegel, and Claas will not remain without work. It is possible that in time he will return to the same outlet and will honestly work in the field of propaganda. But with caution and not going beyond the system.