German "public" TV land saw a huge controversy in the past two weeks embroiling not only the talk show host at the center of it but sweeping through all media with unexpected ferocity.
On Jan 16, smooth talking host Markus Lanz, seconded by an editor from Der Stern, interviewed Die Linke politician Sarah Wagenknecht.
The host was not polite, interrupting, changing the subject to such important questions as "how much money did you make" -- in short, he was a dick.
A viewer was not pleased and started a petition on German petition site openpetition, demanding "Get Lanz out of my TV license fee".
In the ensuing Twitter storm (tag #lanz) many supported the petition, and many attacked it. The attack left out the "TV license fee" part, thus re-branding the petition as "ad hominem", "digital lynch mob" and more.
The coup de dumbass by the defenders of the poor misunderstood talk show host was the Nazi comparison by the publisher of DIE ZEIT, a Mr. Joffe.
Reminiscent of the Nazi campaign against Jews, Mr. Joffe wrote of the petition. While he was squarely trapped in the "Get Lanz out" part of the petition title, we were rattled by the Nazi comparison.
We went through more tweets and found one that pointed to an earlier show by Mr. Lanz in 2013. In the show, he asks an Auschwitz survivor "why did you not resist?" (from minute 7, sec 50).
We listened to a little more of this interview and heard him use the term "Bauernschläue" to describe how the young prisoner had used her wits to survive. Bauernschläue (peasant smarts) is a loaded term, meaning "cunning" but implying "not very intelligent in general".
A few clicks on other Mr. Lanz hosted shows convinced us that the man is no Bill Moyers, no Tavis Smiley, no Charlie Rose.
We do feel a little sad that German public TV executives think having pretty boys like Mr. Lanz do talk shows is a good use of billions in public funding every year.
Maybe Germany has become a country like any other some 69 years after the liberation of Auschwitz?
How else can a German talk show host feel no shame and ask "warum haben Sie sich nicht gewehrt?"
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