Note: The author of this post is one grumpy critter. A former government worker backed by, in it's* own words, a f***ing security clearance and a general asking 'can I do anything for you', it decided to take on the Chief of Chiefs of nasty German broadsheet BILD in this post.
If you are a bit squeamish, we suggest you move on to Disney.com for you own good.
The chief of chiefs at German old fashioned broadsheet Bild Zeitung, one Julian Reichelt, comes with a slightly underwhelming educational history (at least, Wikipedia is rather silent). This is not a problem in itself. After all, a number of geniuses like the gentleman who is immortalized in the name of the Fraunhofer Society had no formal education.
Mr. Reichelt, though, is not a genius. Largely oblivious to facts and logic, Mr. Reichelt - as a product of Bild Zeitung - feels entitled to a role in German media and public discourse. Wikipedia says that his positions generally reflect the role of a conservative hardliner.
If you like a rough and tumble German who spends much of his time praising the West's powerful, check out his Twitter account with gems like "I salute that rededication and hope more action will follow Tillerson's words, especially in Syria."
Given the outsized role played by Bild Zeitung and its respective chief in German politics, it came as a surprise to the grumpy blogster that the 'centrist conservative' Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) ran an article "War propaganda - not out of Moscow this time" which opened with "Reichelt did not act as a journalist but as a war propagandist". **
By German standards, the significance of a statement like this is difficult to overstate. Especially if it comes from a publication that is staunchly pro West, with deep distrust of Russia and firm footing on what we call 'Western values' in general.
The article dealt with last night's episode of one of Germany's regular political talk shows, the topic of which was the situation in Syria. Most of the time, German political talks shows are rather sedate if not outright boring events with the same guests uttering the same familiar statements and Lego blocks of discourse.
According to the article, Reichelt pretty much lost it when a former officer reminded the round that bombs will kill civilians, no matter what kind of bomb you drop. Reichelt had been focusing on the awful killing of civilians and especially children in his paper and on Twitter for so long that a simple statement of fact by the former NATO planner threw him off.
When someone then pointed out that a German military officer had called an air strike in Afghanistan in 2009, killing about one hundred civilians, including children, our Bild hero became enraged, calling the officer a "propagandist' with "pseudo-expert knowledge", "uninformed and dumb".
The blogster finds it quite striking that these terms perfectly describe the way Mr. Reichelt performs as a journalist.
So, FAZ deserves praise for calling out his ridiculous TV performance. Although the blogster disagrees with the part "not as a journalist", because this is exactly how Mr. Reichelt rolls most of the time.
Mr. Reichelt can find some consolation in the reporting of Der Spiegel on the same talk show. Often decried as too liberal, Der Spiegel will toe the line in important foreign policy matters, and the authors did go fairly easy on Reichelt, saying that 'he once again appeared slightly rhetorically hyperactive'. The Afghanistan bombing was framed by Der Spiegel as an "incident" with "German reconnaissance involvement", and it used "allegedly" to frame the fact that civilians were killed in the strike called in by a German officer who could see the events on the ground on his drone screen.
The FAZ article will not have any repercussions for Mr. Reichelt, his role as editor of Bild Zeitung all but ensures continued invitation to TV talk shows.
That kind of power is a nice thing to have.
* Gender neutral.
** Orig: So agierte Reichelt nicht als Journalist, sondern als Propagandist einer Kriegspartei.
No comments:
Post a Comment