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| In addition to protesting against Muslims, Germany's Pegida movement has also sought to discredit the media. |
Press
Versus Liars: Doing Good Journalism in These Trying Times
An Editorial By Klaus
Brinkbäumer
We
are living in times of growing tension and near societal hysteria in
Germany in the wake of the massive influx of refugees. One of the
first victims of this development has been the media's credibility.
Restoring public trust will require considerable effort by
journalists -- but also on the part of their readers.
The times we are
living in are raucous, raw and confusing, which means a preliminary
remark is needed as part of any article about the outrage and hatred
that is currently being directed at the media in Germany.
First, many, many
people inform themselves thoroughly about the complicated world in
which we live. These people tend not to be very outraged, which is
also why their voices often go unheard amid the cacophony. But they
do exist, and it is important to note this.
Second, there are
many, many media outlets out there which report precisely and
passionately and refuse to be intimidated. They are viewed, listened
to and read. You could start to list examples in Germany here -- the
primetime heute-journal news on public broadcaster ZDF, the
Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspapers,
for example -- but the list could go on and on and would never be
complete.
A Growing
Credibility Problem
At the same time,
there have been myriad incidents in recent weeks highlighting the
fact that the media in Germany currently have a public image problem.
At protests against Muslim immigrants living in Germany, camera teams
have been attacked. And following its reporting on a 13-year-old
German-Russian girl who disappeared in Berlin last month, threats in
the social media against journalists at the Berliner Zeitung became
so egregious that the newspaper has now instituted a policy of taking
legal action against individuals who threaten its staff with physical
violence or defame them. Recent days have seen the Russian media and
the country's foreign minister unleash a wave of propaganda around
the world over inaccurate claims that the teenage girl in question
had been raped in Germany.
In another
significant development that has not helped the media's image,
regional TV station SWR in Baden-Württemberg recently submitted to a
demand by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) to rescind an
invitation for the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) to appear
with other national parties on a televised political debate, creating
the impression that a supposedly independent public broadcaster's
strings were being pulled by the government. Meanwhile, a freelance
journalist working for WDR, the state public broadcaster in North
Rhine-Westphalia, went on a talk show claiming she had been
instructed to report in a "pro-government" way.
SPIEGEL, too, has
been on the receiving end of the animosity. One reader, who has
subscribed to the magazine for 30 years, ignored a series of recent
covers we have run about the German state losing control and Merkel's
growing isolation in at home and abroad over her refugee policies and
accused us of "uncritical reporting" in a letter peppered
with charged terms like "Jew lovers" and "assholes."
The events of New
Year's Eve in Cologne, which saw hundreds of German women attacked or
sexually harassed by largely immigrant perpetrators, have acted as an
accelerant in this trend, with the result being that 40 percent of
Germans no longer trust the media. In addition to, but also because
of, the hysteria and division that have gripped our society engaging
too little with facts and too much with emotions, the German media
now finds itself with a serious credibility problem.
What Journalists
Need to Do
Is there something
we can do as journalists to counter this? Should we carry on? Of
course we should. But we also need to do more.
In times like these,
especially, the quality media cannot allow cost-saving measures to
kill the very thing that sets them apart from the loudmouths --
namely their capacity for research and reporting, i.e., local
reporters, foreign correspondents and investigative teams. We need to
take the time necessary to have a true understanding of contexts and
be able to explain them properly, and we must maintain a moderate
tone and not allow ourselves to descend into the ruckus. Modern life
demands immediate gratification, but journalism requires clear
thinking and calm.
All the same, there
are times when escalation and judgements, based on reporting and
analysis, are necessary -- but this must come at the right moment and
cannot be based on self-fulfilling prophecies or prejudices. However,
differentiation doesn't mean backing down -- of course journalists
need to have a spine.
We must also admit
our mistakes and explain them. We must determine whether we do, on
occasion, have another, more elite view of German reality than many
readers. We need to engage in a dialogue with our readers and absorb
their criticism. To this end, having a sense of humor might help. The
fact is that we should have no problem accepting that millions of
people who in the past tended to be quiet consumers today use social
media to get involved and, as such, have themselves become producers
of media. While debates can be gratifying, people who are too
thin-skinned seldom seem attractive. Astonishingly, the same holds
true for journalists.
What Readers Should
Know
Still, it would
nonetheless be helpful if our esteemed readers were to consider three
things every now and then:
First: There's a
danger inherent in Facebook and Twitter that users will only read
what they want, spending every minute seeking self-affirmation and,
in the end, viewing their own hatred to be rational and perfectly
justified.
Second: The
oft-disparaged "mainstream media" do not exist. The
conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and right-leaning Die
Welt have adopted different editorial lines from those of the
left-leaning Die Zeit or Süddeutsche Zeitung. There are some media
whose perceptions of reality border on fantasy.
Third: SPIEGEL is an
independent publisher owned by the journalists it hires and, as such,
is not influenced by any third party. This is not a publication where
a person can just spew unverified information out into the world,
only to turn around and say the opposite the next day. Our reporting
takes days, weeks, sometimes even months to complete. Articles are
then subjected to a rigorous review process that includes editing and
vetting by section editors, fact-checkers, researchers, lawyers,
editors-in-chief and copy editors, with steady improvements made to
the stories throughout. Our editors and reporters engage in constant
debate over the contents of these articles and the views expressed by
the magazine and website. We are united in our belief that we must
seek to understand and not denigrate people who are fleeing war
zones. We are also united in our belief that it is self-evident that
we must report on mistakes made by the German government or political
parties, European failures or any apparent loss of control on the
part of the state. These tasks may prove to be as complex as the
entire migrant crisis itself, but none of them are mutually
exclusive.
The good news is
that many, many media are already exercising great care and accuracy.
See above.
About the Author
DER SPIEGEL
Klaus Brinkbäumer
is the editor in chief of DER SPIEGEL.
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