3 ms·

Not sure if anyone here has heared about the case Claas Relotius before. Relotius was a German journalist mainly working for "Der Spiegel" and well known for hi

Not sure if anyone here has heared about the case Claas Relotius before. Relotius was a German journalist mainly working for "Der Spiegel" and well known for his remarkable, well-written articles. He wrote primarily about civil war, refugee children, racism, often with a pillorying undertone about the heartbreaking cruel world we live in. His view of the world (which he incorporated subliminally into his articles) was well received in his circles; he was awarded over 19 prizes. Long story short: In 2018 was revealed that most of his articles were fake or embellished. He got away with it for so long because everyone _wanted_ the world to be the way he portrayed it, almost nobody looked closer. I think this is symptomatic of modern journalism: Many journalists are only interested in getting recognition in their circles, so they do whatever is necessary to get it, even if it means bending facts. This is also problematic because it casts a bad light on reputable journalists who reflect the events of the "boring" world correctly and not through lies or Hollywood stories.

GenericsMotors 6y ago
One of the last drops in the bucket for him was his story about a town that voted for Trump: https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-messed-with-the-wrong-small-town-d92f3e0e01a7 https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-m... What made all this worse was the fact that Der Spiegel was looked up to for (supposedly) having a solid team of fact-checkers. As the medium post shows (and the magazine's own investigation afterwards) was that not even basic and publicly available info was checked, such as the percentage of pro-Trump voters, let alone the rest of the original article's hilariously ridiculous claims. Another Der Spiegel reporter who was suspicious of Relotius tried raising his concerns with the management after he did some digging of his own, which almost cost him his job and reputation: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/26/inenglish/1551176169_246969.html https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/26/inenglish/15511... Der Spiegel enjoyed the profits of Relotius' fiction and peddled literal fake news to the world for years, and the magazine's readers lapped it all up because it reinforced their biases.
CM30 6y ago
> because everyone _wanted_ the world to be the way he portrayed it, almost nobody looked closer. This is definitely the real issue a lot of news sites/sources have now. They have an audience in mind, they and that audience have some ideas about what the world is like, and anything that conforms to that view isn't properly fact checked at all. If you want to get a hoax past any news outlet, make it a story that shows their ideological opponents in a bad light.
aaron695 6y ago
For a fun movie on similar try Shattered Glass (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323944/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323944/ He got busted by computer nerds outing him over a hacking story, not his articles on conservatives. [1] The story he wrote - http://penenberg.com/story-archive/hack-heaven/ http://penenberg.com/story-archive/hack-heaven/ [2] The story which brought him down - https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html#35e255922d7f https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html#35e255922d7f

GenericsMotors 6y ago

One of the last drops in the bucket for him was his story about a town that voted for Trump: https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-messed-with-the-wrong-small-town-d92f3e0e01a7 https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-m... What made all this worse was the fact that Der Spiegel was looked up to for (supposedly) having a solid team of fact-checkers. As the medium post shows (and the magazine's own investigation afterwards) was that not even basic and publicly available info was checked, such as the percentage of pro-Trump voters, let alone the rest of the original article's hilariously ridiculous claims. Another Der Spiegel reporter who was suspicious of Relotius tried raising his concerns with the management after he did some digging of his own, which almost cost him his job and reputation: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/26/inenglish/1551176169_246969.html https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/26/inenglish/15511... Der Spiegel enjoyed the profits of Relotius' fiction and peddled literal fake news to the world for years, and the magazine's readers lapped it all up because it reinforced their biases.

CM30 6y ago

> because everyone _wanted_ the world to be the way he portrayed it, almost nobody looked closer. This is definitely the real issue a lot of news sites/sources have now. They have an audience in mind, they and that audience have some ideas about what the world is like, and anything that conforms to that view isn't properly fact checked at all. If you want to get a hoax past any news outlet, make it a story that shows their ideological opponents in a bad light.

aaron695 6y ago

For a fun movie on similar try Shattered Glass (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323944/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323944/ He got busted by computer nerds outing him over a hacking story, not his articles on conservatives. [1] The story he wrote - http://penenberg.com/story-archive/hack-heaven/ http://penenberg.com/story-archive/hack-heaven/ [2] The story which brought him down - https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html#35e255922d7f https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html#35e255922d7f