Fake news!

[stockhausen]

The German news magazine Der Spiegel has been plunged into chaos after revealing that one of its top reporters had falsified stories over several years.

The media world was stunned by the revelations that the award-winning journalist Claas Relotius had, according to the weekly, “made up stories and invented protagonists” in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in its print and online editions, warning that other outlets could also be affected.
. . .
Earlier this month, he won Germany’s Reporterpreis (Reporter of the Year) for his story about a young Syrian boy, which the jurors praised for its “lightness, poetry and relevance”. It has since emerged that all the sources for his reportage were at best hazy, and much of what he wrote was made up. (LINK)

You couldn't make it up . . . or perhaps you could - then you could win awards, lots of awards.

There are times when you think that Agent Orange might just be on to something . . .

 

[peterwalkley]

Wasn't it Der Spiegel who fell for Joseph Pujol (the forger of the Hitler Diaries) ?

EDIT. No !! My memory is pants. It was Stern and the forger was Konrad Kujau: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries

Joseph Pujol is arguably more entertaining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pétomane

 

[d_brennen]

I don't believe you

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

And nobody was surprised in the slightest.

 

[RaohNS]

Just wait until people realize the "Pulitzer" irony and why the press award it

 

[asim18]

Yes. Loads of completely fabricated stories in the media.

Mass media is a complete and utter threat to society. Sadly media gratifies people at the same time as propagandising and mind controlling them.

Good media psychology book if anyone is interested:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Media-Entertainment-Psychology-Routledge-Communication/dp/0805833250

 

[dowie]

There are times when you think that Agent Orange might just be on to something . . .

Well it isn't really much to do with Trump, this isn't so much big stories but will be small pieces related to some larger topic.

I guess that is the beauty of journalists and anonymous sources, some lazy person with no integrity could just make up some bull**** quotes for some random piece about say refugees rather than getting out there and interviewing them.

On the subject of agents the intelligence services have the same risk from their staff, in fact with an added incentive in that they generally have to make payments to these agents. A lazy/dishonest intelligence officer could make up an agent in order to both appear productive and pocket the cash payments for himself - or perhaps blur the lines a little, like actually have an agent but one that perhaps isn't all that useful and pad out some of the information gleaned from him/her plus skim some of the payments.

 

[Roland Butter]

So one journalist invented or sexed up a few articles, are we to assume ALL journalists and reporters are of a similar bent ?

How perverse.

Dr. Harold Shipman bumped off quite a few of his patients, call me Daphne if you want, but crazily I still think the vast majority of GPs are
honest, benign and have no homicidal thoughts towards their patients.

 

[asim18]

So one journalist invented or sexed up a few articles, are we to assume ALL journalists and reporters are of a similar bent ?

How perverse.

Dr. Harold Shipman bumped off quite a few of his patients, call me Daphne if you want, but crazily I still think the vast majority of GPs are
honest, benign and have no homicidal thoughts towards their patients.

But GPs aren't paid depending on how much they write are they?

I don't think anyone is saying ALL journalists are bent just because one journalist fabricated articles. But most articles are bent. Journalism is a money making business designed to sell stories and adverts by tapping into peoples emotions. Have you seen the amount of dross articles on the main tabloids? Completely pointless stuff 99% of it.

GPs provide one to one consultations with their patients they are not inclined to do anything dodgy unless they are complete psychopaths, they don't gain financially from killing their patients, they don't get paid based on page views, selling and gathering data, eroding privacy, selling advertisements, and Taboola, etc. A journalist doesn't need to be a psychopath to fabricate news to make money.

The fact is dodgy mass media has the ability to create bigger problems in society than some isolated psychopaths like Dr Harold Shipman.

I mean look at the rape gangs debacle, authorities were scared to do anything for years because they were scared that the mass media was standing by to call the police racists for doing their job. I mean why would the media even have to know? Who would inform the media of internal investigations?? Why not just go in and save those victims from further abuse without even thinking of letting the Daily Mail know about it first? This is why I believe justice was simply deferred so it can be blown out of proportion, and threat of being called racist was used as an excuse to let it go on for a few years to let it blow out of proportion and then be sold to the tabloids, because the fact is it was eventually acted upon, how long did they think they could ignore it under the guise of racism? 2 years? maybe 5? certainly not forever!

Lot of big fake news out there if you think about it.

 

[stockhausen]

So one journalist invented or sexed up a few articles, are we to assume ALL journalists and reporters are of a similar bent ?

How perverse.

Dr. Harold Shipman bumped off quite a few of his patients, call me Daphne if you want, but crazily I still think the vast majority of GPs are
honest, benign and have no homicidal thoughts towards their patients.

You may choose to think that newspapers and their employees, are by and large, seekers after the truth Daphne. Personally I very much doubt it.

 

[mmj_uk]

You can make up a story about anything if you cite anonymouse or unverifiable source, it happens a lot in UK (and particularly US) media with articles that a few days later they get edited with a footnote noting the innacuracies of the original article and the corrections but by then the story is no longer front page news and nobody is reading it, the damage is already done.

Here's some recent examples:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/08/cnn-trump-error-journalism-287914

 

[Sutters]

See plenty of fake articles on twitter from both sides of the political spectrum. They are usually partially true or recycled old news changed slightly to fit the current agenda.

Then you have the likes of the guardian & express

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Shock as written news media found to be embellishing and fabricating stories.

 

[BowdonUK]

If you are writing articles against the establishments bogeymen then you'll have a very high paying job. Making money, winning prizes.

This guy got too greedy.

 

[do_ron_ron]

Shock as written news media found to be embellishing and fabricating stories.

I thought that was what the Telegraph paid Boris for, articles attacking the EU. After his abysmal stint as Foreign Sec. he is back at the Telegraph(before he was cleared to take up the job)

 

[LoadsaMoney]