I sat last night and was watching the late Channel One (ARD) news. It's a longer edition and you will find some things mentioned which didn't get into the 8PM news. There are also fewer people watching it. Out of 82-million in population....I kinda doubt that they have more than two or three million watching it.
The odd featured item? Breitbart News.
They decided to introduce Germans to Breitbart. It was a three or four minute piece. They obviously had started their agenda on 'fake news' and this was to be likely the first of many different news bits to readily identify fake news sites.
Extensive graphics were thrown into the report.....which typically for a normal news item.....you wouldn't do. That was obvious.
There is a worry by not only the Berlin establishment (center-left and center-right politics), but also by journalists and intellectuals that public sentiment is swinging and they need to put some theme out there to make people question anything but their "legitimate news".
Facebook, Twitter, etc.....are all under a continuing trend by the Berlin leadership to dump 'fake news'. The problem is that you reach a point where fake news and real news are virtually the same thing.
Oddly, as much as they are pressing forward on controlling Twitter and Facebook....it's now obvious that another platform (Gab) is about to erupt on the scene and be a source for those who are cast off away from Facebook and Twitter. Gab will be based outside of the US and the EU. Gab will likely over the next twelve months take approximately ten to twenty percent of the normal users away from Facebook. The ability of the Berlin crowd and the EU to put pressure on Gab? Other than just eliminating them from entry into the European internet....that's about it.
Breitbart in German? No. That's one of the odd parts to this story. Everything they do is in English. There is a London office.....I admit. But so far, there's not been any interest to have a Breitbart Berlin office or bureau. Introduction in an election year? It wouldn't shock me.
Might Breitbart enter and start to note ARD or ZDF as fake news sites? One might be amused, but you can probably find enough bits and pieces to make this stick to a small degree. Then, the race is on.....who is the fakest of the fake?
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