I was reading this morning over commentary by a German (anonymous in nature) who made the observation that he now has to read foreign news media coverage because he knows that the content of German news production is biased or written with an agenda attached.
This comes up this weekend because of the university study over the news media coverage of the immigration period of 2015, and the analysis of the university study that the general news cycle in Germany were no longer acting as reporters....but producing agenda-like coverage. No one says it was in relationship with the government, or any political party....which is what you'd expect. It's almost like you walked into a party and started a rumor on one side of the room that the beer was 'flat', and an hour later....everyone in the room was convinced that the beer really is flat. No one actually stands there and tastes the beer or counters the rumor....they just accept it as fact.
What really happened in this period of 2013 to 1 January 2016? One can say that the one-sided direction of German analysis and news ended with the Koln riot from the New Year's eve period. Within four short weeks after that period, it was a water valve was turned off and the significant coverage in the one-sided direction simply ended.
As for what happened in that three year period leading up to January of 2016? I would lay the problem upon three basic issues:
(1) Intellectual compromise. This is usually where a really smart (PhD-type) individual has consumed a lot of information but is unable to factor in odd pieces of the story, find faults with conceived 'facts', or is unwilling to ask more questions (believing they have reached the 'gold-standard' of PURE FACT).
(2) The good German costume. With so much crap dumped on the Germans from WW I and WW II....some people would really like to go and find this wonderful public image of the 'good German'....the guy who takes in the poor, the weak, the injured, and the war-afflicted. I admit, it's a worthy thing to go and look for this costume, and to feel the humble respect of your peers. The problem with this is that you end up with a costume that is ill-fitting and sometimes makes you look a bit foolish. On top of that....a fair sum of people don't really want to wear the 'good German' costume, and when they said 'no'....they were criticized for not accepting their role in the 'play'.
(3) Labeling all asylum seekers, immigrants, and migrants as one single 'flavor'. There was this period in 2014 where the news media of Germany (mostly ARD and ZDF) were telling strictly Iraqi and Syrian refugee-related stories. Oddly enough, if you did look at the factual data....they were maybe making up 50-percent of the incoming crowd. The rest? From Albania, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Africa, and Central Africa. The crowd from Syria and Iraq? Mostly family related (grandparents, kids, etc). The folks from North Africa? Mostly all male (18-to-25 years old). The news crowd couldn't bring themselves to break out the incoming into the natural groups....if they had....their positive-spin story would have started to dissolve.
At this point in the compromised situation....you can sense that the news media folks over this weekend are carefully reading through the criticism leveled at them....by the university professors, and perhaps frustrated. They will call up co-workers and peers to get support....maybe go to some pub and sip through wine and beer....discovering that their friends and associates kinda agree with the compromised story-line and some knew this all the way back to 2013.
So, back to the gentleman who started me upon this topic today....the German guy who says that gaps in the news of Germany now exist. Well....there are literally thousands of sources of news existing in the world and you can go and start a habit of reading from outside of your circle. The internet provides you that tool. I'm guessing that the ARD/ZDF crowd (the public TV gang of Germany) will try to suggest that too much fake news exist and you need to stick with them because they know all about fake news. Then you kinda laugh because....well....they were fake-agenda creators for three years, and they've got a lot of expertise in that area.
I don't really want to hype up on this whole issue, but you just gaze back over three years and how it was a one-sided story, and in the blink of an eye....over January of 2016, the one-sided story just quietly evaporated and disappeared. There is a story here, but it's just not one that anyone would want to admire or feel proud about.
My end-point? Was this the only one-sided story? Or did they also go and create other topics like this as well?
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