I often read various news sites from around Germany, and one of the 'charms' of this is the comments area where readers offer either criticism or additional info....that the German journalist may have missed or intentionally left out.
So there was this big hyped-up story via a public TV site (Tagesschau, from ARD).....and in the midst of the comments, one German offered a fairly sharp critical piece (Sabine E.): "here on Tagesschau.de with those on Breitbart. Hundreds, often thousands, comment there, and apparently everyone has their say. Here on Tagesschau.de there are maybe 20 comments, all selected. A critical word about Merkel, and you're out there. Which journalists do you trust more?"
That is the curious method public TV site comments....they have to be reviewed, moderated, and a fair sized number of Germans have become skeptical.
If you went back to around 2005, commentary wasn't a part of the game, and around five years prior to that....none of the German public news people offered the news via the web.
Yes, there was a period where no one could say anything or voice criticism of the journalists. You just accepted the facts as they were laid out, or quit watching nightly news.
This comment by Sabine E? She's obviously skeptical of the moderation and the need for the journalists to delete comments that they don't want to appear in public.
It's possible now to walk into a pub of a dozen Germans, and at least a quarter of them will openly suggest some former East German (DDR) propaganda expert working for public TV, and actively/aggressively working on the next propaganda campaign. It's a comical suggestion and probably loaded with limited facts....but people are focused on this and seem to believe it.
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