CNN’s “Journalist of the Year” fired for fabricating stories
Modern journalism: CNN’s “Journalist of the year” for 2014 has been fired for fabricating stories by the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, admitted to fabricating parts of at least 14 stories following the magazine’s internal investigation. The publication said the issue “marks a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel.”
…The reporter contributed around 60 articles to Der Spiegel, one of the leading German magazines for investigative reporting. He previously worked for other publications in Europe and won awards such as CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.
The fabricated articles include a phone interview with the parents of free agent NFL player Colin Kaepernick and a story about an American woman who claims to have volunteered to witness the executions of death row inmates.
Relotius also drew the fury of locals in Fergus Falls, Minn., after spending three weeks in town and fabricating facts, characters and quotes from people in an effort to portray the town in a negative light. “What happened is beyond what I could have ever imagined: An article titled ‘Where they pray for Trump on Sundays,’ and endless pages of an insulting, if not hilarious, excuse for journalism,” wrote Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn who investigated Relotius’ Der Spiegel article about the town.
Both Anderson and Krohn went on to reveal that the article doesn’t contain any truth except for the town’s population, the average temperature, and names of the businesses or public figures. Nearly everything else, including a coal plant employee named Neil Becker, who doesn’t actually exist, or quotes from a restaurant employee, who was falsely called the owner of a restaurant and whose son was given a fictional illness, was made up.
It is clear from the above that this reporter’s fakery was designed to confirm the false narrative of our elitist intellectual society that believes that everyone in mid-America who might have voted for Trump is an idiot and a fool with the education of a turnip. No wonder CNN considered him a top journalist, since this is the same fakery I see repeatedly on that network.
The article notes other similar cases of journalist corruption from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the New Republic. The important historical context of these stories — besides that they all occurred at liberal outlets — is that they were once rare. When Janet Cooke was caught fabricating facts in 1981, she was almost a first. Such a thing had been unheard of in the top journalist world for literally decades. Previously, if you got a job at a place like the Washington Post it was because you knew how to do the job. Cooke indicated that this standard had failed, and it is clearly failing more and more routinely, at numerous so-called top liberal news outlets, in the subsequent years.
Worse, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump’s accusations of fakery in the liberal press resonates with people because it contains a substantial element of truth. It also resonates because these liberal outlets have very obviously done nothing to correct their errors and false reporting. Bad reporters continue to work for them, even after they have been found to make egregious errors, including plagiarism.
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Modern journalism: CNN’s “Journalist of the year” for 2014 has been fired for fabricating stories by the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, admitted to fabricating parts of at least 14 stories following the magazine’s internal investigation. The publication said the issue “marks a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel.”
…The reporter contributed around 60 articles to Der Spiegel, one of the leading German magazines for investigative reporting. He previously worked for other publications in Europe and won awards such as CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.
The fabricated articles include a phone interview with the parents of free agent NFL player Colin Kaepernick and a story about an American woman who claims to have volunteered to witness the executions of death row inmates.
Relotius also drew the fury of locals in Fergus Falls, Minn., after spending three weeks in town and fabricating facts, characters and quotes from people in an effort to portray the town in a negative light. “What happened is beyond what I could have ever imagined: An article titled ‘Where they pray for Trump on Sundays,’ and endless pages of an insulting, if not hilarious, excuse for journalism,” wrote Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn who investigated Relotius’ Der Spiegel article about the town.
Both Anderson and Krohn went on to reveal that the article doesn’t contain any truth except for the town’s population, the average temperature, and names of the businesses or public figures. Nearly everything else, including a coal plant employee named Neil Becker, who doesn’t actually exist, or quotes from a restaurant employee, who was falsely called the owner of a restaurant and whose son was given a fictional illness, was made up.
It is clear from the above that this reporter’s fakery was designed to confirm the false narrative of our elitist intellectual society that believes that everyone in mid-America who might have voted for Trump is an idiot and a fool with the education of a turnip. No wonder CNN considered him a top journalist, since this is the same fakery I see repeatedly on that network.
The article notes other similar cases of journalist corruption from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the New Republic. The important historical context of these stories — besides that they all occurred at liberal outlets — is that they were once rare. When Janet Cooke was caught fabricating facts in 1981, she was almost a first. Such a thing had been unheard of in the top journalist world for literally decades. Previously, if you got a job at a place like the Washington Post it was because you knew how to do the job. Cooke indicated that this standard had failed, and it is clearly failing more and more routinely, at numerous so-called top liberal news outlets, in the subsequent years.
Worse, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump’s accusations of fakery in the liberal press resonates with people because it contains a substantial element of truth. It also resonates because these liberal outlets have very obviously done nothing to correct their errors and false reporting. Bad reporters continue to work for them, even after they have been found to make egregious errors, including plagiarism.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Spiegel? Reminds me of the notorious “Dolfi Schicklegrueber Dairies”….I have no faith in any lame stream media these days, Ever since I was in the Army in Nam, I have noted their lies….actually the JFK Assassination was the beginning of the lack of faith for me…
Who’s to say what a lie really is? Is it so bad if it makes the story is more interesting? Is it so terrible if it makes people feel good about themselves? Lies can bring hope, and encourage correct think. Save lives even. Now…turn on your television, read your news feed, listen hard to what your phone tells you. Consume and believe. Faith will be rewarded! Forward comrades!
And somebody get me pepto-bismal.
Deep Space 9
” Lying is a Skill”
(In Purgatory’s Shadow)
https://youtu.be/w0ba-A01WWA
1:51