In addition, especially if you don't speak German, I'd strongly recommend to consult the English Wikipedia article about Bild, the Springer publishing house's flagship tabloid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild, some quotes below). For anyone familiar with their history, the idea that all of a sudden it's "journalism" that their CEO sets out to defend must sound outright absurd.
"Bild has been described as 'notorious for its mix of gossip, inflammatory language, and sensationalism' and as having a huge influence on German politicians."
"According to The Guardian, for 28 years from 1984 to 2012, Bild had topless girls featuring on its first page; the paper published more than 5,000 topless pictures."
"It is argued Bild's thirst for sensationalism results in the terrorizing of prominent celebrities and stories are frequently based on the most dubious evidence. The journalistic standards of Bild, or the lack thereof, are the subject of frequent criticism by German intellectuals and media observers."
"In 1977 investigative journalist Günter Wallraff worked for four months as an editor for the Bild tabloid in Hanover, giving himself the pseudonym of 'Hans Esser'. In his books Der Aufmacher ('Lead Story') and Zeugen der Anklage ('Witnesses for the Prosecution') he portrays his experiences on the editorial staff of the paper and the journalism which he encountered there. The staff commonly displayed contempt for humanity, a lack of respect for the privacy of ordinary people and widespread conduct of unethical research and editing techniques."
As a German I also second that Bild is not a trustworthy source and I find it odd that such a charged information would be seeded to Bild instead of Spiegel, FAZ or Süddeutsche which all have a much higher reputation within Germany and internationally.
Funny though - I guess Bild is right about this anyway ...
I admit that I didn't know about the Bild connection (and yes it does speak volumes). Btw, Bild editors can be accused of anything but leftism and you said that there was significant controversy with Spiegel. Maybe there is still hope for the medium.
Still this particular piece is well written and (seems) quite well researched.
Do you know newspapers in other countries? Having lived extensively in the UK and in Germany I can not agree. Imagine BILD being a moderate high quality newspaper.
Think I'm exagerating? Imagine BILD frontpage with constitutional judges pictured and headline "Volksfeinde":
>> In the paper's beginnings, Springer was influenced by the model of the British tabloid Daily Mirror,[3] although Bild's paper size is larger, this is reflected in its mix of celebrity gossip, crime stories and political analysis. However, its articles are often considerably shorter compared to those in British tabloids, and the whole paper is thinner as well. Bild has been known to use controversial devices like sensational headlines and invented "news" to increase its readership. The policy of having a topless woman on its front page virtually every day has also been criticised by German feminist groups.
It isn't. It's the big brother of the tabloid 'Bild', from the same publisher, rephrasing typical right-wing populism and fear-mongering for readers who like to think they are intellectuals.
Bild is a dirty far-right propaganda medium. Please ignore it.
Max Goldt about Bild:
"Diese Zeitung ist ein Organ der Niedertracht. Es ist falsch, sie zu lesen. Jemand, der zu dieser Zeitung beiträgt, ist gesellschaftlich absolut inakzeptabel. Es wäre verfehlt, zu einem ihrer Redakteure freundlich oder auch nur höflich zu sein. Man muß so unfreundlich zu ihnen sein, wie es das Gesetz gerade noch zuläßt. Es sind schlechte Menschen, die Falsches tun."
No, it's like saying the Wall Street Journal would be suspect if the same company publishes FOX News, or the Daily Mail. Publications that openly lie, distort and abuse; on a massive scale; to serve their own political slant.
Addendum: To clarify how terrible Bild is, consider this website: http://www.bildblog.de/ It is a blog dedicated to pointing out factual mistakes in the Bild publication. They have been running since 2004.
I don’t know who Max Goldt is, nor why someone should care what his opinion on Bild is. But I would like people to critique the actual content of the article, instead of resorting to ad-hominem attacks on sources they dislike.
Yes, Bild is a tabloid, but I’ve seen this strategy employed even on more “reputable” sources, like Spiegel for example.
Wrote Clay Shirky: "Monetizing two per cent of your audience is the easy part, doing without 98 per cent of your advertising is the hard part". Bild is discovering the latter part, and for a paper with a long history of bullying it's a difficult lesson.
At worst, APB can block bild.de if the maintainers are beaten up in court. No law against that, and if the tiff between Bild and Google is any history, most of Bild's audience will forget Bild and just go to Tagesschau or something.
Poor Bild. It must be hard to be a tabloid and have to sell yourself every day to customers who don't really care.
At object level, this article has no reason to exist. An editor of a German newspaper fucked an intern. International breaking news.
But of course, for watchers of the NYT and how America likes to conduct its uh international relations it’s a very familiar sight. Sneaky one might say.
Bild’s politics are now center-right [lol], but have grown sharp-edged under Mr. Reichelt, a former war correspondent. The tabloid initially welcomed Syrian refugees, then turned bitterly critical of immigration (though it is also hostile to the far-right AfD party). A Washington correspondent for Bild complained, in internal Slack messages that subsequently leaked, of a slant toward Donald Trump in the coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential debates. The paper has also attacked the German government’s Covid restrictions and its main public health expert.
There you go. Payback. Being an atlanticist lapdog 90% of the time just isn’t good enough.
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