[llama66]

[BartSimpson]

I'm watching, too.

[Sunnyways]

Many people are both journalists and novelists, so its hardly surprising the genres get conflated now and then. But there’s a knack to this game for those who are committed to it. You have to pick the right stories that nobody else can check, with obscure characters who are difficult to expose as non-existent. I would give credit to the colleague for persisting with his accusation. Apparently, he was not believed at first.

[BRAH]

__________________

Hmmm.

[N_Fiddledog]

And now the rest of the story:

$1:

Relotius 'made up stories and invented protagonists' in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in the magazine's print and online editions, Spiegel wrote, warning that other outlets could also be affected.

One of the stories that brought Relotius down was the one he wrote about residents of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, a town that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Spiegel wrote that it was in March 2017 when an article headlined 'In a Small Town,' a snapshot of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, appeared in Der Spiegel.

According to the news outlet, 'the plan was for Relotius to rent an apartment in Fergus Falls, meet people, listen to what they had to say, and produce a snapshot that would allow readers to gain a slightly better understanding of the Americans'.

However, like many reporters, Relotius realized he didn't have a story.

'DER SPIEGEL gives its reporters a very free hand in situations like these. No staff member -- especially not one that had published the kind of stories Relotius had -- has to worry about getting into hot water for failing to bring home a story,' the magazine said.

The magazine said that Relotius 'simply refused to accept those realities' and wrote a tall tale about Fergus Falls.

Relotius lied about seeing a hand-painted welcome sign that read 'Mexicans Keep Out', that he claimed was sitting at the edge of the town.

But the sign didn't exist and never had.

'He passed on his creation as fact to hundreds of thousands of readers -- and insulted the inhabitants of Fergus Falls in the process,' Spiegel said.

'Relotius gave the inhabitants of Fergus Falls made-up biographies to suit his needs, as if he were a puppeteer.

'He invented grotesque lies and reported, for example, that the students at the John F. Kennedy high school drew their role models for the American dream as follows: "They did not draw a single picture of a woman," Relotius wrote. "One class drew Barack Obama, two drew John D. Rockefeller. Most of them drew Donald Trump."'

According to the magazine, it was all 'pure fiction. Every single bit is concocted bunk'.

Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -town.html

And again this was the "CNN Reporter of the Year." Who's surprised? Tucker Carlson and Mark Steyn aren't.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/ni ... news-maker

[Sunnyways]

Such frauds seem ridiculously transparent after they’ve been exposed:

$1:

Ambiguities become apparent just as soon as you start looking for them. If you read something without suspicion, you don't notice anything. But if you're looking for something from the start, you see it everywhere. It is an element of the fundamental nature of humankind to be shockingly generous with truth and probability as long as there is no obvious reason for doubt. Our willingness to consider even the most incredible stories to be true, as long as they seem at least plausible, is almost boundless. That was the foundation for Relotius' success. His own misery will now increase immeasurably because no one is going to believe a single word from him ever again.

Relotius often incorporated songs and their lyrics in his stories, and the scenes in which they appear are often remarkable for their fascinating perfection. Convicts standing in washrooms suddenly begin to sing a pop song, or a lost child walks down a dark street singing a sad song. The music expands the kinds of associations that link us to the stories, making them overwhelmingly stimulating in these passages, feeding the reader's imagination. The writing feels cinematic, a quality that is frequently cited in award ceremonies for journalists. Relotius, too, had been told the same thing over and over again about his articles. In contrast to the cinema, though, everything in journalism has to be accurate from the beginning to the end.

In "God's Servant", a CD player is playing quietly in the hallway of the abortion clinic, supposedly playing the same Tom Petty song over and over again: "I Won't Back Down." The lyrics of the song fit so perfectly into the story that it seems, in retrospect, almost too good to be true. When asked a specific question about the music on Thursday, Relotius admitted then when there is singing in his stories, it's usually made up. But is this also true when CD players are playing quietly? Or if a radio is playing somewhere with a song that fits the story?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zei ... 44755.html

Perhaps the articles of other journalists could be scanned for similar allusions to music and other cute touches? On a more sophisticated level, I wonder if AI will help to flag journalism that sounds like fiction?

[BartSimpson]

Sunnyways Sunnyways:

Such frauds seem ridiculously transparent after they’ve been exposed:

And one day the fraud of global warming will be fully exposed and it's adherents and huckster promoters will all pretend that they knew it was fake all along and they'll claim that they were never fooled by the phony charts and graphs.

Reminds me of a college prof who told me in the 1980's that he remembered 'a time when most people liked Adolf Hitler.'

He told me about how most people in the US admired Hitler in the early 1930's but then as the sheen of the Nazis wore off those same people pretended to have hated him all along.

The point was to not let people reinvent history when it suits them.

Sort of like how the Democrats in the US Congress right now oppose the border wall but back in 2008 they all supported it. Now they pretend to have always opposed it even though there's video of these people in the past supporting it.

[N_Fiddledog]

Der Spiegel scandal: When the right hate is more important than the right facts

$1:

On Friday, US Ambassador to Germany ­Richard Grenell called for an independent investigation of anti-American bias at Der Spiegel. In a letter to the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Grenell wrote: “The fundamental question is how such blatant anti-Americanism could be published without an editor questioning its accuracy.”

The answer is simple. Saying bad things about middle Americans and conservatives is the surest way to safeguard your writing against close editorial scrutiny. Stories that advance a left-liberal worldview are often too good to fact check. If it’s anti-American, or anti-conservative, it has to be true.

And if it’s not strictly factually true, then it’s thematically “true enough.” The key is to leave readers feeling disgusted by your enemy.

There were examples closer to home this year. The New York Times reported that Nikki Haley, America’s outgoing UN envoy, had spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on curtains for her apartment in the Big Apple. But it turned out the Obama administration had purchased the fancy curtains.

The New Yorker ran a series of stories about a woman who accused ­Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct — without any corroborating evidence of an incident that supposedly took place in the early 1980s.

CNN fell hard for North Korean PR at the Winter Olympics. “If ‘diplomatic dance’ were an event at the Winter Olympics,” the network breathlessly claimed, “Kim Jong-un’s younger sister would be favored to win gold.”

If a mainstream journalist ever filed stories that weak, but with a conservative or pro-American bent, his reporting would be fact checked out of existence; the articles mentioned above went viral.

Yes, Relotius is a special type of pathological fabulist who comes along only every few years. Americans might remember Stephen Glass, who got caught writing hoax stories at The New Republic in 1998, and Jayson Blair, who imploded spectacularly at The New York Times in 2003. Such writers seem to have a congenital need to push the bounds of reality until their careers self-destruct.

But Relotius is also an extreme representative of an ideologically driven press.

There’s been much talk about President Trump’s penchant for attacking the media. It’s true that his labeling the press “the enemy of the people” is dangerous. But activist journalists have harmed their profession far more than Trump ever could.

The Times Square Alliance recently announced that New Year’s Eve in Times Square will be an official celebration of journalism. It’s a fitting way for the left-liberal media to end the year, with the ceremonial dropping of the ball.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/23/der-spieg ... ght-facts/

[martin14]

German magazine Der Spiegel suspends two senior editors amid investigation after top reporter admitted making up stories for years

German magazine suspends two senior editors in fallout over reporting scandal
Claas Relotius, 33, 'fabricated' facts in at least 14 articles published both in print and online for weekly magazine Der Spiegel
The reporter was sacked earlier this month after the allegations emerged

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... itors.html



So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

[DrCaleb]

martin14 martin14:

So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

Kind of like how Trump makes shit up, and the Whitehouse goes out of its way to defend it?

[martin14]

Thanos Thanos:

:lol: fuck you

[PluggyRug]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

martin14 martin14:

So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

Kind of like how Trump makes shit up, and the Whitehouse goes out of its way to defend it?

Then what about this whatabouterry?

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Whatabouterry does not excuse Trumps' actions recently in Iraq.

...does not excuse the reporters actions.

[DrCaleb]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

martin14 martin14:

So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

Kind of like how Trump makes shit up, and the Whitehouse goes out of its way to defend it?

Then what about this whatabouterry?

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Whatabouterry does not excuse Trumps' actions recently in Iraq.

...does not excuse the reporters actions.

I didn't try to.

I'm just pointing out the obvious cognitive bias of two entities doing the same thing, but one group ignores one entity but rails against the other.

[BartSimpson]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

martin14 martin14:

So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

Kind of like how Trump makes shit up, and the Whitehouse goes out of its way to defend it?

You have a bit of a schizoid disconnect with the concept of 'the Whitehouse' and the President.

Regardless of who is the President the White House (which generally means his Executive staff) answers to him and they execute his policies. It is not their place to act as the loyal opposition regardless of who the President may be.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

martin14 martin14:

So not only did buddy just make shit up, his editors endorsed it as well.

Kind of like how Trump makes shit up, and the Whitehouse goes out of its way to defend it?

You have a bit of a schizoid disconnect with the concept of 'the Whitehouse' and the President.

Regardless of who is the President the White House (which generally means his Executive staff) answers to him and they execute his policies. It is not their place to act as the loyal opposition regardless of who the President may be.

My criticism is not of the Whitehouse, but those who take the 'fake media' to a task over a lazy reporter here or there, but let a chronic liar slide by unchallenged.