More gaps than lies - Bautzener messenger

"Lies press" is such a concept of fight.It fits on the street, the demo, on the rally.There he hits the one on the other side of the street that deals inflationarily with the words "Nazi" and "racist".Peter Denk's lecture on Thursday in Bautzen was not intended for narrow -minded simplifiers.For this, the topic "The War of Information War - Lies Press VS.Fake news ”discussed too differentiated.The non -partisan citizens' initiative "From citizens for citizens" invited.The hall of the "Residence" in the industrial area on Wilthener Strasse was occupied to the last place.

If a lie is easy to recognize as such, its half -life goes for zero.It does not fulfill its purpose.Whoever believes a survey found at N-TV, in which the greatest concern of Germans is mentioned in climate change.The problems with the refugees only came in sixth!That was early this month.How much more realistic do the numbers of the GfK survey these days.Accordingly, 56 percent are worried about immigration and integration in this country.The details can be found in the FAZ from 25.August.As is well known, there is never as much a lie as before the election, during the war and after hunting.Maybe that's not a quote by Otto von Bismarck, to whom it is attributed.But would it fall into the Fake news section?Hardly, because election promises too often prove to be an election adviser.Yes, a Kalauer, but now very current.How does the songwriter Reinhard Mey sing: "Be vigilant".

The press has always been deceived and lied.Where else does the vivid picture come from the "newspaper duck".In New German this means fake news.That hardly changes anything about it.Only now on the Internet you have a variety of sources available to check what is printed, spoken and shown.The alternative media are there for that.Politicians do not lack attempts to control, regulate and defame them.In order to suppress free expression via social media.This includes almost everything that criticizes the "party and government” too much.

In his lecture, Peter Denk put some structures open.The concentration of media power in a few hands is scary: Axel Springer, Bertelsmann, the Funke media group, Madsack etc.With the tax-financed public law institutions, independence is not that far ago."The broadcasters are supposed to be 'remote state' - at the same time sitting in the committees, a lot of politicians," the "world" already pointed out over a year ago."A tricky starting point that keeps politicians attacked again and again."And what should you think of this current process, quoted from the new Westphalian (12.08.17): "Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner (68), whom 16.7 percent of the Funke media group belongs, is one of the most powerful men in this group.Holthoff-Pförtner has become even more powerful in these weeks, because the new NRW Minister of NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) appointed his party friend to the minister, responsible for federal affairs, Europe, international relationships and-of all things for media."

On closer inspection, the concept of media diversity often only refers to externalities. Die „BILD"-Zeitung ist nicht die „DIE WELT".But the content orientation is very similar and only has other addressees: here read Müller, there dr.Lieschen Müller. (Ist das nicht eines der giftigen Bonmots des unseligen Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler?) Peter Denk hat für sein Buch „Lügenpresse" viel recherchiert.It bears a provocative title because it should be noticed and your readers should find.These are the rules of the market.You can hardly avoid them.He published it in 2015;The topicality is not bound to the year of publication. Manches von ihm zitierte Beispiel für das, was man heutzutage Mainstream nennt, nährt den Verdacht einer „Gleichschaltung" der Medien.Only this term is already historically occupied.

But how politics will be treated in unison by the triumvirate press, radio and television in unison is already striking.This includes the refugee crisis and its consequences, the social imbalance of the people in this country, military armament, the Bundeswehr missions abroad, the forced confrontation with Russia, the (dependency?)-relationship with the United States, of which-despite the NSA listening scandal andan unpopular president Trump - cannot leave.But one or more string pullers for this media adaptation are not required.The puppet player sits in the head of many journalists.

Aber gleich „Lügenpresse"? Selbst wer diesen Begriff nicht mag, wird an die Giftgas-Lügen denken, die alte (Irak, 2003) und die neuen (Syrien, 2013 und 2017).These are drastic examples because the first (now officially refuted) claim was even abused as a reason.But the media made thick headlines. Im Fall Syrien gab man sich mit solchen obskuren „Quellen" wie der Syrischen Beobachtungsstelle für Menschenrechte zufrieden, jenem Ein-Mann-Unternehmen mit Sitz in London.Even with the on-site videos of the white helmets in Aleppo you couldn't see exactly.All of this fit too well into the picture.In the meantime, even the Wikipedia entry shows the controversy to do this Syrian civil protection force, which was considered a little too much for their public representation.

But maybe that would not have happened if there had already been correctioniv or the ARD factory checks at the time.Yes, that is meant ironically how else!Because fake news, these are always the reports of the others.Only alternative media already informed in 2015 that not only war refugees in Europe are looking for protection.Women and children were in the minority, instead many young men came, mostly without work and education.In the alternative press, serious doubts were soon expressed that migrants flowing uncontrollably across the open borders are not criminals or even potential terrorists.The acts of violence in the following months gave the law. Die meisten der selbsternannten „Qualitätsmedien" brauchten dagegen viele Monate, um eben das zu erkennen.For a long time, a lot was kept silent or covered up.Some people will call something like that.After all, these journalists then received it in writing as a scientific study: “In the refugee crisis, according to their conclusion, important German media failed.Instead of enabling an open discourse, they suffocated it." Ob man sich bei der „ZEIT" auch an die eigene Nase gefasst hat?

No day passed the newspaper pages and screens without the heart -hearted photos of waving German and grateful refugees.Today you could say with Jean Paul Sartre: “If you don't need your eyes to see, you will need them to cry." Weil ein Bild mehr sagen kann als tausend Worte, wird in diesem Genre besonders häufig etwas „passend gemacht".The clumsy fake of a photo is the exception, the misleading selection of the image section.Or the use in an incorrect connection. Es ist noch nicht lange her, da wurde im Fernsehen öfters der brennende „Husarenhof" aus Bautzen als Hintergrundbild eingesetzt, wenn es um rechtsextreme Anschläge auf Unterkünfte von Migranten ging.It didn't matter that the police investigations in the specific case did not show anything in this direction, but also nothing.If you are not aware of such a media conviction in the editorial offices of such a media, this is almost as worrying as the possibility that it is an intended discrediting of an entire city.

Lies or gap?Evil intention or limited horizon?Everyone may form their opinion, whether the following process was only due to the impoverishment of an editor:

On page 28, it is the last of the edition of 29./30. Juli, druckte die „Sächsische Zeitung" die einspaltige Meldung: „Tödliche Messerattacke im Supermarkt". Sie war eingebettet in der Rubrik „Panorama" zwischen Meldungen wie Sommerferien in Deutschland, U-Bahn-Unfall in Barcelona, Wassermangel in Rom … Den großen Aufmacher der Seite lieferte „Arnie" Schwarzenegger – mit drei Fotos.There was no longer space for a dead and seven seriously injured people - stabbed in Hamburg from an asylum seeker who is obliged to leave. Denn das stand hinter der „Messerattacke". Da stellen sich doch zwei Fragen: Sollte dieses tragische Geschehen durch die schlechte Platzierung unter „fern liefen" versteckt werden? Oder aber sind solche traurigen Ereignisse schon so alltäglich, dass sie nur noch auf die Rückseite einer Zeitung kommen. Beides wäre sehr schlimm! In der nächsten Ausgabe informierte die „SZ" auf den Seiten 1 und 2 übrigens ausführlich.

Perhaps a newspaper is not read about what it reports about, but because of what it does not print.So the conscious gaps.What the reader has in black and white should he not carry home confidently.They exist, the good contributions in the media.So it was z.B. die „Sächsische Zeitung" (vom 01.06.17), in which two young scientists were very competent, the embarrassing regional study on right -wing extremism in eastern Germany - previously celebrated in the large media nationwide - could undergo detailed criticism.The Federal Government's East Commissioner, Iris Gleicke (SPD), only distanced himself from the own mandatory work at the end of July (!). Man sollte die „SZ" also nicht an solchen Kampagnen messen, wie sie die Bautzener Lokalredaktion gegenwärtig ganz massiv gegen den hiesigen Vize-Landrat durchexerziert.

Hardly anyone will believe everything that is in the newspaper.But of course it's not everything wrong either. Halten wir es doch mit Otto von Bismarck und „leisten wir uns den Luxus, eine eigene Meinung zu haben".

Hans-Georg Prause