thelocal.de
>An influential German institute has studied thousands of article published by daily newspapers during the refugee crisis. Their conclusion: journalists lost their objectivity and drove a wedge through society.
>As hundreds of thousands of refugees arrived in Germany in 2015 and early 2016, daily newspapers took on the role of “public educators” rather than objective critics of public policy, a team of researchers at the Otto Brenner Institute conclude, according to a report in Die Zeit this week.
>The report, which will be published on Monday, criticizes “the so-called mainstream media” for lining up behind Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policies, and for uncritically taking on “the slogans of the political elite.”
>Journalists used the slogan Willkommenskultur (welcoming culture) to put moral pressure on citizens to contribute to the cause of supporting refugees, the study finds.
>People who criticized the government policy were treated by journalists as suspect and potentially racist. “Most journalists failed in their job as someone who is supposed to objectively explain the world to readers,” Haller told Die Zeit.
>News articles were often infused with the opinion of the journalist, while the opinions of normal citizens, of experts, and of asylum seekers themselves were often ignored, he added.
>Newspapers and broadcasters came in for particularly harsh criticism after hundreds of women in Cologne and other cities reported being sexually assaulted at New Year celebrations at the end of 2015.
>The national media took days to pick up on the story, leading critics to claim that they were afraid to report on crimes which portrayed asylum seekers in a poor light.
Will Germans finally learn to stop listening to the Lugenpresse?
