Richard Gutjahr Explains His Nice, Munich ‘Reporting’ Fails

Freelance journalist Richard Gutjahr — who was Johnny on the Spot during attacks in both Nice and Munich — has now been kind enough to explain to the gullible public his fine art of synthetic “reporting,” otherwise know as “reporting” for effect while ignoring reality. The blurry and show-nothing images he produced are apparently what passes for “journalism” nowadays.

Gutjahr gave his tall tale to a UK publication for journalists on July 25. Notice there is no comments section for this article.

He states he was “caught off-guard” in both Nice and Munich and without his usual bag of mobile journalism equipment that includes a tripod, selfie stick, lenses and bluetooth microphones; but was able to cover the attacks with just the iPhone in his pocket.

“I usually take my equipment everywhere I go with me, so I have it at my disposal,” Gutjahr said. “But this was the first time I didn’t have it with me.”

Regarding Nice, the article states the truck driver had started his attack roughly 2 kilometers down the road, but Gutjahr did not have any immediate knowledge of what had happened. He reacted by shooting Iphone video from his hotel balcony.

Once the gunfire had stopped and the truck was stationary, Gutjahr ran out on to the street with his iPhone to record footage of what was happening, seeing the dead on the ground and wounded people being brought into the nearby hotels.

“I took some footage from across the street to capture the scenes after the truck had been stopped, but it was deliberately shot so you couldn’t see any details, while being aware there were bodies on the street,” Gutjahr told Journalism.uk.

He tweeted about the event with a non-graphic picture. In the article, there is a video clip. At 0:30 to 0:50 you can get a good idea of what Gutjahr is talking about when he says “lack of details.” In the first comment below you can also compare video quality with a night test of a 2014 model iPhone6.

Despite being at the reporting event of a lifetime, in the aftermath Gutjahr offers a blurry photo of nothing. Must have been hard to restrain himself.

Next, he offers the following preposterous explanation for his lack of real reporting: “Everyone was expecting me to livestream, but the best reporting I did that night was the reporting I did not do.”

Gutjahr, who also holds workshops on live streaming, decided not to Periscope the aftermath, but rather let news agency ARD decide what footage should be broadcast to the public. ARD on its end has revealed very little.

He said he Skyped live from his balcony, which overlooked ambulances, police lights and helicopters at the scene. He was careful to ensure there were no wounded people in the frame. 

“If there were people in the background then I would have just turned my smartphone to the other direction,” he said. “It was night, and I was broadcasting using Skype on a mobile phone, so all these factors assured that no matter where I pointed my camera, it was clearly too far away to show something bad.”

Regarding the Munich event, Journalism.uk reports that a friend informed him there had been shootings in Munich shopping centre Olympia Einkaufszentrum.

“When I got the text message, I was 5 minutes away from the shopping mall, so it triggered my reporter instinct to go there to see if it was something bigger or a minor incident,” Gutjahr said.

After hearing the sirens of more than 20 police cars, he went and parked outside the shopping center just in time before police had blocked the road. Using just his phone, he was able to report live from the scene just 10 minutes later on the Bavarian branch of ARD’s evening news bulletin.

“There was no time to test video or Skype, so they told me to stay on the line – we went on air right away,” he said.

After Gutjahr produced some phone reports, ARD sent a camera crew to the shopping mall for further coverage. However, technical difficulties meant his colleague’s live stream wasn’t working, so Gutjahr had to step in, live on air. 

“The satellite link to him was failing live on air, in that one could see him but not hear him. Luckily they had me as a back-up on the phone for emergencies so I was able to give a report,” he said.

Just as in Nice, Gutjahr chose not to live stream from the scene, but instead took photos and videos that he sent to ARD to use in their news bulletins.

Gutjahr has also actively teamed up with You Tube (Google) to cover his tracks and avoid scrutiny by having a number of truther videos removed and sites banned.

Additionally a Wikipedia account describing his wife, a former Israeli Knesset member and intelligence officer has been altered.

Verdict: This is a blatant manipulation of truth and simply beyond the pale, but at least we got some good insights into how these operations are being gamed. More TNN articles on the Gutjahr saga.