The disclosure came after a colleague raised concerns about a recent piece on Trump supporters in rural America
By Bojan Pancevski and Sara Germano | 20 December 2018
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL — Europe faces its largest journalistic scandal in years after Der Spiegel, the continent’s biggest-selling news magazine, said one of its star reporters fabricated facts in his articles for years.
The magazine’s disclosure, which came after a colleague raised concerns about a recent piece on supporters of President Trump in rural America, was made as Europe’s established media faces attacks by populist forces at home and abroad.
Claas Relotius, an award-winning journalist, resigned from the magazine last week after admitting to making up parts of his reporting in the past decade, Der Spiegel said late Wednesday. […]
I’m shocked, SHOCKED. This merkin is treading a well-worn path of journalistic make-believe. This is what “fake news” is all about.
He started with a political/ideological position and then manufactured sources to support his view. He literally made up people to whom he could attribute fake quotes! Sure, media often will cherry pick (real) sources and selectively include/exclude info to shape readers’ thinking. But what this guy did was on an entirely different level. His work was total fiction. And for his fictional “news,” he won 10 awards. Meanwhile, Der Spiegel supposedly has 72 fact checkers on staff. Really??