The mirror in the crisis: false Merz letter causes excitement!

The mirror in the crisis: false Merz letter causes excitement!

In a current incident about the "Spiegel", a letter to the editor about Friedrich Merz provided a lot of attention and criticism. The letter, written by Peter Krizan from Neuötting, described a supposedly disastrous appearance of Merz ’at the University of St. Gallen, and incorrectly claimed that Merz was there as a honorary professor and kept lectures. In fact, Merz never took such a teaching position and is known as a lawyer. This misleading representation comes from Krizan, who was based on Chatgpt for information procurement and submitted his letter to the editor without careful source examination. The "Spiegel" published this letter without prior review of the facts, which led to a considerable public outcry.

A spokesman for the CDU rejected the claims after the publication and said that Merz had never appeared as a teacher at the University of St. Gallen. At the latest when an internal exam in the "Spiegel" came to the conclusion that the letter to the editor should not have been published, it was clear that the editorial standards had to be questioned. The review showed that neither in Swiss nor in German newspaper archives there were any evidence of a teaching activity of Merz at the University of St. Gallen; Even an older article in the St. Galler Tagblatt only mentions Merz as a participant in a conference, but not as a teacher.

media responsibility and ethical standards

The "Spiegel" reacted to the criticism and apologized to both Friedrich Merz and his readers. The magazine described the withdrawal of the letter to the editor as "deplot" and promises to improve the internal processes for quality assurance. Despite this reaction, the columnist Jan Fleischhauer expressed concerns that this apology would actually change. He criticizes the perception of impartiality in the media and warns of the dwindling trust of the readers into journalistic work.

The incident is not only an example of missing journalistic care, but also asks the question of media ethics in our time. Journalism should be based on the values ​​of truthfulness, objectivity and responsibility. Media ethics includes basic principles that aim to ensure publicly responsible reporting. So it is crucial to check sources and ensure the transparency of the information in order to promote the trust of the reader and to stabilize the public image of the media ( Teech ).

The decline of quality standards

Fleischhauer emphasizes that the "mirror" increasingly failed to question stories before they are published, and thus lags behind competitors like "time". This tendency towards self -defect within the journalistic community means that deviating opinions are no longer adequately taken into account. The award ceremonies for questionable articles, such as the "Stern" Prize for an article about Julian Reichelt, are symbolically for this problem.

For more information about the incident, read the full reports from Focus.de and Spiegel.de