Again and again we find out that some celebrated reporters were producing fake news, to what end is often a mystery. In the case at hand, Claas Relotius was working for the well-known German Spiegel (Mirror), and received awards over several years for his fiction news writing, including the German Reporter Award in 2013, 20015, 2016 and 2018, CNN's Journalist of the year in 2014 and the European Press Prize in 2017, as shown in "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claas_Relotius"
BBC's news article shown in "https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46624297" gives more details.
What boggles my mind is that it took so long to expose this fake news architect; it clearly shows that the reading public is easily bamboozled, and only too willing to accept lies as facts, as long as the media of the world presents it as that. These days, we, the reading public, are conflicted not only by fake news but also by 'Spin Doctors' writing their stories with bias for or against an entity, to please the publisher's political orientation. One might ask, why bother with the news anyway? I venture to say, by all means, read and watch as much news you can stomach but be very skeptical.
The BBC reported the following, 12/23/2018.
ReplyDelete"The German reporter Claas Relotius, accused by top news magazine Der Spiegel of faking stories, could now face embezzlement charges.
Der Spiegel says it is filing a criminal complaint alleging he solicited donations for Syrian orphans from readers with any proceeds going to his personal account.
Der Spiegel said last week that Relotius admitted faking some stories.
The reporter, 33, has yet to comment on the embezzlement allegations.
In the latest development, Der Spiegel reports (in German) that it received messages from readers saying Relotius had used a private email account to ask for donations to help Syrian orphans in Turkey.
The money should be sent to his personal bank account, the magazine quotes readers as saying.
The publication says it is not yet clear what sort of response he received - how much money was collected or where it ended up.
Der Spiegel is gathering evidence to pass on to prosecutors."