Spiegel award winning reporter ‘faked stories’ for years

[Clutch]

BY AGENCIES , (LAST UPDATED 33 MINS AGO)

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Germany’s respected news weekly Der Spiegel stunned the media world on Wednesday by revealing that one of its award-winning reporters had for years falsified stories.

Claas Relotius “made up stories and invented protagonists” in at least 14 out 60 articles that appeared in the magazine’s print and online editions, Spiegel wrote, warning that other outlets could also be affected.

Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam. He had written for the magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.

Earlier this month, he was named German Reporter of the Year for a story about a young Syrian boy.

The cheating came to light after a colleague who worked with him on story along the US-Mexican border raised suspicions about some of the details in Relotius’s reporting.

The reporter eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November. Both said they had never met Relotius.

Relotius had also lied about seeing a hand-painted sign that read “Mexicans Keep Out”, a subsequent investigation found.

Other fraudulent stories included one about a Yemeni prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, and one about NFL star Colin Kaepernick.

In a lengthy article, Spiegel said it was “shocked” by the discovery and apologised to its readers as well as to anyone who may have been the subject of “fraudulent quotes, made up personal details or invented scenes at fictitious places”.

The Hamburg-based magazine, renowned for its in-depth investigative pieces, described the episode as “a low point in Spiegel’s 70-year history”.

An in-house commission has been set up to pore over all of Relotius’ work for the weekly.

The reporter also wrote for a string of other well-known outlets, including German newspapers taz, Welt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Sunday edition.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/12/19/spiegel-award-winning-reporter-faked-stories-for-years/

We love iniinia world of liars. Honesty, integrity, and honor are a thing of the past.

It is only getting worse.

 

[xyxmt]

All indepth stories are fake, ask our own sharmeen obaid chinoy and she will tell you truth and nothing (but truth)

 

[vostok]

Wait. You want to say there are western journalists who do not write fake stories?

 

[ptldM3]

Wait. You want to say there are western journalists who do not write fake stories?

Never, the people at CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Vice, Buzzfeed, BBC, Huffpost or Compost as it's often called, NPR, etc have never lied, never lobbies to sensor conservatives, never blatantly choosen political sides, shown utter racism and outright lied.

That would be RT and dozens of other independent conservative outlets. I especially enjoy the BBC reporters while in Russia claiming random cars are following them, the FSB is after them, and Russia is bleak place, those "reporters" give ominous warnings not to travel to Russia because we all know how many foreigners were in danger during Sochi and the World Cup.

 

[Dubious]

Wait. You want to say there are western journalists who do not write fake stories?

No, but award winners shouldnt!