The parasitism of German media

Politicians and the media are rarely ever a good combination when it comes to the result of their “working together”. Still, combined they form a symbiosis where the media and press take over the role of a parasite. Since the media needs a host, in this scenario being the politicians, they cause both support and damage to the politicians. Normally, it is the latter.

And not surprisingly, this is once again the case in good ol’ Germany. This time I feel like everyone has been brainwashed by the media. Like they control the very words coming out of society’s foul, stupid, narrow-minded mouth. Now in natural science brainwashing is an extremely interesting phenomenon and the Emerald Jewel Wasp does it so well. I could watch this video over and over and over again:

But let’s get back to the topic I am actually referring to. One gets the feeling that the media has targeted one party in particular over the last couple of months: the Free Democratic Party (FDP). This party has been suffering from internal quarrels over the last year, with the climax having been reached when parliament had to be dissolved in the state of Saarland just over a year ago, because governance could not be carried out anymore. More recently though, the chairman of the FDP parliamentary faction, Rainer Brüderle, became a personal target for the press. More specifically, he became the victim of an apparent political smear campaign, as a young female journalist made allegations against him on sexism grounds due to a late night interview she did with him at a Hotel bar a year ago. Allegedly, Brüderle was flirting quite heavily with the young journalist and made comments on her chest measurement, stating that she would “fit in a Dirndl very well”. This has caused a huge sexism debate in Germany, which I actually consider justifiable. But the fact that this young female journalist did not care to report on the incident just after it occurred, but rather waited until Brüderle was nominated as leading candidate for the Bundestag elections in September this year, one cannot help to notice that the timing cries out for a smear campaign.

Just around the time the Rainer Brüderle debate moved into the background again, another FDP politician had to be selected for the media to feed on. This time, it has hit Jörg-Uwe Hahn, the vice prime minister of Hesse, who allegedly made a racist comment on his superior, Philipp Rösler, who is the chairman of the FDP and Vice Chancellor of Germany. He is of Vietnamese descent and has been criticized on his job continuously both within his party and outside.

In an interview, Hahn made the statement: “On Philipp Rösler however, I would like to know whether our society is ready yet to further accept an Asian-looking Vice Chancellor.”

While I admit that this statement can be misinterpreted under false circumstances, Rösler himself said that he does not understand what the fuss is all about and that Hahn is a colleague and friend of his and that he did not interpret it as a racist comment. But apparently this is not enough. If the media says he is a racist, then by God’s grace he must be a racist.

In my eyes, Hahn criticizes society for not being open enough when it comes to racial heritage of politicians. And I think he is spot on. Quite a few people have gotten the impression that criticism of Phillip Rösler is proportionally high compared to other politicians. Of course, one cannot ignore the fact that there is a staggering number of problems the party has to deal with, but I think Rösler’s Asian roots might be perceived negatively, even if this occurs involuntarily in the subconscious.

The chairman of the Young Liberals (JuLi), Lasse Becker, made this quite clear when he said that people come to the election campaign booth in the pedestrian area and say “I would vote for your party, but the Chinese guy would have to go first”.

Now when I read the comments of users on the Internet on this topic, I can’t help but think that society is becoming more stupid by the day. For me, the term “racism” is abused so much nowadays, that many people do not know the difference between a statement on racial heritage and actual racism anymore. If you want to know what racism really is, I can only recommend you ask someone in South Africa or Namibia, where Apartheid is still a topic today. Unfortunately though, the media is part of this society and stupidity does not get excluded when the word journalism is used. At least the Emerald Jewel Wasp knows what it’s doing.

Germany’s ex-First Lady cleaning up

Wulff. A name not that uncommon in German-speaking parts of the world.  It is only one of the different variants we have. Some others include Wulf, Wolff and Wolf. Although the exact meaning is unclear today, it established itself as a reference to the legendary canid. If you would ask people on the street to describe the behaviour of a wolf, quite a few different terms would come up. Personally, I would describe a wolf as a very beautiful animal, powerful, fierce, cunning. Who knows, some attributes might also be applicable for people carrying the name.

Germany’s former president, Christian Wulff, who resigned in February, after the department of public prosecution of Hanover filed for the abrogation of Wulff’s legal immunity as president of the Federal Republic of Germany in order to be able to begin with investigations of corruption, at least managed to get German linguists to get creative. As a result of his more or less legal intrigues, a new verb came up: “wulffen” – which means to babble onto someone’s answering machine, as Wulff did with editor-in-chief of Bild, Kai Diekmann.

Since Wulff stepped down as president, another big discussion started because of the “Ehrensold” – the gratuity sum Germany’s former presidents receive after their services for their country have ended. Of course, in Wulff’s case “services” get a whole new meaning. Germans got furious after they found out that Wulff was to receive 199.000 € per year of tax payers money. Immediately, debates arose on whether such a scandalous and rather fruitless period of presidency was worthy of receiving such a large sum of money for the rest of his life. And for quite a long time too, since Wulff was Germany’s youngest president in history, at age 53.

I have to admit that I also do not agree with the Ehrensold for Christian Wulff. I do not want to play down the work Wulff has done in his time as president and I think it is difficult for third parties to rate Wulff’s efforts. But this large sum of money seems a bit too much, considering that he was only president for about two years. Furthermore, his predecessor Horst Köhler, who stepped down as president due to controversial statements on foreign deployments of the German Bundeswehr, turned down his Ehrensold, even though he was in office much longer than Wulff, having been president of Germany from 2004 – 2010.

Since it was the media who started to uncover the alleged scandals surrounding Wulff, claims have also been made about his wife, ex-First Lady Bettina Wulff, who allegedly has worked in the sexual services industry in her younger years, before she met her husband.

Apparently, she googled herself and was rather unpleased with the results and keywords that popped up. On Friday, she filed an action against Google and also against famous German TV host, Günther Jauch, who had quoted from an article in the “Berliner Zeitung”. According to local newspapers, she pursues a declaration of discontinuance from Jauch about mentioning the topic.

Let’s think about this for a second. I can understand that Mrs. Wulff dislikes connections of her being brought into connection with prostitution from an ethical point of view. And the media making statements without actual facts is also a never ending story. But to order a TV host from keeping his mouth shut and not being allowed to quote what or whom he wants is unacceptable in a nation that so proudly speaks of freedom of press/speech/opinion. In the meantime however, Günther Jauch agreed to the request within a few hours of these legal steps.

Another point that makes you think is the fact that you are allowed to say: “I think/heard that John Doe worked as a toilet cleaner from 2000 to 2001.” Now I am not a lawyer, but in my opinion I only made a statement about a profession I think a certain person had performed in a certain period of time, irrespective of the ethical point of view of the profession. Since prostitution is legal in Germany and employees of the sexual service industry also have to pay taxes and also get statutory health insurance, I really do consider seeing Mrs. Wulff succeed with legal cases for reputational damage as incorrect, when speculating on a former profession. A prostitute who meets the legal requirements such as majority age, health issues etc. is not performing an illegal profession. It would be a whole different story if I would make the statement that a certain John Doe worked as a hit-man or a drug dealer.

A large number of people commented on this story on the internet. Since Mrs. Wulff also filed for compensation for pain and suffering, many believe this is just another addition of the Wulff family trying to increase their wealth. And of course this is not the first time a member of the Wulff family tries to get a muzzle on the press…

If I recall correctly, the majority of Germans do not consider the greater part of  statements from Christian Wulff to be true. Of course, no one can say Bettina Wulff worked in the sexual service industry for sure without having any proof supporting the statement, but honesty is a term most people do not bring into connection with this now infamous surname…