It is quite easy to look at the life of German journalist Claas Relotius and exclaim “fake news!” The term is in widespread use these days and serves as a political lightning rod. As we discuss the man who in 2014 was voted as CNN’s “Journalist of the Year,” we should remember that this fraud, is what magazine Der Spiegel has called its worst moment in 70 years is more about ethics than politics. The unethical troubling life of Claas Relotius.
“I am sick and I need to get help.”
In recent years reporter Relotius has allegedly fabricated at least 14 major stories, many about American politics. This discovery was made after the newspaper investigated the journalist and concluded that Relotius had invented his sources, many of his characters and their quotations in support of whatever point that he was trying to make.
The investigation is continuing as Relotius had contributed as many as 60 articles to the publication and in addition, he has written on a freelance and staff basis for other publications. There is no telling how many other stories he constructed, nor how much damage he has done under the guise of “the truth.”
According to articles on the scandal, Relotius faked a telephone interview to the parents of Colin Kaepernick, a story about a woman who witnessed deaths of inmates and another story about Fergus Falls, Minnesota which was fabricated to make the town and its residents appear as a bigoted, politically motivated and terrible place to live.
Claas’ fabricated articles by and large that always managed to show the American experience as violent, racist and right wing. Clearly, if that is a journalist’s view, and it was backed up with facts and actual interviews, it would have been one thing – even if skewed. However, the “facts,” characters and interviews he quoted never occurred.
His downfall was a recent article he wrote with the assistance of another journalist in regard to the border militia on the U.S. – Mexico border (another attempt to smear the U.S.). Again, according to several articles on the fraud, when the article was published the “legitimate” journalist saw quotes from interviews that never happened and he blew the whistle.
When all of the stories written by Relotius started to unravel he said that he was sick and needed help. It is a sympathy card that is rather hard to accept and has much more far reaching implications than one writer with an agenda.
In the light of politics
Whether we are fans of the current President of the United States or not, we must admit that there is great passion on both sides of the issues and policies that have emerged from Washington, D.C. To the world, America is often portrayed in a narrow light that is just not reflective of the broader experience, especially to nations such as France, Germany or the U.K. Bashing America and its politicians is viewed as a fair game topic and that may feel uncomfortable to some, but Relotius elevated it to a high art. It may be a key to what happened in this fraud.
Every time this unethical journalist uncovered what he fabricated as an opportunity to portray politicians or American citizens in a negative light, it was apparently rewarded by editors and magazine executives who concurred with his anger. The more his political viewpoints were accepted and praised, the bigger the opportunity for him to fabricate a piece. Again, it was his right to express these viewpoints had he been writing a piece of fiction or even a piece of nonfiction backed by one-sided quotations. However, it was eventually realized there was no research, no actual quotations and in fact, no characters.
As unethical as was Claas Relotius, those who let him write and those who approved his facts without oversight, are every bit as culpable. Why would he do such a thing? Was it a need for acceptance? A need for power and popularity and awards? In any case, he had ingratiated himself to his editors to such an extent he apparently had no need to have anything he wrote scrutinized as to its truth.
Whether Relotius needs help as he claims, or not, he was easily able to rationalize his faked pieces. In this fashion, he duped all of his readers. For example, he must have realized that when he purported to interview militia members on the U.S. border that the chances of anyone of his European readers ever visiting the areas in question was miniscule at best. He rationalized that it just didn’t matter as long as he could fake his agenda.
The disgrace of this journalist has nothing to do with “fake news,” and everything to do with a magazine losing all of its integrity, from bottom to top. The unethical troubling life of Claas Relotius.
