Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European Bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
The negative and even hostile attitude of the German media toward the Russian government headed by President Vladimir Putin is not something new. After the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the confrontation between the West and Russia became open. However, even before these events, mainstream journalists from Germany and other Western countries didn’t like the Russian leader much, calling him “a tsar” or “a dictator.” We remember biased coverage of the Sochi Olympics by the West agencies. It dispelled illusions of the high-standards and objectivity of Western journalism.
However, a five-minute TV-show about Vladimir Putin, which was broadcast by SWR Public TV-channel, crossed the line of journalistic ethics. The satirical show Lisas Welt (Lisa’s World) which presents socio-political topics from a child’s point of view, decided to devote an episode to Russian President Vladimir Putin. By the way, German viewers expressed indignation about the show on the official website of the TV-channel, comparing it with shoddy and primitive propaganda of the Third Reich times.
Readers can evaluate the “masterpiece” of journalism for themselves. You can watch it here:
http://www.swr.de/report/lisas-welt-der-putin-erklaerer/-/id=233454/nid=233454/did=14366710/10xd54p/index.html
We present a translation of the text.
“In our class nobody understands Putin, except for some “understanding” people (it is a reference to “Putin-Versteher”, a term which is used for any person who conducts a dialogue with Moscow). So, yesterday we went to the zoo where we met a real “Putinologist.” He explained everything to us about Putin. Putin is king of the taiga, and he needs a lot of space, as Putin is very fast. In two weeks he could reach Kiev!
Putin is an alpha animal and has no natural enemies: he ate them all. However, his living space is still under threat, as hunters come to his area closer and closer. They shouldn’t do this, as when Putin feels a threat, he reacts unpredictably.
Then he appears in regions which are not included in his typical living area. And everybody is afraid of him. His biased friends make sure that he feels at home there. And the noise of aircraft shouldn’t disturb him.
At the same time, Putin only needs space to spend the winter! Who knows, if more people support Putin, he will spread all over Europe. Professor Gricmek promised to tell us next time why some alpha-animals copulate with each other.”
We present the five most popular comments by German TV-viewers on the official page of the TV-show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reportmainz/posts/10152468305392864
Wiesbaden (200 likes): Another shoddy propaganda and lie about the president of an independent country. Create something similar about Joachim Gauck and Obama who starts wars!
Joachim Mogge (139 likes): Vassal governmental journalists with their prehistoric mental level lost all contacts with the reality. Burn you TV-show!
Roland Ganzkow (121 likes): What has happened with the serious coverage of developments here? Rousing hatred to Putin becomes unbearable.
Martina Fricke (113 likes): I was shocked by “Lisa’s World,” as well as my husband. We couldn’t understand what the authors of such a primitive interpretation think about the audience. I hope the Russian state media won’t fall as low as Report Mainz and won’t use the awful way of presenting materials about German politicians, which rouses hatred between the nations. When will the serious coverage of developments return? Think about it: if a person is cornered regularly, he can react aggressively one day. ARD and ZDF are involved into the scenario.
Michael Mietzke (89 likes): Shame on you! You spread such a dirty lie… on the public dime! It is absolutely out the reality.
By the way, for the German public television functioning clearly and independently from the political situation, every household of the country pays a special TV tax monthly. SWR is financed by the money as well. However, obviously, regarding coverage of the Russian issue, the channel is oriented not toward public order, but toward political directives.
