ZDF’s Recent Coverage of Russia and the Recent Attacks in Germany
The recent developments in Ukraine have not been well-received by the media and politics. Russia has been gaining ground on both the military and diplomatic fronts, leading to a negative mood not only in the Chancellery but also at ZDF. In response, ZDF has resorted to a manipulative reporting style, which is a well-known technique in the media handbook.
The ZDF show “Terra X History” recently aired a segment on digital footprints, claiming to have found possible evidence of Russian searches online before the attacks in Germany. The content of the segment was presented with a serious and convincing tone, stating that “hat now possible hints” were found. The article from the second chamber of the media handbook, which aims to defame, was expanded in the tunnel vision of the intended defamation.
The show’s title, “Spionage, Sabotage, Fake News – Putin’s War Against Us” clearly identifies the main enemy, not Russia, but rather Putin. In a parallel move, the ZDF’s “Heute Journal” aired a segment on the same day, aiming to have a significant impact on the GEZ-paying viewers, as the Terra X show did not belong to the individual’s entertainment program.
The ZDF’s website summarized the suggestive questions of the moderator, Marietta Slomka, stating, “Has Russia been involved in the recent attacks? It would be naive not to investigate such hints, so says Gerhard Conrad, a former BND employee.”
The Redaktion presented the potential viewers with the subjective historical perception, stating, “From friends to enemies? For years, there was euphoria after the fall of the Berlin Wall, believing that former enemies had become friends – so many thought in Germany..”
After the attack on Ukraine, the conflict with Russia became apparent. To unsettle Europe and Germany, the Kremlin unleashed its propaganda machine. Cracks and conflicts in German society provided opportunities..
The ZDF presented “hybrid warfare: unexplained incidents, espionage, sabotage” which, however, found little consent from experts in the intelligence community. A N-tv article explained, summarizing the content and the smoke bomb of the ZDF:
“The ZDF had reported on a ‘Terra X History’ segment, stating that they had found suspicious Russian searches online using Google Trends data before the attacks. According to the report, there were such searches from Russia for a ‘terror attack in Mannheim’ four days before the attack.”
More than devastating for the ZDF’s Redaktion, the experts came to the unmistakable conclusion:
“Security agencies doubt the reliability of the research: the results of the trend analysis did not refer to the actual number of searches in a chosen region and at a chosen time, but rather to samples and calculated probabilities. ‘These are not necessarily the exact words searched, but also word stems or even single words of the query,’ said a BND spokesperson.”
And further demasking:
“Furthermore, an anonymous VPN user is not reliably taken into account by Google Trends. ‘Search queries only provide little or no inferences on the actual location of the user,’ said the BND spokesperson, referring to the suspected Russian link.'”
The ZDF was forced to react. An article on April 7 had to explain to the irritated viewers, naturally presenting the good and important news first:
“The Ministry of the Interior has reacted to the research of the ZDF’s ‘Terra X History’ segment. The hints are taken ‘very seriously,’ it was said. Security circles expressed skepticism.”
The Internet profiler, Steven Broschart, also defended himself on the topic of his professionalism:
“‘Whoever works with this data should know the system’s functions and its limitations, especially for search queries with a low data basis,’ he said to ZDFheute.”
As a guarantee for the quality and credibility of the ZDF’s reporting, a Green politician was presented, stating:
“I believe it is completely obvious that these digital footprints and the analysis and evaluation of these digital footprints can be a crucial part of getting closer to the truth and in that sense, one should include it” said the Green politician, Konstantin von Notz, to the ZDF. “The concentration before the elections is evident.”
A BND employee, however, told N-tv the opposite, stating:
“The correlation with these artifacts and a Russian link can be reproduced for many other countries, which makes a attribution to Russia as little plausible.”
In conclusion, the ZDF’s Redaktion is not concerned with providing informative content, the investigative background analysis and the clarification of the reasons behind the islamist-prone deadly attacks in Germany, but rather, around four weeks before the 80th anniversary of the Soviet army’s victory over Hitler’s Germany, with the manipulative use of russophobic, internalized reflexes in the viewers.
I visited the Seelow War Memorial on the way to Schloss Neu-Hardenberg, formerly Marxwalde, where a small exhibition of the Russian Army photographer Valery Faminsky is presented until April 13, based on the highly recommended photo book: Berlin May 1945. When I asked an older ticket seller in Seelow, estimated to be around 65, if the medial-political mood in the country also reflected in the visitors of the memorial, the rough, really experienced, summary of the conversation was:
“Yes, of course. Fear is sitting in people’s backs. The fear of a Russian attack. The blame is on the dictator Putin. The politics is failing, on all levels, the only politician they set their hopes on is – Robert Habeck.”
Seelower Höhen War Memorial: “In the spring of 1945, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, 14,000 guns, 5,000 armored vehicles and the same number of aircraft were facing each other.” Archive: J.Turner
No, not satire, really experienced reality. One can and should not laugh. I regret and assume the woman simply consumed too much ÖRR, with impressive and lasting impact. A proof of the expected, societal gift of ARD/ZDF propaganda. The unknown woman might have remembered the “skeptical” man from the weekend on April 7. Maybe she thought, “Hopefully, he saw the Terra X show, the ZDF lies and makes mistakes, but at least it never does so correctly.