Not so Easy to Criticize Joschka Fischer in Germany...

Interesting interview, featured in a new blog: Stambord, a Swedish media watch site.

Paul O'Mahony interviews Bettina Roehl, the daughter of Ulrike Meinhof, founder and member of the infamous "Baader-Meinhof Gang", a left-wing terrorist group in the late 60's. Ulrike Meinhof committed suicide in a German prison on May 9, 1976.

Bettina Roehl, who does not share her mother's left-wing convictions, "achieved ... notoriety in 2001, when she located and published photographs of current German Foreign Minister and Green Party leader Joschka Fischer beating a policeman during a 1970’s street battle."

In the interview, Roehl describes her experience with some German media outlets after presenting the Fischer pictures to the public.

It was already widely known that Fischer had a difficult past when he came to power. Yet over a two year period in Frankfurt I was the only journalist doing research on him, which I found strange. There were already rumours circulating that he may have been involved with Molotov cocktails, so one wonders why I was the only one asking questions. I didn’t find the photos in an archive; I wrenched them from the cartel of silence surrounding the ‘68ers in Frankfurt. There were anywhere between 500 and 1000 people in Frankfurt who knew about these photos but everybody remained silent because to do otherwise would be to break a sort of mafia code. And they all know that anybody who breaks the code will be ostracised by the group. So it was quite an achievement to get the photos... (...)

... a female witness came forward and said that Fischer had called for the use of Molotov cocktails at a demonstration in 1973. She had been a delegate for the section of the movement that favoured peaceable means, and in the preparations leading up to the demonstration where the photos were taken, she spent four hours trying to convince Fischer and two of his friends to avoid the use of Molotov cocktails. In the days following this programme, the witness received phone calls from many of the figures in the scene—Daniel Cohn-Bendit and others, urging her to retract her statement. She really came under fire for a while but refused to recant. But the story didn’t make it much further than that because the German press agency, DPA, didn’t run with it. The woman in charge at DPA, a certain Frau Schnurrer, simply discarded it. Incidentally, she spends a lot of her time on foreign affairs trips covering Fischer. Anyway, she refrained from spreading the story. The people at NDR [the main broadcaster for northern Germany] got wind of this and were fuming that such a sensational story was being withheld. They spoke to the witness and found her to be a credible source. Three days earlier, Fischer had stated that he was never involved with Molotov cocktails and now this witness was openly contradicting him. She said that they had been friends and that she liked him, but they had disagreed on this one point. The story never went much further. (...)

But one thing is for certain: the media in this country (Germany) are not interested in telling the whole truth. What’s even more astonishing is the number of friends Fischer and company have in the foreign media in Europe and the USA, ensuring that the facts and historical truth remain elusive. (...)

I didn’t think the photos would topple him, nor did I hope or intend them to do so. But I did hope the German media would display more courage, and I had also hoped that the conservative parties would be smarter and more courageous. But they were a complete let-down and the whole thing came to an end. To this day, the full extent of my research hasn’t been published, which is not due to the information lacking in value in any way but to the refusal of the media to publish it at that time. (...)

"I’m pleased to report that the upper court in Munich recently ruled against the newspaper FAZ. It is no longer allowed to label me the ‘traumatised daughter of a terrorist.’ As they support Fischer, they have used this epithet to discriminate against me and…against what I say in public. After this decision was reached, several leading editors called me to offer their congratulations. (emphasis added)

Read the whole interview. It provides an interesting insight into the inner workings of the German media.

Comments

[Sandy P]

Slowly, person-by-person, the blogosphere changes the world.

Hopefully it's fast enough.

[Gabi]

Der ganze Artikel ist lesenswert. Aber wieso schreibt er, es seien viele Bush-Lügen entlarvt worden? Ich kenne nicht eine. Alle Reporte und Kommissionen haben genau das Gegenteil ergeben.

"5. Der vermeintlich friedliche Irak:

Besonders emotional, aber auch faktisch völlig daneben, wird der Film, wenn Moore auf den Irak-Krieg zu sprechen kommt. Bilder von spielenden Kindern in den Straßen Bagdads werden gezeigt, die ein friedliches Land darstellen sollen. Nichts hier ist böse, suggeriert Moore - eine Wahrheit, die man trotz der vielen entlarvten Lügen der Bush-Regierung, aber vor allem wegen der vielen Berichte über Folter und Unterdrückung unter Saddam Husseins Herrschaft so nicht glauben kann. Dann kommen die Bombenattacken auf ein angeblich "souveränes Land", wie Moore sagt. Doch wie souverän war der Irak zu diesem Zeitpunkt, geschwächt von Uno-Sanktionen und der internationalen Isolation? Wie souverän ist ein Land mit einem Diktator wie Saddam Hussein überhaupt?"

Aus:

FAKTENCHECK IN "FAHRENHEIT 9/11"

Moores vereinfachte Welt

Von Matthias Gebauer

Zum Lügen ist Michael Moore zu professionell. Sein Film "Fahrenheit 9/11" mischt lieber irreführende Wahrheiten mit geschickten Auslassungen. SPIEGEL ONLINE prüft die Faktenlage in Moores erfolgreicher Anti-Bush-Polemik

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/0,1518,310795,00.html

[jo]

Das sind doch uralte Kamellen! Mehr als drei Jahre alt. Dass Bettina Roehl die Fotos verkaufte, ohne die Rechte an ihnen zu besitzen, wird hier wohlweislich nicht erwaehnt. Ueberhaupt war Roehls eher ein persoenlicher Rachefeldzug und weniger serioeser Journalismus.

[James]

@Niko

Good point. I have to laugh like a school girl in how you've caught jo in his blatant hypocrisy.

Any criticisms of any member of the German government is an attack on the honor of the German nation.

Any criticisms of any member of the American government is the honor of the German nation.

[Gabi]

like a school GIRL, James? Now I am puzzled. :-)

[James]

@Gabi,

I'm not a school girl disguising myself under the name of James.

But I think Jo will apprechiate the subtle insinuation...

[jo]

Niko & James,

smart asses! Three years ago, this story was all over the place. If I remember correctly, Spiegel featured a cover story about Fischer's past. Stern - how typical - bought the pictures from Roehl even though she didn't have the right to sell them. The point is, everyone covered it. More than three years ago! Why bring it up now? Is that all you have to support your crude agenda?

Go to Roehl's website to see how "unbiased" her reporting is: http://www.bettinaroehl.de/Der_Fischer___/der_fischer___.html

Actually, it's really sleeky of you to rehash an old story more than three years later. That way, you can suggest that the media doesn't cover it because it is soooo biased. Who's the hypocrite here? Well, maybe you guys aren't hypocritical, you just don't know better.

[James]

@Jo

I think the issue is if it was "all over" the American media 3 years ago. Was it? No.

How many Spiegel covers did Fishcer's sensational past warrant? Probably fewer than Bush/Iraq/America/etc... Go have a look at www.spiegel.de and tell me if they are not obsessed with America and American culture...

But hey, you know in Europe, you can be a former Maoist and do a full 180 and become president of EU executive commission. Whereas in the US, to plausibly swich from Democrat to Republican has been done successfully by relatively very few. Reagan included. I think few former Maoists would be acceptable to the American voting public. Don't you honestly think so?

I think the point is that corruption, reporing, history, etc all needs to be put into context. Spiegel is out to make money, nothing else. And seldom do we see a report on the "corruption of Haliburton and Cheney" without any similar confessions of Germany's ambitious Foreign Minister who has a rather checkerd past. Spiegel never got out of elitist dorm-room leftism and it shows.

[George M]

Jo:

Read comments by a former General in the Romanian secret service: Fischer gave support to Carlos the Jackal in the 1976 kidnapping of the OPEC oil ministers.

http://websearch.cs.com/cs/boomframe.jsp?query=Joschka+Fischer+terrorist&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D4a7f652e33f53cdd%26clickedItemRank%3D4%26userQuery%3DJoschka%2BFischer%2Bterrorist%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.nationalreview.com%252Fcomment%252Fcomment-pacepa021403.asp%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DCSroll%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2Fcomment%2Fcomment-pacepa021403.asp

Read former RAF terrorist Margarite Schiller admit that Fischer, Bennit-Cohen and Klein used to hide wanted RAF terrorists in their apartment in Frankfurt:

http://websearch.cs.com/cs/boomframe.jsp?query=Joschka+Fischer+terrorist&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D4a7f652e33f540c1%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3DJoschka%2BFischer%2Bterrorist%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.leftwatch.com%252F838%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DCSroll%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leftwatch.com%2F838

I think you Germans have to come to terms that your foreign minister is a major scum bucket and a former thug. So long as he is still playing a role on the world stage, it is fair to bring these accusations up.

I also think it is fair to say that former roommates or house guests of Joschka Fischer have killed more human beings than any U.S. Soldier at Abu Grahb.

[jo]

James & George M.,
"I think the issue is if it was "all over" the American media 3 years ago. Was it? No.

Well, maybe the American media didn't cover it because it wasn't important to them. It's not my fault if they didn't report it. The story is no secret.

And why is it so strange to you that people change? Former potheads and alcoholics made it to the White House. Does/did their past matter? Do I "bring these accusations up" as these poeple are "still playing a role on the world stage"? No, because they've changed.

BTW. "Spiegel is out to make money, nothing else." I've been saying that for a long time, but many here make it seem like their only reason for their existence is some crude political agenda.

[Joe]

Active support of a terrorist organization is put on the same level as being an alcoholic. There certainly is a huge gap in values between the US and Germany. No wonder there are disagreements amount the US and her "so called allies". Makes perfect sense to me that Fischer would be defended..

[Gabi]

Joe, good point!

[Bettina Röhl]

Diejenigen, die bei Davids Medienkritik kommentieren, die Fischer - Sache sei "alter Kaffee" oder gar nur ein "Rachefeldzug" gewesen, die "Fotos ohne Rechte" verkauft worden, plappern genau das nach, was die Medien im Zuge einer wahnhaften Kampagne im Januar 2001 ohne Fakten und teils sogar Faktenresistent, gegen mich und noch mehr gegen die Wahrheit der Fischer - Story verleumderisch aufgefahren haben.

Ich freue mich, dass ich ein knappes Dutzend treue Anhänger habe, die wo immer mein Name auftaucht,
die drei Stereotypen wieder herunter beten.

Das Wesen der Kampagne gegen mich ist die Wirkung der Kampagne, dass ein paar verwerflich handelnde Schlaumeier sich bei irgendwem andienen wolen und sei es nur beim vermuteten Mainstream, und immer das Gleiche absondern, was vor allem mit dem Fall Fischer auch nicht das allermindeste zu tun hat, von dem die Leute nicht ein Gran Ahnung haben.

http://www.netzeitung.de/medien/266159.html

[Max]

guter Artikel - doch wenige schein hinter die Kulissen zu sehen...