A reporter's dispatch from Trump country featured a 'Mexicans Keep Out' sign. But he made it all up.

[oberliner]

When an out-of-town journalist showed up in Fergus Falls, Minn., in February 2017, Michele Anderson couldn’t help but feel skeptical. Claas Relotius had been telling residents that he was writing about the state of rural America under President Trump. Anderson, a community arts administrator with progressive political views, was uncomfortable with “the anthropological gaze” that had been cast on communities like her own after the 2016 election. Hopefully, she would later recall thinking, an award-winning international journalist would at least manage to capture more nuance than the pundits had in the months following the election.

As it turned out, the piece that appeared in the respected German weekly magazine Der Spiegel a month later was even worse than she could have imagined. Not only did it rely on stock stereotypes of provincial, gun-toting conservatives, but many of the details were blatantly false.

Relotius wrote that city administrator Andrew Bremseth had never been with a woman and had never been to the ocean, claims that were easily debunked by a photo on Bremseth’s Facebook page that showed him standing next to the ocean with his long-term girlfriend. Relotius mentioned looking through the windows of a local diner and seeing a power plant billowing out steam, which would have been impossible since the plant in question is hidden behind a tall hill more than two miles away. And he described a sign at the entrance to town that said, “Mexicans Keep Out” — something that community members didn’t recall ever seeing.

On Wednesday, they were vindicated. Der Spiegel announced that Relotius had “falsified his articles on a grand scale” since at least 2016 and had resigned after admitting that he had fabricated quotes and invented fictional details in more than a dozen stories, including his dispatch from Fergus Falls. The magazine’s investigation found that the 33-year-old writer had faked interviews with the parents of Colin Kaepernick and falsified material that appeared in award-winning features about children kidnapped by the Islamic State and a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Before it all came crashing down, he had also managed to convince editors that a co-worker who expressed suspicions was the real liar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/21/german-reporters-dispatch-trump-country-featured-mexicans-keep-out-sign-he-made-it-all-up/

Good reporting by the Washington Post on this.

[sharedvalues]

1. Article was written in German.

In Der Spiegel.

[oberliner]

3. That might have been part of how he was able to get away with it

His readers in Germany would've perhaps been less able to spot the falsehoods.

[sharedvalues]

4. But not far off from what Fox says nightly

[oberliner]

6. The most effective lies often have a kernel of truth

[Cirque du So-What]

2. The RW will latch onto this story

and use it as an example of 'fake journalism' - especially considering the theme of many of this serial liar's stories.

[oberliner]

5. All the more reason for the LW to call out this sort of thing

To blunt that kind of attack from the RW.

[WeekiWater]

8. The left doesn't need to say a single word about this story.

It would be foolish to do so. We have enough ammo. Zero reason for the left to touch or promote this. I question if those who are are to the left of anything.

[oberliner]

11. I completely disagree

It is very valuable to make a point of promoting these stories and emphasizing how strongly we call out reporters who falsify stories. Showing that the left does not abide this behavior helps emphasize how different we are from the right who regularly engage in lies and fabrications.

[WeekiWater]

13. Yeah. Great topic as the President lies daily and burns the country down.

I’m sure the “left” will be all over this. I don’t think you are being serious.

[XRubicon]

10. That's right there are many true stories to be told, no need to embelish

“those (expletive) Mexicans.”

https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/20181220/police-palm-beach-woman-tired-of-workers-blocking-road-points-shotgun-at-them

[oberliner]

12. Exactly

The fake stories do harm to the credibility of the real ones.

[Tipperary]

7. Reminds me of the "creative" anecdotes

I have read here.

[Wounded Bear]

9. So, essentially...

the writer just picked up on some typical Facebook memes and ran with them.