German corporate racist fake news

This video from Germany says about itself:

New Year Festival at [river] Main bank, Frankfurt city, 2017. Everything was very peaceful but very cold because of snowing.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Bild article on mass rape in Frankfurt turns out to be fake news

Today, 15:25

Was this New Year’s night in Frankfurt similar to the one in Cologne, a year earlier? The newspaper Bild reported last week that dozens of young men of “Arab” descent in a café in Frankfurt had harassed visitors and groped women. Hundreds of others were said to have caused problems in an entertainment area. Now is certain: it was fake news.

Police in Frankfurt are investigating two sources of the story, a landlord and an alleged customer of his. This Irina A. told Bild that her breasts and pubic area were groped. Yesterday the Public Prosecutor in the German city reported that A. during New Year was not at all in Frankfurt and that her story thus could not be true.

Pub boss Jan M. is said to sympathize with the [racist] Pegida movement and the right-wing populist

How often will I have to repeat on this blog that journalists should stop using ‘populist’ as an euphemism for racist?

party Alternative for Germany. Which oppose the arrival of refugees in Germany. The police called M.’s allegations nonsense and says they “lack any foundation.”

Questions and amazement

The publication in Bild immediately caused many questions. With one exception, operators of other catering facilities did not recognize themselves in the stories of M. and A. They spoke of a normal New Year. Also police were surprised. Police had not received on January 1 and in the days after any report that pointed to large-scale assaults.

Bild has now retracted the story and apologized. “The editors apologize emphatically for inaccurate reporting and the accusations against those involved,” according to a statement. The newspaper is now figuring out how things could come so far.

Bild with a circulation of 1.7 million is the largest newspaper in Germany. Also online the paper is influential. The story therefore also appeared in other countries.

Bild is part of the Axel Springer corporation; with a far-right tradition. In the 1960s they were the inspiration for a firearm attempt on the life of leftist Berlin student leader Rudi Dutschke.

German police say major newspaper’s story about a rampaging Arab ‘sex mob’ was wrong: here.