Controversy due to reportage
“Low point in reporting”: Warning of a new ARD format
April 14, 2025 – 12:30 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Julia Ruhs presents the new ARD format “clear”. The report series harvests criticism from different areas. Spectators are even asked to complain.
A controversy has arisen to the new report series “clear – what moves Germany”. The pilot sequence of the format was broadcast on Wednesday. She had the topic of migration. Julia Ruhs, who presents the series, opened the show with the words: “What is coming now may not be liked to everyone, but it is one of the very big issues of our time.”
“We say what is going wrong at ‘clear’,” says Ruhs in a pre -moderation of the format. A report about a father follows his daughter. She was killed in a regional train with 26 knife stings at the age of 17. The perpetrator: an asylum seeker. In addition, the federal spokeswoman for the Green Youth, Jette Nietzard, has their say.
There is criticism of the format mainly because of the political tendency, and it comes from different areas. The NGO “New German Media Makers: Inside” describes the format as a “low point in the reporting of public service broadcasting”. The concrete allegation: “If narrative narratives are suddenly sold as ‘diversity of opinion’, this is not a contribution to the debate – but part of the problem.” The organization calls for a “fact -based, differentiated and solution -oriented reporting”. This is the only way to guarantee that social cohesion is not endangered. Therefore, they call on to write the responsible editorial offices NDR and BR.
Jan Böhmermann also addressed “Klar” in his show “ZDF Magazin Royale”, without naming the name. He said: “If you are unsure how you can sell all the right -wing populist nonsense in your pear as reputable journalism, then I have a little tip for you. There is a sentence with which you can sell every big mess, every stupidity, every inhumanity, every madness as a seriously debatted topic in the media.” Then he quotes the sentence pronounced by Ruhs at the beginning of its format: “What comes now may not be liked to everyone.”
The journalist, who, in addition to her work at Bavarian Radio, also writes a column for the news magazine “Focus”, has already reacted several times to the criticism. On X you use a video clip from the “ZDF Magazin Royale” with Jan Böhmermann to advertise the show. She wrote: “Böhmi doesn’t like our new format. (…) What do you think? In addition, she wrote: “The ‘Spiegel’ does not like us, Böhmermann does not like us, the ‘taz’, ‘over media’ and ‘Titanic’ don’t like us either. If you also find the media and people mentioned more often, we are very right, however!”
She also commented on the “new German media makers: inside”. It is “unbelievable” how “this NGO” financed by tax money “calls” to write emails to BR and NDR so that we get pressure “. All of this “already has a taste,” she writes.
