{"id":180954,"date":"2018-12-23T07:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T07:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=180954"},"modified":"2018-12-27T05:45:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T05:45:55","slug":"how-a-fraudster-who-faked-his-stories-for-years-got-to-be-germanys-top-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=180954","title":{"rendered":"How a fraudster who faked his stories for years got to be Germany\u2019s top reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia Today \u2013 Dec 21, 2018<\/h1>\n
\"Claas<\/a>

Claas Relotius \u2018made up stories and invented protagonists\u2019. click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Germany has been rocked by a scandal involving one of the top reporters writing for the reputable Der Spiegel magazine, who turned out to be a fraudster. What made a fabulst into a star? Let\u2019s look at some of his stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Claas Relotius, the \u2018brilliant reporter\u2019-turned-fabricator, carved his way to pages of some of the most prestigious German newspapers with curious, sentimental and touching human stories from everyday life. Although, some of these intimate private stories clearly had some political angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Syrian \u2018Resistance\u2019 hero<\/h2>\n

The piece that brought him his latest (and probably the last) journalist award delved into a much more high-profile and much more politicized topic \u2013 the Syrian crisis. The article centers<\/a><\/strong><\/span> around the plight of a Syrian teenager living in the city of Deraa, who stood against the Syrian President Bashar Assad, using graffiti as a tool to express himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Written in summer 2018, when the city was still at the hands of the militants, the piece calls Deraa the last \u201cresistance\u201d<\/em> stronghold and the start of the Syrian conflict a \u201crevolution\u201d<\/em> while the teenager himself is described as \u201cSyria\u2019s liberator\u201d<\/em> and a \u201clegend\u201d<\/em> to \u201cthousands.\u201d<\/em> Now, Der Spiegel has to embarrassingly admit<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that this story that so vividly depicted the rebels\u2019 selfless fight against their supposed oppressors was mostly fabricated and many details described in the articles were just made up by the author.<\/span><\/p>\n

Children \u2018orphaned\u2019 by Assad<\/h2>\n

Another report<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Relotius dedicated to the dire plight of Syrians tells the readers about a heartbreaking story of two Syrian siblings. \u201cThey had lost everything \u2013 their parents, their house and their country\u201d<\/em> at the hands of \u201cdictator\u201d<\/em> Assad and his soldiers, the article says, inconspicuously interweaving the two orphans\u2019 personal story with that of the battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo.<\/span><\/p>\n

The piece also puts the blame for the tragedy of the Aleppo residents almost entirely on the Assad government and the Syrian Army, missing on the many extremists, who kept the city hostage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Death threats over joke<\/h2>\n

Sometimes, the journalist also entertained\u00a0his readers with the reports from a little bit more exotic corners of Earth. One particularly eyebrow-raising story<\/a><\/strong><\/span> recounts a haunting experience of a Scotsman, who was mercilessly chased and almost killed by the people of an entire country \u2013 Kyrgyzstan \u2013 just for a low joke about their food.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Guardians of the truth? Some of TIME\u2019s \u2018Person(s) of the Year\u2019 choices are perplexing https:\/\/t.co\/5BIpel0IpT<\/a><\/p>\n

— RT (@RT_com) December 12, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n