Sunday Special: Doing Quality Journalism
Courtesy of the Internet, Being a Series of Tubes, Which Shows Legacy Media's True Colours
You’re in for a treat, dear readers, if you ever pondered the world-shattering question, if legacy media gaslighting you?
Well, courtesy of the series of tubes commonly known as ‘the internet’, today’s Sunday special comes in the form of two op-eds published in Austro-Covidistan’s self-declared (delusional) NYT equivalent and extra-woke hate-mongering paradise, Der Standard.
Long-time readers know that these pages have a kind of ‘soft spot’ for this particular outlet, if only because its self-identifying as journalists employees parrot virtually any kind of BS one can think of. A non-exhaustive list of grotesque absurdities include, most prominently, members of the Green Party (which is currently in office) calling for the curtailing of the opposition’s constitutional right to subpoena the government:
The Standard also masquerades as a newspaper, yet their editors are also members of a WW2 revisionism/Neonazism-is-cool-if-they-are-fighting-Russians fanclub:
I could go on, seemingly without interruption, for quite some time if I now moved into the so-called ‘Covid pandemic’, if only Der Standard was the Zero Covid Hawk’s Lair.
And this brings me to today’s special report.
Why is there so much polarisation?
Well, here is my proposition: because legacy media has amplified marginal issues and blown them way beyond anything related to their proportion (esp. ‘trans’ issues), sanity (esp. ‘Russian’ issues), and, yes, individual and societal responsibility (the power-grab of supranational institutions, such as the EU).
And to illustrate this—meet Michael Völker, ‘journalist’ and op-ed columnist at Der Standard. Without going into many details about the boilerplate nonsense in his contributions to ‘legacy media journalism’, here goes:
Left headline: ‘Divide Society! The unvaccinated must be protected—esp. from themselves.’ (source; 7 Sept. 2021)
Right headline: ‘Politicians shall not divide [society] again in the face of new Corona waves: evidence-based information is needed. This includes the FPÖ.’ (source; 10 Aug. 2023)
See how easy this is?
Back in 2021, all that was required was to shout one’s virtue from the rooftops and declare those who don’t share said virtues as, in effect, mentally ill all the while remaining aloof of, say, evidence.
By summer 2023, the times have changed. The same person is decrying the results of the actions he participated in: the ‘right-wing’ Freedom Party, which led the anti-Covidian crusade in Austria, is enjoying a comfortable lead in the polls about a year ahead the next federal elections. This has come about largely due to the FPÖ’s (surprisingly) consistent anti-Covidian stance, which is now honoured by the voters. Come autumn 2024, it might well be that the Freedom Party will win a plurality of the votes.
But now, much like Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, some members of the chattering classes are now finding out that gaslighting and bullshitting ‘the people’ isn’t such a brilliant idea after all (who would’ve thought…).
Mr. Völker now demands that politicians don’t divide voters again, even though he was one of the loudest voices to exactly said effect.
Talk about the spirits summoned that are now taking their revenge.
Epilogue: Michael Völker, Pedophilia-Apologist
I, for one, am disgusted. And if you’re not at the same level of disgust (yet), here is yet another ‘gem’ of Mr. Völker’s musings. Appearing in Der Standard on 18 July 2023, he came out strong in favour of not-yet convicted pedophile and former acting star Florian Teichmeister.
Background: Mr. Teichtmeister was a celebrated movie and theatre star in Austria, and as such as close to a much beloved ‘national treasure’ and the ‘nation’s most wanted son-in-law’ as could be.
And then it turned out that he is pedophile. By now, we learned about his possession of some 78,000 images of explicit content, about half of which contained graphic images of minors and children (their age range has not been disclosed by police).
Some of these pictures were modified by Mr. Teichtmeister, whose dark side was eventually discovered by his former partner who found electronic devices containing these materials under their bed. Kudos to his former partner, by the way, because it was her who went to the authorities and filed a criminal complaint.
Mr. Teichtmeister, by the way, has confessed and is awaiting his trial, scheduled now for early September. (An early court appearance in February had to be postponed due to him suddenly falling ill.) While his greasy lawyer—who happens to sit on the Supreme Court and has children—belittled Mr. Teichtmeister’s pedophilia as ‘a purely digital act’, insists that there are basically no real reasons to convict.
I personally think that each of these images resulted from the abuse of at least one child, hence I viscerally disagree with that lawyer’s opinion, to say nothing about his stunning lack of morals.
While awaiting trial, now set for early September 2023, Mr. Teichtmeister was seen in eating out posh cafés and upscale restaurants in downtown Vienna.
Members of the public have decried him doing so, in particular because his day in court was only announced by the Department of Justice—which happens to be run by one Alma Zadic, a Green Party hack and darling of Der Standard—after Mr. Teichtmeister was seen enjoying himself in the company of his ‘friends’ (my suspicion is that, because his pedophilia is widely known in Austria now, that his company consisted of likeminded individuals…).
Some tabloids also came out strongly denouncing Mr. Teichtmeister, and some restaurants have announced they won’t serve him.
Yet, once again, Michael Völker, writing in Der Standard on 18 July 2023, decried the above-sketched developments as a ‘smear campaign’ (my translation and emphases):
Hunting Teichtmeister
No sympathy for the actor, but it is absurd to want to make social ostracism part of jurisprudence
No one here holds any sympathy for actor Florian Teichtmeister, who is awaiting trial at the Vienna State Court on charges of possessing and producing pornographic images of minors. Teichtmeister has confessed. That is one thing.
The other is the media and political witch hunt that has broken out. It may be that in Teichtmeister's position it is not smart to sit on the terrace in chic inner-city bars. One may see that as a provocation. But it is his right. He is not (yet) convicted, can move around freely, is allowed to go to pubs, even in the city centre. There is no provision in the legal system for an anticipatory ban on pubs or a ban on entering certain parts of the city.
But the outrage is easy to sell and to exploit in the media. State Secretary for Youth Claudia Plakolm [ÖVP] jumps in with verve, saying in a press interview that she finds it ‘intolerable that Teichtmeister is hanging around in Vienna’s inner city’. That a politician of the federal government wants to suspend the principles of the rule of law and pronounce a ban on Teichtmeister in a kind of lynch mob mentality—and that is unbearable.
Hopefully there will be a verdict soon. Teichtmeister will have to live with the social ostracism he experiences. But it cannot be part of the administration of justice.
I for one would refer Mr. Völker to his agit-prop and anti-’unvaccinated’ smear campaigns, witch hunting, and lynch-mob mentality that infested the editors and staff writers for Der Standard as little as two years ago.
The problem, of course, isn’t that Mr. Völker is correct in calling out problems with the administration of justice in this way (even though, as private businesses, it is well within the purview of restaurateurs to ban certain people from their premises). It is quite rich, though, after having chastised ‘the unvaccinated’ for years to do so.
Some would call this hypocrisy, which I think it is.
Others may even call Mr. Völker a pedophilia apologist, which I think he is.
Sadly, this is the state-of-the-art for many of the woke water-carriers who still see themselves as ‘doing journalism’.
Post Scriptum About Mr. Teichtmeister
It shall be known that Mr. Völker’s above-reproduced op-ed appeared before Ms. Zadic has announced the trial date. Until late July, no date had been set for Mr. Teichtmeister’s appearance in court.
In the interim, the presiding judge had ordered a supplementary expert opinion that at least raises the possibility of what in bureaucratese German is lovingly labelled ‘Maßnahmenvollzug’, which translates into ‘court-appointed institutionalisation for mentally ill criminals’, including sex offenders.
While I won’t hold my breath about this—in reality: Mr. Teichtmeister has no criminal record (although police, upon searching his premises, found 100g of cocain, too) and pedophilia brings with it a maximum prison time of three years in Austria, which, for first-time offenders, may be converted to time served—there is a chance that Mr. Teichtmeister will spend some time in a mental institution.
Here is hoping that this will happen to this disgusting predator that he is.
Also, shame on you, Mr. Völker and your editors over at Der Standard, or dare I say: pro-pedophilia hatemongers?
Speaking of in for a treat: https://brownstone.org/articles/sometimes-only-satire-does-the-job/