Fairy tales of power

 
Column The end of a political culture: Newspapers are disappearing because they are no longer needed by advertisers. 
Our Federal Councillor Delamuraz asked incredulously whether Auschwitz was in Switzerland when, in the mid-1990s, our country's wartime past found itself in the dock of international public opinion. Our national conscience Adolf Muschg wrote a book about this self-judgment. He demanded that the unpaid bills - not just the symbolic ones - be settled. Switzerland paid them and received the Bergier Report. But what has remained of the whole debate since then? Obviously not much. This became clear when Federal Councillor Couchepin confused and compared National Councillor Dr. Mörgeli with the Auschwitz doctor Joseph Mengele. Mörgeli was even more blatant when he ordered Swiss television to Buchenwald for his statement as a victim. All this is well known - with the well-known consequences - but far too little has been said about television. How is it that a German correspondent is prepared to film Mörgeli in Buchenwald? And then also explains that it happened in the parking lot, where there is no filming ban. Is there now a lack of historical sensitivity? Has even a concentration camp become acceptable as a backdrop for a self-promoter? The political ignorance revealed here is frightening. And even more frightening is the fact that no one in the editorial team recognized the barbaric frivolity of Mörgeli's appearance at the wire fence. His smiling triumph - against Couchepin - at the expense of the concentration camp victims?
SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann managed the scandal outwardly very skillfully. The media are never really ready for public self-criticism anyway. But there is much more at stake in this case. This should be acknowledged without apportioning blame or being opinionated - and thoroughly discussed once the individual outrage and public uproar have subsided. Perhaps this (so far) unique blunder is actually a symptom of the coming journalism of a new generation - and of a new era: that of the Internet, which is replacing the age of the printed book and the newspaper.
His end is currently being debated in France. Firstly, because of Sarkozy, who has ruled the country in recent months with stories from his private life. This is called "storytelling", and there is a method to it. It's about the fairy tales of power that distract from everything else. Even the serious media are not spared. During the election campaign, the disempowerment of journalists was lamented - and things have not improved since then. The fact that the media are currently turning their backs just as brusquely on Sarkozy, at whose feet they lay, ultimately points to the same mechanisms. Hysteria and gossip on all fronts. No time for reflection, no distance.
News, commentaries and background reports are playing an increasingly minor role in the journalistic business. This is the finding of two media experts who proclaimed the end of newspapers in the magazine Le Débat, thereby also referring to the cultural upheaval. The provocative essay became the occasion for a colloquium at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is true that the newspapers presented slightly better balance sheets for the past year. Circulation increased - also thanks to the election campaign. Deficits were reduced. For the Débat authors, this does not change the structural findings: it is a myth to believe that new media do not replace the old media, but complement them.
In France, only four political daily newspapers still reach a circulation of 400,000 copies. At the beginning of the 20th century, several million newspapers were sold every day; after 1945, there were dozens of titles. Television, the "last mass medium", is also losing its reach. Interest in information is waning dramatically - it is no longer needed as a means of transportation for advertising. Consumers can be addressed more cheaply and attractively via the Internet. Yahoo, Google and YouTube individually reach more contemporaries than all newspaper portals put together.
Springer had carried out extensive market studies in order to launch a tabloid newspaper like Bild in France. There is a gap in the publishing market and the newspaper could be successful. One problem is distribution: There are too few sales outlets. Springer decided against it - and bought the internet portal aufeminin.com for 284 million euros. This has nothing to do with journalism, neither in publishing nor in journalistic terms.
 
Jürg Altwegg is a correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Geneva.