Frank A. Meyer settles accounts with German journalism

Ringier journalist Frank A. Meyer criticized German journalism at the Hamburg congress of the journalists' association "Netzwerk Recherche". "The German media obviously see themselves as an independent power," said Meyer. Instead of fighting against powerful people who misuse their knowledge of power, journalists today are the powerful people who network to form an opinion cartel and use their craft to demonstrate their power, Meyer explained with regard to the BND affair, in which journalists allowed themselves to be bought for money or news goods or abused as informers. Meyer also advocated more mutual criticism in the newspapers and pleaded for journalistic pluralism. Instead of doing their own research, journalists were guided by what their colleagues had written.