To the point: Missed opportunity
Media criticism is a tricky business. It’s often sorely needed, it’s never easy, and it can even backfire. A prime example was Tele Züri’s show «Talk täglich,» which this week addressed the *Weltwoche*’s front-page story on the Roma.
An extremely topical subject, controversial and highly emotional, and tailor-made for a media-critical debate. One would think.
But what happened? The mistake already happened in the selection of the guests. On one side was Roger Köppel as publisher and editor-in-chief of Weltwoche. On the other side, Hannes Britschgi was invited as a critic. Although Britschgi can look back on a long, successful journalistic career outside tabloid journalism and today heads the Ringier School of Journalism, he has an Achilles' heel: He was once editor-in-chief of SonntagsBlick. Not of Blick, mind you, but of SonntagsBlick. But nonetheless, the stable odor of the Ringier tabloid warhorse, which God knows he is not, clings to him. To have him appear as a media critic and antipode against Köppel must therefore be described as naive. It's clear that this Achilles' heel was of course also a ready-made target for Köppel.
Hugo Bigi as moderator did his best to steer the conversation in an orderly fashion, but he did not succeed. Köppel primarily defended the article, which had taken up an explosive topic, and Britschgi tried to focus the criticism on the cover of the Roma child, which should actually have been the topic of the broadcast. But that failed thoroughly. The two opponents debated past each other for almost thirty minutes. Opinion against opinion, accusation against accusation. Not exactly a brilliant event for improving the image of journalism among the general public.
And then this audience had its say. With certain sensitive topics, the call-in is sometimes dispensed with. This time, however, they wanted to let the audience have their say as well. Not exactly a wise decision, because it was to be expected that the highly emotional topic would also provoke highly emotional reactions. So the road to chaos was forged and disaster took its course.
The swear words just flew. Köppel was criticized by an old lady who stammered indignantly, but "Blick reporter Britschgi" was called "hypocritical," "Blocher hater," "Tubel" and "cruel.
It is a pity that the opportunity for a well-founded media critique was wantonly missed.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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