Icon: enlarge
Trump attack destroys cameras in front of the US Capitol: "send reporters out with security guards"
Photo: Ken Cedeno / imago images / UPI Photo
No one should be surprised that Claus Kleber now and then calls for the television to be switched on.
As the presenter of the heute journal on ZDF, Kleber is one of the most important faces of public service broadcasting, and he repeatedly advertises his station's program.
However, on Wednesday night, when thousands of angry Trump supporters climbed the Capitol steps and ravaged MPs' offices in Washington DC, Kleber had different advice.
"Incredible scenes in the US #Capitol," wrote the moderator at 8:38 pm on Twitter, along with the program note: "Switch on #CNN immediately".
A ZDF man who sends his almost 300,000 fans to the English competition - a strange maneuver.
Given the program the public service broadcaster was broadcasting at the same time, it was probably not a bad idea.
While a violent mob made its way through parliament in the capital of the USA, ARD and ZDF showed lively documentaries: "Balkan Style" and "The Love of Hans Albers" seemed more important than the storming of democracy.
A gift for the private competition
One of the toughest critics of this programming is precisely one of his most intimate connoisseurs: Ulrich Deppendorf, former head of the Tagesschau and until a few years ago head of the ARD capital studio, saw the attempted coup by Trump fans as an event of the century.
He expects coverage across the board.
"The first should have broadcast a continuous› ARD extra ‹by 9.45 p.m. at the latest," says Deppendorf. "What smaller broadcasters can do, ARD should also be able to do."
"That Claus Kleber tweeted that one should watch CNN is tantamount to surrender."
Ulrich Deppendorf
Former editors-in-chief is a bit like a former US president.
Ideally, they prefer to hold back from criticizing their successors; nobody wants nasty comments from the sidelines.
So you have to imagine Deppendorf's desperation all the more: "The fact that Claus Kleber sends a tweet that one should watch CNN is tantamount to surrender," he says.
Icon: enlarge
“Heute journal” presenter Claus Kleber
Photo:
Fredrik von Erichsen / dpa
Deppendorf's criticism hits public broadcasters at an inopportune time.
In the ongoing debate about an increase in the broadcasting fee, which the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt prevented at the beginning of December, ARD and ZDF repeatedly referred to their outstanding special programs in times of crisis.
Whether corona or terror: the trust in the broadcasters has never been higher, the ratings have never been higher.
If the citizens have questions, they will be answered in prime time, at least that's what the program makers claim.
Hans Albers or not.
In fact, on the night of the attempted coup, it was competing broadcasters such as ntv or the live offer of the Bild newspaper that wrested public viewers.
"We have to be careful, not just quick."
At ZDF you can only partially understand the criticism.
"Technically, we could have slipped into the program at 8:30 p.m.," says Wulf Schmiese, editor-in-chief of the heute-journal.
Bringing forward the later main edition was also considered, but a conscious decision was made against it.
"If you leave everything where it is to get on the air quickly, you can't get beyond just looking at it."
His team, less than a dozen people, used the extra time to clarify rights, check facts and prepare the show.
"We have to be careful, not just fast," says Schmiese.
Besides, there are alternatives.
Tagesschau24 broadcast the images from Washington practically live, and media library users were able to find out about the latest developments in a special edition of “heute”.
Phoenix, the joint broadcaster of ARD and ZDF, was the first German broadcaster to interrupt the current program. Because of the aborted parliamentary debate in the Capitol, it had a hole in the programming anyway.
The coverage was there, the stations say - at least for those who knew where to look.
Claus Kleber is now annoyed that he forgot his own colleagues.
"Yesterday I would have better referred to 'ZDF heute'", says the moderator, "they were good and had their turn".
ZDF Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bettina Schausten believes that the offer must be "even better known" online, so that you can become a permanent address on the Internet that "steers viewers in such locations".
But: How is that supposed to work if it is not advertised in the main program?
In the meantime, the ARD is making sense of this question.
He could well imagine a reference to the Phoenix event channel in the future, says Marcus Bornheim, first editor-in-chief of ARD-Aktuell.
Also program director Volker Herres, who coordinates the broadcasts in the Erste from Munich, says: "This advice would have been correct last night."
Otherwise everything was done right: The audience was informed "continuously" in the first.
This is to be understood literally: from 9:14 pm, the first one showed a "breaking news crawl", which crept slowly crawling over the lower half of the screen.
And finally, "The Love of Hans Albers" was even broken off in favor of the topics of the day.
Security guards for US colleagues
The attitude is surprising in view of the difficult situation in which the public broadcasters find themselves.
ARD and ZDF are faced with the task of constantly questioning and legitimizing their programs - especially when it comes to the many channels and platforms that critics consider to be too expensive.
Some on ARD also see it that way.
In Hamburg, where Tagesschau and Tagesthemen are created, people have advocated an interruption even earlier, the editorial team says - the bottleneck is in the Munich program directorate.
It was right that the Albers documentary was ended prematurely, says Marcus Bornheim.
When Claudia Buckenmaier, director of the Washington studio, finally appeared in the main program at 11:00 p.m. German time, many Trump fans had already left the Capitol - and their anger was now directed against the media: A ZDF microphone was stolen without further ado, Buckenmaier broke a switch out of concern for her team.
In this respect, the ARD now has other concerns than criticism from ex-editors-in-chief.
Bornheim worries about the safety of his colleagues in the USA.
"The threat to reporters from ARD is growing steadily, at home and abroad," he says.
In the future, the United States could switch to sending reporters out with security guards.
This is already standard in Germany for Pegida and Corona denier demos, among other things.
In the USA, they had so far done without the protection.
Icon: The mirror
