"An election program is a live broadcast, a slip of the tongue, a confusion, a fuzziness in a phrase may be possible, it was clearly a slip of the tongue for which we apologize." This said MDR editor in chief Torsten Peuker in a statement sent to various media to criticize the wording of moderator Wiebke Binder on election night in the ARD.
Binder had called a possible coalition between CDU and AfD "bourgeois". Marco Wanderwitz of the Saxon CDU, which she just interviewed, then said: "A coalition with the AfD would not be a bourgeois coalition."
After his apology, Peuker also protected Binder against allegations: "Every moderator, every moderator, all reporters and all those responsible for broadcasting are under such a double choice, with constantly new results, changing rounds, minds and constellations under considerable stress."
Binder will continue to moderate for the MDR: "It is a challenging job under difficult conditions and Wiebke Binder is and will remain an important moderator of our political formats." Her next assignment is already scheduled for Monday evening, when Binder will lead through the ARD "focus" from Leipzig.
