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Frank Plasberg spoke on Monday in his ARD talk show "hard but fair" about hatred of Jews in Germany: "back there or never really gone?", He asked five days after the attack in Halle. And as is customary towards the end, his colleague Brigitte Büscher also read directly the audience reactions to the program.
The commentary of a woman was faded in: "Perhaps one should gradually take the subject of Judaism back a bit, because that is exactly what stirs up hatred, we know about our past, the children get it drunk at school and that's good."
The reaction of Frank Plasberg: "We just let that stand, that's a spectator discussion in the middle of Germany on a Monday night." - "Exactly," said Büscher. It went on. With that, Frank Plasberg again lost a show in which he tried to classify right-wing terror in our society. And just as a few months earlier - when Plasberg failed in a broadcast on the Lübcke murder to expose the AfD - it is imperative to document this.
"We'll just stop it" - Nee, Frank Plasberg, you can contradict such an antisemitic statement at @hartaberfair. Should you even. Just read another mail and then sell it as a spectator discussion is damn weak. pic.twitter.com/X1KxvIFYuf
- Jonas Leppin (@JoLepp) October 15, 2019It may be that it is an editorial concept to leave viewer emails uncommented. Then it's a bad concept. It would have been task of Frank Plasberg, as a moderator to classify this comment. To decipher him and not to pretend that anti-Semitism is a very interesting perspective, which enriches as one of many the discussion round.
The fact that another audience member was quoted immediately after that contradicted the anti-Semitic statement may have been well-intentioned - but in fact it exposes once again that, from the editorial point of view, both attitudes can stand side by side as contrary opinions.
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In the statement of the quoted woman can be seen exactly the kind of Holocaust relativization with which even the AfD chairman Alexander Gauland has tried to dismiss National Socialism, as a "scary bird" in German history - a perfidious relativization, the defense against guilt and memory. Again, it is suggested again, it was good times. But nothing is good.
If citizens see the solution after the rampage of a right-wing terrorist in Halle, please do not report too much now, then in case of doubt they know too little about our past rather than too much. Then the right-wing terror must be discussed more openly.
The "secondary anti-Semitism", as it was read in "Hard but fair", is just as dangerous as the "classic anti-Semitism". For in this allegedly softened form, which actually only veils the racist core, thoughts spread even faster in society.
Frank Plasberg has a special responsibility with his prominent mission: If he does not recognize anti-Semitism, does not contradict it, but waves it through as a Monday night phenomenon, he helps to normalize right-wing ideas.
The sad thing is that a matter of course has to be commented on again: no, it is not okay to read anti-Semitic statements on public television without classification. No, that is not a normal audience discussion from the middle of Germany - it is the proof that anti-Semitism has long since become socially acceptable even in the middle. And we can not just stand that.
