One would think that the media would have gotten enough footage during the filming of the so-called „Reichsbürger putsch„. But at least for the MDR of the ARD (Main German television) that was apparently not enough. And so for a „Brisant“ report of 8.12.2022 for the ARD on the „Reichsbürger raid“, they used pictures of an apartment search in Schlotheim from 2018 and presented them as current footage. In 2018, a person who apparently could no longer pay his electricity bills had tried to build a makeshift battery, somehow triggering a police operation.
On October 11, 2018, MDR’s Facebook account said about the police operation in Schlotheim, Thuringia: „Because his electricity was cut off, a man tried to tinker a battery with bottles and acid. The police initially suspected a bomb and searched the apartment in Schlotheim.“.
As a side note, it should be mentioned that the findings of seven cartridges and a left-wing extremist ACAB flag, which the MDR reported in 2018, probably rather do not indicate a connection of the battery builder in the alleged „Reichsbürger scene“ or are certainly no evidence of such a connection.
But in the end, this is only a side note. The real scandal here is that once again false images, optical fake news so to speak, have been used to achieve „political goals“ – to put it kindly.
The broadcasting of false images and – in some cases later even clammily admitted – fake news is unfortunately nothing completely unusual at ARD, as numerous fee payers have had to discover, especially in recent years. One of many examples of this is WDR’s well-known „tank lie“ from 2014 about the Ukraine war:
The n-tv article is from June 29, 2009 (concerns Caucasus). The WDR article is from August 29, 2014 (concerns Eastern Ukraine). The tank image is the same in each case, as is readily apparent. Note in particular the caption on the WDR page: „Russian battle tanks are driving under observation of media representatives in Ukraine on 19.08.2014“. The whole article is titled „Russia on the move?“. Only the picture about it is at least five years old at that point. Moreover, the WDR report at the time was a false report.
Unfortunately, MDR’s current prank is not an isolated case. But even if it were, it would be scandal enough. What kind of „coup d’état“ is this with pre-informed media, which nevertheless still needs old false pictures to provide enough „suitable“ picture material?
Original article in German: ARD setzt Falschbilder zu „Reichsbürger-Staatsstreich“ ein