from Markus Langemann
"There are a lot of people inside public television who have hijacked this institution that belongs to all of us."
"Diversity of opinion means that we have the right to express our different opinions. But diversity of information is just as important to me. But I simply don't get a lot of information. The many unbelievable blunders made by Foreign Minister Baerbock and the clumsy behavior of US President Biden don't happen here. I want to have all the information so that I can exercise my right to vote on a solid basis."
Sentences like judgments. Publicly spoken.
Late-night entertainer Harald Schmidt said of him that he had brought quality to German journalism. Edmund Stoiber ranked him as "one of the great journalists and media representatives in this country".
He is certainly the best-known print journalist in Germany at the moment, and is also involved in various commercial broadcasting companies, including the largest private radio station Antenne Bayern, and yet is a member of the broadcasting council of an ARD broadcaster. He is a recipient of orders of merit and an active member of the state parliament for the FDP. He played Death in one of the most popular plays of the 20th century. For the boomer generation, he is a mainstream media man who always claims to think in terms of facts, facts, facts.
I invited Helmut Markwort, the legendary founder of Focus, for an interview. It was a fascinating conversation about the spirit of the times and its ghost drivers - in politics and the media.
Markwort has descended from the elevated center of the mainstream, where he is still at home today. He followed me ten meters underground. Into a former military reconnaissance bunker.
That fits, I thought, and at the same time deranges the usual clinical studio viewing habits, where the ritualized exchange of obfuscating phrases is cultivated in the bright light of the spotlights - at your expense. Here, in secret, we can survey the media and social boundary lines on the map. And this is where I wanted to interview Helmut Markwort.
Is it really a Kafkaesque-sounding but highly symbolic setting for a conversation about mostly subterranean German journalism that has become entrenched in posturing, agitation and half-education? Perhaps! A conversation about the raging media war, walled in by the war walls of the 1940s. Certainly!
How does a liberal mind talk about constricted discourse spaces in a closed bunker? I wanted to find out. Without limits of time and thought.
Markwort is sitting opposite me. He gives a strong and pointed opinion. An exclusive club of clear words. One to one.
This interview film from the series "Langemann meets ..." we only have under the ground, but also under the proven direction of Rainer Spix. With him we have already created "The sting" and "The Conspirator".
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One Response
Selbst Rundfunkanstalten, bei denen man das nicht für möglich gehalten hätte, wurden GEKAPERT!! Im Dezember 2019 war ich Gast im Bayerischen Rundfunk und habe auf dem Flur des Gebäudes folgendes Schild fotografiert: „BR Bayern. Wir bewegen uns nach links“. Auf Nachfrage hat man mir noch mitgeteilt, dass man (obwohl man ja eine Landesanstalt ist), nicht Programm FÜR Bayern, sondern Programm AUS Bayern mache. Beide (Einzel-) beobachtungen sind Belege für eine Verfehlung des Auftrags.