The German weekly Der Spiegel , shaken by the case of his star journalist who falsified his articles, expressed his "shame" on Friday by dedicating a long record to this scandal in a context of widespread mistrust of the media.

"We have the worst of what can happen to an editor: for years, we have had in our pages reports and other texts that did not reflect the reality but were invented in part", write the editor, Dirk Kurbjuweit, and associate editor, Susanne Beyer, in the issue to be released Saturday. "It makes us ashamed," they add. "We are really sorry that this has happened," they also write while in A appears "Say what is", in reference to the words uttered by the magazine's founder, Rudolf Augstein.

Fall Claas Relotius: Wie der SPIEGEL auf die Kritik of US-Botschafters Reaches https://t.co/ZCdIfBSjvUpic.twitter.com/uqD6Q38ySP

- DER SPIEGEL (@DerSPIEGEL) December 21, 2018

The US ambassador calls for an "independent and transparent investigation" into the case. The magazine, one of the flagship titles of the press, revealed Wednesday that his journalist Claas Relotius, rewarded several times, had invented in part or in full articles he wrote for the title, especially reports noticed in the United States. United or with Syrian children. The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, has also expressed his "great concern" because some of the articles invented by the journalist concerned "US policy and some sections of the American population." Richard Grenell, appointed in Berlin by US President Donald Trump, also claims to have sent a letter to the editor to the head of the magazine and called for an "independent and transparent investigation" into the case.

Other media where the reporter has passed, also expresses their doubts. In 2017, Claas Retolius had painted a portrait of a small American city that had voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. He described a sign at the entrance of the city claiming that Mexicans were not welcome. This panel never existed. It was finally with another report, on the border between the United States and Mexico, that the 33-year-old journalist was unmasked. One of his colleagues, who was beginning to have serious doubts, returned to the scene to meet the alleged interlocutors of the journalist who said they had never met a German reporter. Other publications, like Die Zeit or Tagesspiegel , have since also announced doubts about many of his writings when he was still a freelancer.

The German far-right jumped at the chance. This announcement has aroused great excitement in Germany and raised many questions, including how this young journalist, who left Der Spiegel Monday, has managed to cheat for years without being worried. "The losers are all journalists who are conducting their research in difficult or dangerous circumstances," said the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday.

The far-right AfD, which keeps on blaming what it considers to be the "lying press," has taken up the case: one of its deputies, Görtz Frömming, insisted that the newspaper has "delivered for years the best 'Fake news'". Der Spiegel pledged to draw the consequences of this case via the establishment of a commission.
This case of Spiegel comes in a global context marked by an ever increasing influence of "infox" carried by social networks.

Der Spiegel, the media that wants to be a mirror of the truth

Founded in 1947, Der Spiegel , who claims to be a "mirror" of the truth (Spiegel in German) has been at the origin of political and economic revelations. Mad with anger after an article, former Social Democrat Chancellor Willy Brandt called it "shit leaf".