A perfect storm at sea usually begins when several factors come together: water temperature plays a role, the distribution of high and low pressure areas, the jet stream at icy heights.
This article is from the SPIEGEL
Issue 52/2018
Say what is.
On our own behalf: how one of our reporters faked his stories and why he got away with itDigital Edition | Printed issues | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
In the morning hours of Thursday of last week it is clear that a perfect storm has broken through the MIRROR. In the office of the head of the IT department, several colleagues are around a computer. The head of the legal department is there, the personnel manager, the head of the works council, a designated chief editor. Because the official mail account of a young reporter needs to be opened. This is legally sound, but it should of course be absolutely correct.
For to prove that he actually met people who appeared in his latest reportage, Relotius had shown the short mail from a contact person from Arizona. It says that he was there for several hours.
But there was a second version of this mail, with the same sender, of the same day, with similar wording - except for this one sentence. And in that version of the mail, Relotius was not there. One of the two mails had to be fake.
A technician opened the mail in Relotius' inbox and went into related data, which are also on the server. And there he saw that someone had processed the mail days after their receipt. This relieving version of the mail, presented by Relotius, was fake. And it seemed clear that the story was wrong too. But if Relotius faked that, then probably others too.
Several factors had come together for this perfect storm: a young reporter whom scruples, if he had them, did not stop. Who used his considerable skills to camouflage counterfeits. The German news magazine, whose editors are proud that this is particularly about the precision of facts fought. That would be nothing without the readers' trust. In addition a political debate in the whole country and other countries also, in which it concerns "Fake News" and in the media like the SPIEGEL - mostly with political intention - is accused, that they twisted facts.
SPIEGEL has printed over 50 texts by Claas Relotius in recent years. Many of them are wholly or partially invented, falsified, fake. Other editors have published Relotius stories, but much less. DER SPIEGEL has uncovered the affair in-house this week. This is a preliminary reconstruction of the events.
It can not be complete yet. Because the investigations go further, they will go deeper than the editorial team could dig so far, because research needs time. They will take weeks or months. And they are - we owe it to our readers and to ourselves - without any consideration.
The story begins on October 26, a Friday. The current issue is finished, especially on Fridays the ministries debate new topics. In Mexico, a caravan of migrants is moving towards the US border. Matthias Geyer, head of the corporate department, comes up with the idea to illuminate the topic from two sides: one reporter to accompany migrants, another on the US side one of those right and often armed militias, the border on their own against something the immigrants want to do.
The reporter Juan Moreno had already accompanied the caravan on behalf of the foreign ministry and was already in Mexico. Claas Relotius was to try to get hold of a militia, and then put both parts together to form a text. Three days later he flew to the USA.
Research is often difficult, so it's no wonder that on October 30, a mail from Relotius comes to the department: Most groups are closed to journalists. Relotius writes, "Keep your fingers crossed."
But then, on November 4, an optimistic email. He now has access "to a real pile of pork cheeks": "Five guys in uniforms with all military equipment and absurd aliases (I'm not saying anything, it's too good) lurking on a mountain over the desert." He had been there half a night and half a day.
The research seems to work, but Relotius researched now alone, without photographers. Colleague Moreno is impressed, he had heard that American journalists needed weeks before such men talked to them.
Soon Moreno delivers his passages from Mexico, Relotius connects them with his stories.
It creates a gripping story under the heading "Jaegers border". Because Chris Jaeger, that is supposedly the main character in Relotius' text parts. A man with German ancestors, whose daughter was also addicted to drugs by Central American immigrants, a young woman who is now destroyed. And the father hunts migrants on the border with comrades, a sniper rifle and video cameras. At least that's the story.
The narrative is horrible. One could say cynically that she is perfectly horrible.
Moreno has doubts, he mentions points in a mail to Relotius that he may not believe. He thinks it's possible the militia men lied to Relotius. But that does not mean, "that we take their wrong shit simply uncommented and unchecked". It is the 13th of November. Relotius ignores Moreno's warnings.
Appear the article on the 17th of November. In the days before, as with every line in SPIEGEL, the documentation starts checking the text. This department has over 60 documentation journalists, a large apparatus whose boss says, "We do not believe anything at first."
Responsible for the corporate department is Dr. med. André Geicke, 63 years old and since 1986 at the magazine. The documentary asks Relotius to search, wants to know how the reporter approached the militia. He looks at the locations of events on maps and Google Earth and checks whether the information fits. He finds errors in the actual text: An army unit in which Jaeger is said to have served in Afghanistan was not in Afghanistan at the time. Then it's about how much drugs are smuggled through the region, there are different sources. Finally, he talks to Relotius, who is back in Hamburg, about Jaeger. There is a photo published in the 2016 New York Times. In the newspaper Jaeger is called Chris Maloof.
Relotius claims his protagonist uses two identities or a double name. The real identity is Chris Jaeger. Perhaps he is trying to make it harder to test Jaeger's identity. And Relotius supposedly talked to him. Geicke also views the final paragraph of the story with suspicion, in which the main character Jaeger supposedly fires a shot into the night, possibly a migrants. According to Geicke, Relotius replies that the man is firing around more frequently. "I believed him then," says Geicke.
And that's the weak point of the documentation: it can check a lot, with databases, in the digital archive. But what a source has told a reporter, or what a man in the desert does in a night, can hardly be fully checked. It then marks these places with a sign for "own research". That's why it relies on plausibility and, above all, trust among colleagues. A masterful liar in their own ranks, they can hardly expose. Intentional fraud is not provided for in the system. And Relotius cheats as well as he writes, inventing in exchange with colleagues about small uncertainties that make him seem more credible.
Moreno has also returned to Germany in the meantime, but he does not let go of the matter. He collects evidence, informs documenter Geicke about the doubt. He looks a little bit aroused when he's on the go, and the documentary does not recognize any clear mistakes in the text. And he reports department manager Geyer nothing of the doubts, according to their own account also because Moreno had asked him after the conversation, the mail, which after all, a top reporter heavily accused to destroy.
The story is printed.
On Friday, November 16, late afternoon, Moreno reports to Geyer. He is also agitated in this conversation, because even his name is above the text, which can not be changed anymore. He says the article is a fake called Geyer names, facts, something unstructured. Geyer asks him to write all this down.
Geyer informs Ullrich Fichtner, reporter, ex-head of the corporate department and from January 1, one of the chief editors of SPIEGEL. On Sunday, the mail comes, the allegations against Relotius are massive.
Video: In his own right - reporter Juan Moreno on the case Relotius
Video
THE MIRROR
On Monday, department chief Geyer goes to Relotius and confronts him with the allegations. On Tuesday Relotius answers in a long mail. He tries to dispel any doubts, writes for example, he checked names and addresses with a day pass on the US address file "White Pages". The matter seems to Geyer and Fichtner now open, but only one can be right. That first Relotius is given more faith, can be read here in a text Juan Morenos. A conversation with both reporters together should bring clarity.
But Moreno writes that he can not attend, he is then on research for another US department. And he secretly extends this research on his own to check if Relotius has faked. He is concerned about his credibility.
He finds two of the men whose photos were printed in Der Spiegel and whom Relotius claims to have accompanied them both. In two interviews, Moreno gives his cell phone a photo of Claas Relotius and asks them if they know the reporter. Both say no. And one of them takes the story apart bit by bit in the long interview - practically everything invented, he says.
On December 6, Moreno sends more information and the two videos to Ullrich Fichtner. These videos must make every journalist stunned. Fichtner prints out a large stack of Relotius texts from the archive and goes through them. If Relotius invented "Jaeger's Border" - what does that mean for all the other articles?
Relotius creates a fake profile on Facebook. It supports his version.
On Sunday, December 9th, Fichtner and Geyer confront Claas Relotius with the videos, but he stays with his version. And he can still be right. Because perhaps the main characters, whose illegal, criminal methods described history, do not want to know about it anymore. Maybe they deny because otherwise they face criminal proceedings.
His colleagues ask him if he has any proof that he was ever with the men. A video, a photo, anything? Unfortunately, he could not find a cell phone photo of one of the main characters, as he had already told, and he does not know why.
Now Relotius scrolls through his smartphone, and finally pretends that he has surprisingly found proof. He shows the mail of the contact person in Arizona.
Relotius has another alleged evidence, but an extremely rickety one: allegedly from one of the militia officers with a photo of four uniforms from behind in the desert. Sender of the mail: mikepmorris614@yahoo.com.
Anyone can easily create such an e-mail address. Moreno arrives in Hamburg on Monday, December 10, to explain the case to Fichtner from his point of view. On Tuesday, Relotius launches on Facebook a fake profile of a man named Chris Jaeger, the fictional militiaman, with photos that fit in Relotius' version. It supports his story. He sends a link to the colleagues in the department. Only the profile disappears again soon. When exactly is unclear.
Relotius' closest confidant in the department is deputy director Özlem Gezer, only 37 years of age. The Facebook account gets you on the track. In the night from Wednesday to Thursday last week at 0.16 clock she sends a WhatsApp message to Relotius: "I'll come now, and you'll come out."
She takes a DriveNow car, drives to his apartment, calls, he comes down. It's 1 o'clock, they're in the car, they talk until just after four o'clock. Then Gezer sends a WhatsApp to Fichtner and Geyer: "It's worse than any nightmare."
A few hours later, the IT colleague opens the mail that Relotius Fichtner and Geyer had shown on his cell phone. He notes: She had been manipulated shortly before the conversation with the two. Moreno had obtained from his contacts the alleged original. And Moreno's version is real.
In the afternoon Relotius comes home to Fichtner, Geyer and Gezer are also there. Relotius admits to having largely invented "Jaeger's Border". And he admits to manipulating or inventing several other stories. Of course, you can not believe the information without looking, even if it is a confession. The research continues, with some articles, the situation until Wednesday this week is clear enough. At 12.30 pm the SPIEGEL employees hear from a series of editors what happened. You will find out in the large atrium of the SPIEGEL building, where Rudolf Augstein's motto for the editors hangs on the wall: "Say what is."
Most colleagues are shocked. Some have tears.
At 12:45 PM SPIEGEL ONLINE published a text by Fichtner about the affair, its extent and significance. This article has become part of the story for some.
Because there is much praise for the ruthlessness in their own cause. But there is also criticism, in the house and from external sources: Fichtner was a reporter. He can tell as well as few. And he does that in the text. "Time" editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo criticizes him in the SPIEGEL conversation. Readers criticize him in their reactions.
Some say that the affair has to do with the will of Relotius, to tell beautiful stories at any cost, more often than reality. Stories that win prizes. A fatal addiction, critics believe, just in the corporate department that spawns many stories that win prizes.
And that's why the Enlightenment should not be about beauty, it's about precision in the facts. But does it hurt to portray them well written? You can read the text by Fichtner here.
SPIEGEL has set up a commission to investigate the entire case of Relotius. (Here you can read more about it)
The articles written by Relotius remain unchanged until the allegations are largely clarified, but with a note in the archive, which is accessible online, also to make inquiries possible. We ask for hints to hinweise@spiegel.de.