The "Beutelsbach Consensus", the "Basic Law" of political education in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1976, rests on two pillars: the "ban on overpowering" (it is not allowed to impose one's own opinion on recipients and to indoctrinate them) and the "principle of controversy" ( what is controversial in science and politics must also appear controversial in political education).
This principle is a fundamental maxim for the political public and therefore also for public service broadcasting.
In recent years, this claim has increasingly given way to the normative tendencies used to communicate in public service broadcasting. Reporting here all too often has little differentiating effect, rather tendentious in the sense of a ready-made opinion and an assumed consensus of the “centre” of the political public in a country in which the political debate has shifted from the center to the fringes during the grand coalition – to the detriment of democracy, which requires contentious debate in its midst.
Even Claus Kleber complained about this tendency on the occasion of his departure - and did not realize that his repeatedly moralizing-judgemental way of communicating was itself part of the problem. In fact, many actors in public service broadcasting now seem to be in a bubble in which this fact is obviously hardly reflected. If public service broadcasting wants to fulfill its function for democracy, it must return to the principles of the Beutelsbach consensus, instead of being satisfied with surveys of its own credibility, which by no means correspond to my perceptions of the public reception of public service broadcasting.
Public service broadcasting should concentrate on the task of providing basic information, instead of everything that is desirable being financed by mandatory fees, above all by the broadcasters themselves.
The levying of the broadcasting license fee by household is unsocial if, for example, a one-person student household pays as much as a large family.
Finally, a discussion on the level of salaries (financed by mandatory fees) for officials in public service broadcasting compared to other public service activities seems warranted.
The author teaches modern history at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
Proposals for the reform of ARD and ZDF, which Hans-Günter Henneke, chief executive of the district council, made here and is now being submitted by Andreas Rödder, can still be submitted by anyone at https://www.rlp.de/de/regierung/staatskanzlei/ media policy/radio commission/reform-ard-zdf-deutschlandradio/