US ambassador to Germany demands Spiegel fake news investigation

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Friday demanded an independent investigation into a German journalist who was caught making up key details in a series of reports for Der Spiegel news magazine.

He said the revelations "are troubling to the US Embassy, particularly because several of these fake stories focused on US policies and certain segments of the American people."

He said he wrote to the editors of the respected news weekly calling for an "independent and transparent investigation."

He said it was clear the US had been the victim of institutional bias at the magazine, saying the outlet encouraged anti-American reporting, particularly since Donald Trump was elected president.

Journalist Claas Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to making up stories and inventing protagonists in more than a dozen articles in the magazine's print and online editions. Since then, other outlets the freelancer wrote for, such as Die Welt and Die Zeit, have been poring over their articles.

On Friday, Der Spiegel published a letter in response to Grenell's requests.

"We apologize to all American citizens who have been insulted and denigrated by these reports. We are very sorry. That should never have happened," Der Spiegel's Dirk Kurbjuweit wrote.

"However, I would like to contradict you on one point. If we criticize the American president, it is not anti-Americanism, but criticism of the policy of the man in the White House. Anti-Americanism is deeply foreign to me and I am absolutely aware of what Germany owes to the United States: a great deal. At Spiegel, there is no institutional bias towards the USA.

"You suggest that in other cases, too, there has been erroneous reporting about your country. Please tell us about these cases and we will investigate them immediately," Kurbjuweit wrote.

https://www.dw.com/en/us-ambassador-to-germany-demands-spiegel-fake-news-investigation/a-46837330