The German "Rathergate"

The following was reported by the blog Transatlantic Conservative today.

The German blog Politically Incorrect (PI) has published a video and an audio tape of a political chat show broadcast by the public (state owned) ARD TV station. Here, the German Secretary of Justice, Brigitte Zypries and a Green member of the parliament of the city and state of Berlin, the ethnic Turk Oezcan Mutlu, share a whispered conversation that was evidently not meant to be overheard by the public and which PI noticed (my guess is that they were tipped off) and made public.

The debate was about the frightening increase of violent crimes by "youths with a migration background" (read: Muslims). A former member of such a violent youth gang was interviewed by the host and the question: "What could Germany have done to offer you a better existence?" was met by an unexpected reply: "Well, I can't think of anything specific really. All the opportunities have been there, you just have to look for them a little bit and take them up." Frantic whispering in the background, which could clearly be identified as the question: "Has he not been briefed?" by Mutlu, followed by Zypries' irritated, even angry, reply: "He HAS!"

The take of PI and Transatlantic Conservative, which I share, is that here a German state controlled TV channel is offering biased and doctored content to the tax paying audience who, as the Transatlantic Conservative puts it, "pays for their own media indoctrination". Obviously, the boy had been briefed to make statements along the politically correct line of the German mainstream politics and -media.



Of course, the frantic backpedalling was only to be expected. The comment section of the PI-entry is a psychogram of angry leftists. According to their interpretation, Alaattin Kaymak (the young ex-gang member) had had a hang-up, thus the question about the "briefing" was asked. In fact, Kaymak was, in fact, a picture of competence, literacy and self-assurance, spoke German without any foreign accent and not even an entirely uneducated German, for that. Compared to Mutlu, who came to Germany when he was five years young and who is an electrical engineer by profession (and, incidentally, the speaker for educational policy of his parliamentary group), he almost appeared as a gentleman, and that means SOMETHING.

The fact that Mutlu, a naturalized German and member of a German state parliament, still speaks a sort of semi-"Kanaksprak" shows how seriously he takes his own assimilation and how seriously we take it as well.

Read about the sad affair in German at PI or see a video at YouTube.

Postscriptum: It should be mentioned that a public prosecutor (state attorney) from Berlin, who can claim considerable success with his tough handling of young criminals, was invited to join the panel but didn't get the permission from his senior. Why? Because he, so the senior public prosecutor, "doesn't comply with my policy". That means, in effect, that this was not about the experience of an expert, but about POLITICS and that the senior public prosecutor is acting according to political standards and pressure and not according to the necessities of his job.

Edited to add a later entry about Mutlu.