Let’s call it worry. So the philosopher Richard David Precht and the sociologist Harald Welzer worry about the mass media. To this end, they are writing a book together, which is to be published by S. Fischer on September 28: “The Fourth Power”. According to the publisher, the question is “how mass media endanger democracy”. For the authors, this danger does not happen because the mass media are being manipulated by the government or the state; the “self-conversion” is based on the fact that they are the executive organs of their own opinion-making: with an ever-increasing tendency towards one-sided, moralizing, defaming.
Strong stuff, and because there is only the publisher’s announcement, it will be exciting/exciting/outrageous which mass media Precht/Welzer have in mind, which mechanisms they mean, which striking examples they will cite. “We have to understand how our democracy is not being undermined by arbitrariness and power ‘from above’, but by the sphere of the public itself – only then can the ‘fourth estate’ do justice to its role again.” out of their echo chambers. External help as therapy.
Let’s call it disappointment. Precht and Welzer shared an appeal in “Emma” that arms deliveries to Ukraine should be stopped, and joined an appeal in “Zeit” for immediate peace negotiations. This has led to a lot of criticism from the general public and the mass media. Let’s call it astonishment. Precht with his own talk show on ZDF and Welzer with numerous talk show appearances could and can spread their opinions in the “self-aligned media”. Something is fundamentally wrong – either with the mass media or with Richard David Precht and Harald Welzer.
