Two Documentaries and a Podcast on DD-Day (-1)

German public television releases a flood of new documentaries examining how German journalists covered the Soering case..

Early this morning hours of fresh documentary content appeared on German public media. Unfortunately there are no English or English-subtitled versions yet. The first is a three-part, 2 hour documentary from North German Broadcasting (NDR). Part 1 (The Crime), Part 2 (Behind Bars); Part 3 (The Fight for the Truth).

The Media Career of a Murderer, a 40-minute documentary on how the German media have handled the case. It’s revealed that Karin Steinberger worked closely behind the scenes with Söring’s supporters to influence press coverage behind the scenes, including by helping write a response to my articles in the FAZ.

Murderous Media Star, a podcast with the maker of Media Career, in which she discusses how the German media have handled the case.

The video documentaries feature interviews with me, Terry Wright, Ricky Gardner, Courteney Stuart, Rachel Ryan, Wes Nance, Phyllis Workman, Siegfried Stang, Knut Abraham, Ralph Guise-Rübe, and others. Söring’s claims are subjected to careful scrutiny, which reveals their flaws. Former German President Christian Wulff refused to give a statement. In fact, as we’ll see, almost everybody who pushed Söring’s claims during the late 2010s, whether in Germany or the USA, refused to answer questions.

I have watched everything, and have a few very quick preliminary points:

• Söring obviously views these new documentaries as a serious threat to his public image. He has already released a (German-language) YouTube video called: “NDR Launches a Witch Hunt Against Me with Your Tax Dollars”. Söring mentions my work several times, again without mentioning my name!

• The documentary makers contacted every talk-show host who broadcast interviews with him after his arrival in Germany. None of them agreed to be interviewed; none gave any statements. They have erected a wall of silence about their decision, in 2020-2021, to give Söring a platform without any critical questioning or fact-checks.

• The documentaries show that Karin Steinberger worked behind the scenes with the “Friends of Jens” to try to discredit me and my work for the FAZ. In fact, it was her decision to create the letter to the editor to the FAZ from the Friends of Jens. Apparently she realized working behind the scenes with activists was inappropriate, because she asked the Friends of Jens to delete all the emails about their collaboration.

• Steinberger refused to speak to any of the producers. Marcus Vetter also refused, but defended Killing for Love as a “cinema documentary” which was more focused on telling a story than on a careful examination of all the facts. As of this writing, Killing for Love appears to be unavailable on any streaming platform.

• The Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) who employs Karin Steinberger, released a statement (jointly with her) in which they declared that they did not authorize Steinberger’s activities, as they “do not monitor our employees’ private emails”. They complain that most of the questions producers had for the SZ were based on the research of “Andrew Hammel”. Producers asked the SZ why they never published any pieces about the emerging wave of criticism of Söring’s claims, including the Wright Report. They don’t answer. Overall, producer Lea Eichhorn says that the SZ appears to be backing Steinberger and sees nothing wrong with her reporting.

All in all, these new documentaries provide a critical counterweight to years of one-sided reporting on the Jens Söring case in Germany. In a comment to his YouTube video, Söring says the Netflix documentary “isn’t much better”, which means it’s also going to be more objective than much of what we’ve seen so far.

Credit should go to Holdsworth, the author of Jens Söring Guilty as Charged, to Terry Wright, and, well, to me! This is a good day for German journalism. Mistakes have been acknowledged and, hopefully, lessons learned.