"Krone" commentary
Comment: A message from the bitter cold
A big sigh of relief after a dramatic search operation: the top Upper Austrian journalist Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, who most recently worked for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", is alive. The 53-year-old was recently confronted with accusations of plagiarism and had withdrawn from the daily business. A commentary by Salzburg's ex-"Krone" editor-in-chief Hans Peter Hasenöhrl.
Just two sentences, 15 words written in the worst despair a person can experience in their life. Alexandra Föderl-Schmid typed the message into her cell phone in the cold of the night somewhere on the border: "I have learned a lot about media, mechanisms, people and business. At least this hunt is over."
Mercilessly hounded through the depths of the internet, threatened, accused, put down, denounced, slandered: her hunters had cornered her. The target was within their grasp: the top European journalist was to go.
Föderl-Schmid addressed the message to Stefan Weber in Salzburg, whose tried-and-tested business model is academic bounty hunting: an assignment, anonymously if desired, and after transferring the fee, immediately targeted "public relations work" that tarnishes the reputation. Some put up with it, others complain, some retreat into a shell, and now one person has been broken by it.
"Dark and aggressive", "inflammatory" - this is how the portal "Nius", which is financed by a German billionaire, is described. Abysses of the soul open up. From there, Dr. Weber allegedly received the order to place the journalist under suspicion of plagiarism.
The message from the cold is directed at everyone, the universities, their professors, the media, the public: stop this bounty hunting, don't get involved in the business model of the hate-driven plagiarism hunter!
Just 15 words. They must shake us all up.
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