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The video specifically apologizes for instilling fear in children for implying that they would “murder” their grandparents by being around them.
Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of Germany’s most widely-read newspaper, Bild, apologized on camera for the panic-driven coverage of the coronavirus pandemic for the past year and a half.
Bild’s daily circulation is approximately 1.24 million copies, and it is the bestselling newspaper in Europe. Bild TV launches on August 22.
Reichelt said that Bild’s coverage was “like poison” and made Germans “feel like you were a mortal danger to society.”
Reichelt made a special apology to children who have suffered from depression and anxiety over the coverage of the coronavirus. He blasts the government’s response that has thoughtlessly taken children’s rights away.
All over the world, lockdown measures and social isolation have caused mental health problems among children and youth. Incidents of self-harm and suicides are up everywhere.
Reichelt says that children should be allowed to be children — kids should be going to school and playing sports. He says that things are backward right now — adults are supposed to be the ones taking care of the children instead of putting pressure on kids to keep adults safe.
REICHELT: To the millions of children in this country for whom our society is responsible, I want to express here what neither our government nor our Chancellor dares to tell you. We ask you to forgive us. Forgive us for this policy which, for a year and a half, has made you victims of violence, neglect, isolation, and loneliness.
Sorry for this policy and media coverage which, like poison, made you feel like you were a mortal danger to society. You are not a danger to society, don’t believe this lie. It’s up to us to protect you.
What happened to our children, many people and Bild denounced it. Nothing happened.
Merkel organized a summit for children? No!
Instead, we persuaded our children that they were going to murder their grandma if they dared to be what they are, children. Or if they met their friends. None of this has been scientifically proven. It was easy to force that on children, they can’t defend themselves and they didn’t vote.
When a state steals the rights of a child, it must prove that by doing so, it protects him against concrete and imminent danger. This proof has never been provided. It has been replaced by propaganda presenting the child as a vector of the pandemic. Those who wanted to contradict this propaganda were never invited to the expert table.
Our policies would do better to open schools and sports halls rather than polling stations! Otherwise, they will have on their conscience, and will leave in the history books, a multitude of innocent souls.
You can watch the video with English subtitles here:
Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of @BILD – one of the largest newspapers in Germany, apologized to the children of Germany for the COVID-19 coverage in his newspaper that made them “victims of neglect, isolation and loneliness.”
Read the subtitles. pic.twitter.com/hn0B0u5H3E
— Amy Tarkanian (@MrsT106) August 2, 2021
It’s nice to see someone in the media admit that telling people to treat everyone that they come into contact with as though they are vectors of disease isn’t the best thing for society.
It’s just a shame that this is a German journo and not an American one that has found a smidgeon of humility and is willing to admit that the coverage has gone so far that it has had a damaging effect on people — especially children.
This is a good start.
It would be nice if this becomes a “pandemic of humility” that spreads to the rest of the members of the media who are convinced that they are our moral and intellectual superiors, but that’s not very likely, is it? There’s just too much in “sunk cost” for the media to admit that they caused irrational panic among the least likely to be affected by this disease — the children.
