Shortly before that, it had just become known that Jan Böhmermann would remain loyal to ZDF and had extended his contract, when he opened Pandora’s box again. The result was a rant about public broadcasting, because it sucks. A child of public service broadcasting, as he never tires of emphasizing, he asked: “How did the idea of ??a transparent, critical broadcaster become a matted self-service shop for all of us?”
Public broadcasters haven’t been looking too well lately. One scandal followed the next. Whether financial chaos at Bayrischer Rundfunk, the suppression of critical reporting at WDR, the resignation of the MDR director or alleged nepotism at NDR – the list of allegations that Böhmermann presented is long. The situation gives everyone who has always found the principle of public service broadcasting bad “the opportunity to step up”.
The consequence? According to Böhmermann, this was an overly cautious strategy that was shown, among other things, when a eulogy by rapper Danger Dan was cut by ZDF because he called AfD politicians idiots in it. To be on the safe side, you distance yourself from your own program in advance, “so that no Nazis start a shit storm,” the moderator said, horrified. “My God, public broadcasting was invented precisely for Nazis to start shitstorms, preferably every day.”
That the shit, as Böhmermann put it, is actually on the steam with the public broadcasters, he subsequently proved, among other things, in the case of the ex-NDR director Sabine Rossbach, who is said to have “helped out” her daughters. One with a permanent position at the broadcaster, the other in which they accommodated their customers in the broadcaster’s programs. Or Patricia Schlesinger. The former RBB director was fired without notice after allegations of personal gain came up. Among other things, it was about massage seats in the company car.
Massage seats, which, by the way, also have WDR director Tom Buhrow in the company car, as Böhmermann explains. Exactly the Tom Buhrow, who recently called for a reform of public broadcasting in the Hamburg Übersee-Club. A bohemian who thinks badly about it. After all, Buhrow had years to change something.
How did public service broadcasting get to this point? After all, there are control bodies that are supposed to represent the middle of society. But as Böhmermann said, these are not only old, but also “cheese-white”. The average age is a good 57 years, and there is largely no trace of diversity. Who sits on the committees instead: Malu Dreyer, Reiner Haseloff and Markus Söder. “Perhaps,” Böhmermann suggested, “prime ministers are not the very best choice for controlling a non-state broadcasting service.”
Böhmermann, who attached importance to having spoken as a private individual – a dig at Tom Buhrow, who also wanted his speech at the Übersee-Club to have been given as a private individual – demanded a reform. This is necessary so that public service broadcasting remains a strong, independent instrument for education and criticism of power. “All those who have more power but don’t want to be criticized think that enlightenment and criticism of power are shit,” he said. But: “I can’t stand these system maintenance reflexes anymore, this structure fetishism, where nothing comes of it except frustrated talents who go to fucking private television.”
The “ZDF Magazin Royale” runs on ZDF and is therefore part of public broadcasting. Böhmermann is also aware of this, and has raised this issue several times. That’s why they took matters into their own hands and went into internal auditing. Criticisms he read: too much pressure, too little money, too much overtime. He said goodbye to the audience by announcing that a works meeting would be held first.
