出版与作家生涯2018spectator.us
那个惹错了小镇的《明镜》记者
The Der Spiegel journalist who messed with the wrong small town
导读
这篇讲《明镜》明星记者 Claas Relotius 在 Fergus Falls 小镇报道中造假，以及丑闻曝光后围绕事实核查、叙事包装和新闻伦理的争论。对写作者来说，它提醒我们：好故事不能替代核实，叙事套路和确认偏误可能让作者、编辑和机构一起失守。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
对可核实的硬事实（官方标语、影院片目、人物身份等）要回访原始来源，不能只依赖受访者口述或记者笔记。
- 02
警惕“故事化糖衣”：当叙事太顺、人物太符合预设主题时，先怀疑自己是否只在挑选支持主题的证据。
- 03
引用二手材料时保留可核查的原始证据或附件，否则读者有理由把叙述当成虚构。
- 04
明星作者和高压产出机制容易诱发造假；写作者应把持续产出与可核查流程分开。
HN 评论精选
事实核查必须回到原始信源并独立验证，不能只信记者。
上一轮讨论批评《明镜》在丑闻报道中自利而道貌岸然，是有道理的。读到 Fergus Falls 居民的指控，很难把它和《明镜》自称高水准的事实核查相吻合。问题不只是没发现记者的恶意欺骗，而是连最基本的核查都没做：比如可以理解查不清“墨西哥人不得入内”的牌子这种短暂事实，但至少应打电话给市政府确认官方标语是“Home of Damn Good Folks”，并联系影院确认 2017 年放的是《美国狙击手》。连“城市管理员是带枪的处男”这种说法，核查员也应独立致电确认；即使对方敷衍否认，也应要求记者交出所有支持该说法的文档和笔记。
danso查看英文原文
People were right in the previous discussion [0] to criticize Der Spiegel's self-serving sanctimonious tone in their writeup of the scandal. It's impossible to read the allegations by the Fergus Falls residents here and square them with Der Spiegel's purportedly high-performing fact-checking operation. It's not just only that they failed to detect their reporter's malicious deception. But they failed to do the most basic kind of fact-checking. For instance, I could see them failing to get to the bottom of an ephemeral fact like whether someone had put up a sign saying "Mexicans Keep Out". But calling the city to confirm that the official city sign says "Home of Damn Good Folks", and the theater to confirm that they were playing "American Sniper" in 2017? Those are the kind of facts that at a bare minimum professional fact-checkers should be double-checking. Even something like the claim that the city administrator was a gun-toting virgin is something that a fact-checker is expected to call and independently confirm. And even if the guy gives a non-committal denial, e.g. "That's ridiculous, I don't want have anything to do with your left-wing fake news article!", the fact-checker should be prying the reporter for all the documentation/notes that support the claim. In fact, in this scenario, the fact-checker should be highly suspicious that the city official is so standoffish, if the reporter managed to gain his trust enough in the first place to reveal that he's a virgin (and is ostensibly embarrassed about it). Der Spiegel has a lot of questions it has to answer for how it failed so thoroughly for so many years here. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18716613
媒体复盘本身也可能复制同样的叙事套路，而揭发者常承担压力。
对 Relotius 的最新指控是挪用公款；试图揭穿他的《明镜》记者向主管汇报时曾被威胁终止合同。FAZ 有篇很好的评论指出，《明镜》对此案的报道和 Relotius 原文一样使用了“故事化媚俗”的叙事烟雾弹。
lqet查看英文原文
The latest accusation against him is embezzlement [0]. Also, the Spiegel reporter who tried to unmask Relotius was threatened with a termination of his contract when he talked to supervisors about his findings. [1]. Also in the FAZ, there was a very good commentary on the whole case by one of the publishers [2]. He identifies the same narrative smoke-bombs ("story-telling kitsch") in the Spiegel's writeup of the whole case as in Relotius' original articles. [0] https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/betrug-beim-spiegel-claas-relotius-veruntreute-offenbar-auch-spendengelder-15955791.html [1] https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/fall-relotius-spiegel-reporter-mit-rauswurf-gedroht-15954983.html [2] https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/ueber-die-faelschungen-von-claas-relotius-im-spiegel-15954144.html
明星机制与确认偏误共同制造失真叙事，写作者要警惕预设主题和绩效压力。
除了《明镜》监督缺失和记者伦理，还有几点教训：我们重视诚实苦干，却很少重视做这些事的人；这位记者是“明星”，被要求一直维持那个水平（开发者是否似曾相识？）。确认偏误很危险，并被用来传播糟糕叙事；当前政治对立让媒体鼓励这种叙事——这篇文章读起来像是在展示乡村下层里的“种族主义者、性别歧视者”等，至少这是我从左派常兜售的垃圾里读到的。这个人被过度信任为领导者；他若是个精神病态者我也不意外（他不在乎被自己坑害的人，唯一似乎抱歉的是被抓）。
monksy查看英文原文
Besides the obivious lack of oversight on Der Spiegel and ethics of the journalist. I believe that there are a few lessons we can take away here: 1. We value honest hard work. However, we rarely value the people who do it. (The journalist was a "star" journalist and was required to perform at that level constantly.. does this ring a bell to any developers?) 2. Confirmation Bias is rather nasty, and that has been used to propagate some bad narritives. Right now the political deviviness has encouraged by the media. This article: Look at these "racist", "sexist", *ist people in some low-class people in this rural area. At least this is what I get from it. (That's been the garbage tauted by the left) 3. This guy was trusted as a leader way too much. I would not be surprised if he's a psychopath. (He has no concerns over the people he screws over, and the only reason he seems sorry is that he got caught).
没有可核查原始附件的报道应默认不可信，平台激励会腐蚀写作。
我相当确信这不只发生在《明镜》。如果主要信源没有以可下载附件形式引用，最好假定整篇东西纯属虚构。我现在对“新闻业”毫无敬意；在我看来它已是一门死掉的艺术，被我们称为互联网的毁灭者抽干了生命。我们创造的这个网络，尤其 L7 那些亮闪闪的东西，对哪怕高于平均的心智也不健康；它削弱了形成共情所需的反馈回路，又通过名利诱惑放大我们最坏的部分。我并不特别鄙视这位记者；越早认识到他被这个构造碾压到毫无机会，越好。
zaroth查看英文原文
I’m fairly convinced it’s not remotely limited to Der Spiegel. If primary sources aren’t cited in downloadable attachments, it’s just best to assume the thing is a pure work of fiction. I have absolutely zero respect for “journalism” at this time. It is, as far as I’m concerned, an entirely dead art, all life sucked from it by the great destroyer we call the Internet. This network we created, and in particular most of the shiny things at L7, is not healthy for even an above average psyche. It attenuates all feedback loops that our bodies require to form empathy, while amplifying the worst parts of us through appeals to fame, fortune, and notoriety. I don’t even hold this particular journalist in particular disregard. The sooner we recognize that he was so outmatched by the construct that he didn’t even have a chance, the better.
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