Imagine sitting in front of the television and watching the Tagesschau, Germany's most important news program. As you absorb the latest headlines, your eye falls on a well-known person who is introduced as Penny - "supermarket customer". It turns out that she is an employee of WDR. A planned contribution or a “stupid glitch”, as WDR calls it? The question remains open.

The penny deal that sparked the drama

To understand the incident, let's first take a look at the action that sparked this media drama. The Rewe discounter Penny made headlines with an unusual campaign: In order to draw attention to the environmental damage caused by food production, the chain increased the prices for nine selected products by up to 94 percent. The price for Vienna sausages rose from 2.80 to just under six euros. The campaign was aptly named “True Cost.”

The “Tagesschau” article

The reporting on the Tagesschau, ARD's main news program, about this price campaign caused a stir. In addition to some critical voices, a young woman praised the new prices in the article. It “provokes thought”, which is in clear contrast to the other indifference towards the meat price increase.

The discovery

The scandalous thing about the story: The young woman who was introduced as a customer was the WDR radio presenter Hannah Mertens. What we also noticed during our research is that the name Hanna Mertens was shown in the post (see screenshot below) and not HannaH , as it would have been correct.

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Screenshot: Tagesschau, July 31, 2023

This was discovered by attentive Twitter users and picked up by the BILD newspaper under the headline “Tagesschau presents its own presenter as a customer”.

The reaction of WDR

The WDR reacted defensively. The broadcaster admitted that it was a mistake to show its employee as a customer and assured that this did not meet its journalistic standards. Stefan Brandenburg, editor-in-chief of WDR, described the incident as a “stupid mistake” and tried to clarify the situation by explaining that Hannah Mertens had been approached “by chance” in the Penny branch and that the misunderstandings were due to communication errors.

The appearance of this supposed “customer” embarrassed both the Tagesschau editorial team and WDR when the extent of this dubious journalistic practice became obvious. In response, the post was removed from the media library. The Tagesschau writes : “Correction: This program was subsequently edited. The “True Cost” post was subsequently edited. In the original version there was an original sound source who works for WDR. The sequence shown with her should not have been broadcast like that. Interviewing colleagues does not meet our journalistic standards. Addition: The original sound provider happened to be a customer in this discount store. You can find out more about the background to these and other corrections here: tagesschau.de/corrections

The video / article is currently only in an edited version in the ARD media library , but without Hannah Mertens.

What now?

In conclusion, the Penny article in the Tagesschau highlighted the importance of journalistic ethics and responsibility. While it was dismissed as a “stupid mistake,” it has raised deeper questions about the credibility and integrity of the media. In order to restore the trust of the audience, a consistent commitment to transparency, responsibility and dialogue is required, coupled with continuous training and high journalistic standards. This is the only way to avoid such mistakes in the future and maintain the trust of the audience.

Also read: Fact check: The truth about the queer person “Mr. Ingeborg” in the Sandman universe


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )