Comment: NDR has thrown out Julia Ruhs – and that’s a good thing

Julia Ruhs is out. Finally. Norddeutscher Rundfunk has removed the journalist from its own discussion program "Klar." From now on, Ruhs will only be responsible for the programs produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk.

It's not good because she deserved it. Quite the opposite. It's good because, after this dismissal, it should be clear once and for all what public broadcasting is trying so desperately to hide: It's not a pluralistic institution that wants to provide balanced information to its viewers, but rather one that treats deviation as a threat, embraces diversity as its own, but only implements it when it comes to gender language, skin color, and inclusion.

The BR still stands by Ruhs , and yet with this process the NDR is already exposing a system whose claim and reality are in grotesque contradiction.

The reason for her dismissal is simple: Julia Ruhs speaks plainly

The behavior of Norddeutscher Rundfunk, which, given the universally held tolerance for double standards, is hard to beat, is bad enough. Added to that is the fact that Ruhs has repeatedly defended the station. In interviews Ruhs gave to the Berliner Zeitung , she defended the broadcasting corporations, calling them an "important pillar of the media landscape." This makes her dismissal even more malicious.

It was the former BR trainee who defended the broadcaster against external hostility and, as a reward, was thrown out on the street. Not because she made a mistake. Absolutely not. The reason is simple: Julia Ruhs speaks plainly.

Its format was an attempt to reclaim journalistic territory that the public broadcaster had long since abandoned: the territory of impertinence, contradictions, and open dialogue. "Klar" gave voice to people who had previously been sought in vain in the public broadcasting cosmos. The audience responded positively to the plurality of opinions, as the results of a viewer survey show: Two-thirds of participants rated the first three episodes of "Klar" with a grade of 1 or 2.

What viewers like, however, seems to be of no concern to the NDR staff. Just a few days after the first episode of the show aired, a secret signal group was formed and began drafting an open letter. The goal of the whole thing: Julia Ruhs must be removed from her position as the show's presenter.

Days later, NDR editor-in-chief Adrian Feuerbacher and his team convened an internal debriefing. What was planned as a technical discussion descended into a scandal. Ruhs's program was dissected for three hours. At the end, around 250 employees submitted their open letter. The accusations contained the following: the program was divisive, one-sided, and violated the state treaty.

In the heat of the moment, the angry employees omitted the crucial "mistake" that Julia Ruhs made: She did something that she should never have done in the public broadcasting system - trusting viewers to form their own opinion.

The ÖRR is working hard to push itself further and further into the sidelines

The loudest voices in this uprising are well-known names: Daniel Bröckerhoff, presenter at NDR Info, and Anja Reschke, long-time “Panorama” frontwoman and figurehead of opinion journalism, who satirically made Ruhs a symbol of an alleged opening for “somewhat right-wing extremist” opinions in her ARD show.

News journalism seems to have long since become a form of journalistic guardianship. The goal isn't to inform citizens so they can form their own opinions. The goal is to protect them from "wrong" judgments, whatever that may mean. The public broadcaster thus acts as a filter and feels perfectly at home in its role as a debate manager, where nuances are unwelcome.

Is or was the drama even about journalistic standards, or does the fear of losing the right to interpret the story prevail? I'll leave it up to you to decide how you answer that question.

One thing is crystal clear: public broadcasting, especially NDR, is persistently working to further and further marginalize itself. Congratulations—the dismissal of Julia Ruhs is the culmination of this self-destruction.

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