When Patricia Schlesinger was dropped as ARD director, no one jumped to her side from the state institutions because everyone feared that the head of RBB could draw public attention to her own salaries and privileges. The story of a crash with announcement.
When the “Tagesschau” reported the resignation of Patricia Schlesinger as chair of the ARD last Thursday, three things were obvious. The first: The “Tagesschau” really had an exclusive message that no medium in the world could dispute.
The second: The resignation from the ARD had to be followed by her renunciation of the post as director at the broadcaster RBB. There was not a single reproach against her leadership work at the top of ARD. All the inaccuracies and wastefulness that were chalked up to her had nothing to do with her style at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
The director of one of the nine ARD channels could not survive what was embarrassing for ARD.
The third phenomenon: none of her colleagues jumped to her side. Since she was in the fire, no one has wanted to help her put it out.
The other eight were upset by Patricia Schlesinger’s extra tours, fearing she might draw public attention to their own salaries and privileges.
They also followed her fall with little sympathy because they had observed Patricia Schlesinger’s character development on the way up with skepticism.
The once competent journalist turned out to be greedy and bossy in the top office. Greed has many daughters. Curiosity is a reporter’s virtue. Greed is particularly harmful when it targets public funds. Patricia Schlesinger has exhausted the generosity of the system to the limit and also tried to push through the limits.
Employees whose income she wanted to save discovered that the boss was organizing a life of luxury at the expense of the broadcaster. She had her salary increased by 16 percent, built a swanky office, charged dinner at home to expenses and used company cars and drivers for private errands.
And on top of all that, she appeared bossy. She wasn’t very popular in the house. That loyalty should come from above was alien to her.
“The staff” blasphemed about the manners of the boss. When she threatened legal action against employees for leaks, it was just another blunder in trying to end the affair. There was no help from the family. On the contrary. The former “Panorama” presenter is married to Gerhard Spörl, who was an important editor at “Spiegel” for almost 25 years. Now he recommends himself as a media coach with particular skill in overcoming crises.
He can hardly solve his wife’s problem because he is part of the problem himself. He provided well-paid reports for the chairman of the supervisory board at Messe Berlin, who was also the head of the administrative board at his wife’s broadcaster. RBB employees also did not miss the fact that their boss’s husband had himself chauffeured through the transmission area in their company car (145,000 euros).
The former investigative journalist Schlesinger described reports about this as defamation and complained about a Springer press campaign.
Attacking the Springer press in general is an old scam from the fighting times of “Panorama” and “Spiegel”.
The airs and graces of the director were exposed by the online portal “Business Insider” from Springer, which is headed by a former FOCUS editor as editor-in-chief. I have worked closely and successfully with the first-class reporter Kayhan Özgenc for more than 14 years. He was a researcher and tracker of great tenacity. In 2006 he was honored with the Henri Nannen Prize for uncovering the red light scandal in the Volkswagen works council. At Springer he works no less tenaciously. The former “Panorama” presenter should respect his performance.
