you would think there would be enough to write about trumps supporters without making stuff up
How superstar German reporter fabricated an article about Trump supporters in a small Minnesota town that cost him his job and exposed him as a fraud
- Claas Relotius, 33, was fired after caught after a colleague raised suspicions
- He falsified 14 of 60 articles that appeared in German magazine Der Spiegel
- One of those stories was about a small Trump-supporting Minnesota town
- In that story, Relotius lied about seeing a hand-painted welcome sign that read 'Mexicans Keep Out', that he claimed was sitting at the edge of the town
- Spiegel also said 'Relotius gave the inhabitants of Fergus Falls made-up biographies to suit his needs, as if he were a puppeteer'
- Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam and apologized for his actions
By
Dailymail.com Reporter
Published: 09:03 AEDT, 21 December 2018 | Updated: 09:46 AEDT, 21 December 2018
Award-winning German journalist, Claas Relotius, fabricated an article about pro-Trump reporters in a small Minnesota town, and it cost him his job.
Germany's respected news weekly
Der Spiegel stunned the media world on Wednesday by revealing that Relotius had for years falsified stories.
Relotius 'made up stories and invented protagonists' in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in the magazine's print and online editions, Spiegel wrote, warning that other outlets could also be affected.
One of the stories that brought Relotius down was the one he wrote about residents of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, a town that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
You must log in or register to see images
He had written for the magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including
CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.
Earlier this month, he was named German Reporter of the Year for a story about a young Syrian boy.
The cheating came to light after a colleague who worked with him on a story along the US-Mexican border raised suspicions about some of the details in Relotius' reporting.
You must log in or register to see images
The headquarters of German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel in Hamburg, Germany
The colleague eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November.
Both said they had never met Relotius.
Other fraudulent stories included one about a Yemeni prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, and one about NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
In a lengthy article, Spiegel said it was 'shocked' by the discovery and apologized to its readers as well as to anyone who may have been the subject of 'fraudulent quotes, made up personal details or invented scenes at fictitious places'.
The Hamburg-based magazine, renowned for its in-depth investigative pieces, described the episode as 'a low point in Spiegel's 70-year history'.
An in-house commission has been set up to pore over all of Relotius' work for the weekly.
The reporter also wrote for a string of other well-known outlets, including German newspapers taz, Welt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine's Sunday edition.
Relotius told Spiegel he regretted his actions and was deeply ashamed, the magazine said.
'I am sick and I need to get help,' he was quoted as saying.