Writing as it never happened: The big lie
It was the biggest scandal in German journalism in decades. A reporter working for Der Spiegel delivered his editors long-form articles and interviews from Germany and abroad. His work has a special quality and was often deeply moving. All his articles were cleared for publication by Der Spiegel’s legendary documentation department. Their author, Claas Relotius, was inundated with professional accolades and prizes. The only problem: all his work was partly or entirely fictional.
It was Juan Moreno who, despite resistance from staff at Der Spiegel, exposed Relotius’s fabrications. In this book he tells the story from the beginning, charting the rising star of a young reporter whose work was close to journalistic perfection, cogent and beautifully constructed. Claas Relotius submitted exactly what his editors wanted. But how could his fabrications have gone undetected for such a long time? Beyond describing the startling details of an unparalleled example of journalistic malpractice, Juan Moreno also asks what effect this disquieting story will have on journalism and media in general.
