The “Nius” portal commissioned Stefan Weber to investigate how journalist Alexandra Föderl-Schmid dealt with sources. A low four-digit amount was spent on this, reports “Spiegel”.
Another twist in the story about the Austrian journalist Alexandra Föderl-Schmid: On Monday, she temporarily withdrew from day-to-day operations as deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The reason is allegations about her handling of sources, which also affect her dissertation. The “Spiegel” now reported who financed the report from the self-proclaimed “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber: The right-wing populist portal “Nius” commissioned the audit, and Weber received a low four-figure sum for his work.
The examination included the diploma thesis and dissertation – but not “SZ” articles
The examination was commissioned last December and includes Föderl-Schmid’s diploma and dissertation work submitted in 1996. Weber was not involved in research into articles by the deputy “SZ” editor-in-chief, which came under criticism a few months ago because of unidentified sources. Weber emphasized that the content of the report was created independently of “Nius”. In his work he pointed out that, like Föderl-Schmid, he had studied at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Salzburg, but that he did not know her personally. This is shown by an excerpt that “ZiB 2” anchorman Armin Wolf published on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. However, Weber admits that the assessor of the dissertation is personally known to him, a possible conflict of interest. After all, he had “his first serious scientific conflict” with him as a young research assistant.
Föderl-Schmid, who worked as “Standard” editor-in-chief before her position in Munich, has now asked the University of Salzburg to examine her dissertation. The “SZ” also called in an external commission. Föderl-Schmid is currently not available to comment.
“SZ” was looking for the “mole”
As far as Föderl-Schmid’s handling of sources in her journalistic work is concerned, allegations from the industry magazine “Medieninsider” had already been made in December 2023: Föderl-Schmid is said to have improperly quoted formulations from other media, sometimes using them word for word. A few days later, the magazine reported that co-editor-in-chief Wolfgang Krach had criticized the allegations as an attack on his newspaper at an editorial conference. How did “Medieninsider” magazine know about such internal discussions? The “SZ” put a lot of effort into the search for the “mole”: the editor-in-chief – with the consent of the works council – had their employees’ emails and telephone connections searched for contacts with the “media insider”.
“Standard” editor-in-chief for ten years
The 53-year-old native of Upper Austria, Föderl-Schmid, is one of Austria’s most prominent journalists, who has been awarded the Kurt Vorhofer Prize and the Ari Rath Prize, among others. She worked for “Der Standard” for 27 years – initially in the Upper Austria editorial team, later as a correspondent in Berlin and Brussels. In 2006, she took over the business department of the quality newspaper and in 2007 became the first woman to become editor-in-chief of an Austrian daily newspaper. As of 2012 she was co-editor alongside Oscar Bronner. In 2017 she left the “Standard” to work as an Israel correspondent for the “SZ”. Since 2020, she has been acting as deputy editor-in-chief of the German newspaper, where she has now temporarily suspended day-to-day operations. (APA/Red.)
Read more about these topics: