“Report from Berlin”: High bar charts for SPD and Greens – ARD apologizes

2024-09-09 17:21:54

During “Report from Berlin” on Sunday, a picture was shown whose content is incorrect. Compared to the SPD and the Greens, the AfD’s survey results are presented as lower than they actually are. ARD admits the mistake – but there can be no more shame in it.

A week after the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, the conversation turned to “Report from Berlin“ARD continues to talk about possible coalitions, AfD and controversial party cadres. President Markus Preiß spoke to Markus Söder during the political program announcement on Sunday evening. The chairman of the CSU answered questions about Sahra Wagenknecht and her party and praised the election campaign of her colleague Mario Voigt (CDU) in Thuringia.

Then the public television format made a mistake that caused scorn and malice on the Internet. President Preiß presented Söder with a stick figure intended to show which party the respondent will vote for in Sunday’s federal election. Proven and popular research, data which is provided by the research company “infrared dimapagreed.

Although the graph is displayed for a good ten seconds, it is not noticed that the height of the columns does not correspond to the percentage values ​​of the given survey results. The SPD’s share (15 percent) is higher than that of the AfD (17 percent). Even the Greens’ column has drawn slightly higher than that of the AfD – although, according to the survey, only 11 percent of those surveyed will vote for the Greens in the federal election next Sunday. In short: In direct comparison to the AfD, the columns of all other parties are presented as superior.

User X compared to “Goodbye Lenin”

“If you can’t change the sad numbers in ‘Report from Berlin’, then at least you can change the visual representation,” mocked AfD leader Alice Weidel the day after the broadcast on Platform X. “Someone is playing ‘Goodbye Lenin’.”, wrote another user.

On Monday, ARD apologized: “Unfortunately we made a mistake in yesterday’s broadcast. In the graph for Sunday’s question, the proportions of the bars are wrong – the numbers are correct,” an X report published at midday included a corrected version. “We apologize for the error and correct the graphic.”