Did ARD just kill 8 people??
You might remember Jörg Kachelmann, the former weather presenter for the german TV station ARD. After his ex-girlfriend accused him of raping her, he was acquitted by a german court. When last week 8 people were killed during heavy rain, floodings and thunderstorms, Kachelmann tweeted that ARD was to blame since they did not inform the public about the hazards that come with the floodings.
But is it really the news stations that have the mission to inform the public not only about what has happened up until the show is aired, but also what hazards may lie ahead? In order to find an answer, I consulted the ARD’s homepage, where they present their mission: ARD’s mission is to inform, educate, advise and entertain as many viewers as possible(translated from ard.de).
In my opinion, that includes warning the public about upcoming health risks, even though warning is not mentioned explicitly. And there are other occurrances, where the media warns you ahead of time: take traffic congestions, for instance. If your radio station warned you after you already crashed into the last car in the row, it wouldn’t help that much.
So, why did ARD not warn the people beforehand to not play football outside, not go into your basement where you could drown etc.? I think one of the main reasons is that the Tagesschau is only aired a few times a day and most people do not spend too much time in front of their TV, waiting to be warned. Another reason might be that the water levels rose by a lot in a short amount of time, which makes it hard to update the warnings every time.
Regardless of the reasons, I think one of the main purposes of news media, be it TV, radio, web or social media, is to warn people about upcoming dangers. If a station fails to do so, it misses its purpose. But it most likely is NOT ARD’s fault that all those people died.
P.S. If you like to be warned about extreme weather conditions ahead of time, try the “Deutsche Wetterdienst”-app. It’s called “WarnWetter” and it’s free and no-ads. You can enter your region of interest and unter which circumstances you would like to be warned and in case there is something, you phone will inform you. It might literally safe your life someday. Here’s a link to google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dwd.warnapp&hl=de
