Maybe I’m a discontinued model: But I still learned journalism in such a way that it should above all control and criticize those in power, not the opposition. That he should cast doubt on everything, and not agitate against doubters and cement truths. That as a journalist you should swim against the current and not let yourself be carried away by it.
This page has two midwives: One is Patrick Gensing, ARD’s chief fact finder. With the legal steps he initiated against me, he first made sure that I had to take my old, private homepage off the net in November 2019. But then I said to myself: Now more than ever! A little later, my good friend, the Regensburg professor of political science Jerzy Maćków, complained that no medium wants to print his new commentary – not even the „alternative“ ones. I spontaneously offered him asylum on my side. Thus „reitschuster.de“ was born in its current form. December 3, 2019. Already in the first month the contributions were called hundredthousandfold .
Meanwhile, the page reaches up to 53.7 million views (January 2022). It has thus overtaken traditional media such as Cicero and many others. What started as a small one-man operation is now teamwork. With many helpers.
I cannot offer you any „truth“ here on my site. Unlike many colleagues and those who call themselves „fact finders.“ I can’t even promise you that I won’t make mistakes. Not even that I don’t make mistakes in judgment. Both happen. But I don’t think anyone who is honest can say they are flawless.
In my eyes, the crucial thing for journalists is that they are always on the lookout. Critically scrutinize everything all the time. Also themselves and their own views. Even at the risk of losing beloved consciences and having to admit to having been wrong. It is bitter that many are no longer capable of this differentiation. Anyone who even raises doubts about the official course on the subject of „Corona“ – in my eyes a duty as a journalist – is immediately defamed as a „Corona denier“. On the subject of „migration“ we had the same thing – with the defamation as „Nazi“.
After 16 years in Russia, I’m tough as nails. The defamations hurt, but I can take them. Also because of the very, very numerous support. We are many. Just not so loud. And what I can promise you is this: I will continue to critically question everything. And, as long as the big media is so one-sided, try to give you just the other views instead of repeating what is spread everywhere. So that you can then form your own opinion! Critics may see this as one-sidedness. I think this accusation is absurd, and it testifies to a misunderstanding of plurality. This is not created by the fact that everyone has to say or write everything, but that different voices have their say. If public media with many thousands of employees and billions of fee budgets mostly only illuminate one side, and the private media keep it similar, I cannot divide my 24 hours a day with a quota and spend a few hours for reasons of proportion to repeat exactly what they read, hear and see thousands of times in the big media.
I hope you will remain faithful to my site! Even if one or the other article expresses a different opinion than yours – but that’s exactly what democracy is all about. And that’s precisely why I value my readers so much – because the vast majority of them stand for exactly that: For democracy, plurality and genuine tolerance. Not the perverted understanding of the same, where this „tolerance“ applies only to one’s own views. What unites us all, I think, is the aversion to totalitarian thinking. Whether from the left or the right, or for religious motives. We are the center. All the religious warriors and ideologues who want to shift the horizon cannot change that.
