Recommendations of the Editorial team
Since Stefan Raab made his comeback on RTL, he has been making headlines regularly. However, these are more concerned with low ratings or criticism that it is out of time. Now he is in the spotlight with another controversy: his broadcaster RTL took a contribution from RTL+.
It’s about the first edition of Stefan Raab’s “The Half Hour After the Hour After”, which was broadcast on Tuesday, January 27th. The moderator discusses current events from this year’s season of “Jungle Camp” and the associated candidates.
Now, a week after publication, voices are being raised that a contribution to the program was anti-Semitic towards one of the candidates. This was first discussed in the “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here” podcast.
On Tuesday (February 3rd) the “Jüdische Allgemeine” also wrote about it. It’s about a clip about the Jewish singer Gil Ofarim, who is part of this year’s season of “Jungle Camp”. Particularly explosive: The supposedly discriminatory material was broadcast on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Cheater gene” for Gil Ofarim
In the post, the singer was assigned a “cheater gene,” which he probably got from a certain “Uncle Samuel.” Afterwards, according to the “Jüdische Allgemeine,” an “oriental-looking man was seen frantically making apples disappear into his shopping trolley at a market.” Ultra-Orthodox Jews were also shown dancing to the singer’s music.
It was then said: “Despite the big scandal, he is of course an exceptional talent who lands one hit after another, especially in the Jewish community.” The attested “cheater gene”, which can be clearly seen in anti-Semitic clichés (the Jew as a usurer and fraudster), caused irritation and annoyance in particular.
RTL reacts to the criticism
The broadcaster RTL then drew conclusions and issued a statement on Tuesday. One examines the criticism and also wants to classify the sequence: “The article deals with the person of Gil Ofarim and his public appearance in the context of the well-known fraud allegations, in particular with the claim of an anti-Semitic incident that he himself made and later refuted. The reason for the humorously exaggerated treatment of his person was exclusively this behavior and the media staging of himself.”
It continued: “As part of the program, all jungle camp participants were brought satirically closer to the viewer; deliberately exaggerated, fictional and sometimes absurd images and stories were used. RTL firmly rejects any form of anti-Semitism. At the same time, we recognize that the clip could lead to misunderstandings. Against this background, we are taking the contribution offline and will examine future content even more sensitively to see what interpretations it enables.”
As a consequence, the first edition of Stefan Raab’s show on YouTube was shortened and even completely removed from the streaming portal RTL+. The moderator himself has not yet made a statement about the controversy.
