Word: wallraff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...final attempt to obtain a President, Wallraff tries to persuade an old friend to participate in the charade. Acting the part of a President, Wallraff contends, is easier than it seems; "What does a President need to do but look important and say "yes" and "no" in the right places?" The friend is convinced; Walraff tells him to wear a tie and buy an attache-case to make himself look important. The friend sets to his task, and Walraff returns to inform the impatient General that the President...
...will take place that evening. But the General understands; he is familiar with the busy schedule of political leaders and is most grateful simply to have the President's acquaintance. It is a manic scene, with the 'President' nodding "Yes, your Excellency," the General unctuously urging their cooperation, and Wallraff nimbly interjecting answers to every question directed at his President...
...President checks his watch his and announces he must depart. Arrangements are made for a future meeting in Geneva, which Wallraff does not intend to keep. Soon he will emerge again into the public eye armed with enough evidence to force Spinola's expulsion from Switzerland, an investigation of the right-wing politician Franz-Josef Strauss, who had been preparing to sneak Spinola into Germany, and the failure of General Spinola's attempt to take over Portugal...
...WALLRAFF'S TECHINIQUE to be dismissed so lightly as Bradlee suggests? One advantage of Wallraff's method has emerged with the current controversy over Woodward and Armstrong's book The Brethren, where to prevent the betrayal of confidential sources, their evidence is unverified and must be taken on faith. Because Wallraff's sources act involuntarily, there is no need to protect them, and he can thus offer full disclosure of sources and documentation of his evidence...
Nevertheless, there remains a defect, particular to Wallraff's method, that mars his objectivity. Teleological journalism--reporting with a singular goal, like the doctrinaire Marxism Wallraff's professes--blinds the investigator to other, equally important truths. This prejudice makes The Undesriable Journalist an uneven collection. Some of the narratives read like adventure novels; others, fraught with details of worker mistreatment in factories, sound like chapters taken from The Condition of the Working Class in England. No matter how scientifically he records his results with microphones, magnetic tapes and hidden cameras if Wallraff seeks only part of the truth, that...