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The Daily Mail has been heavily criticised after it implied that pilot Andreas Lubitz might have deliberately crashed his plane due to his long history of being German.
After running several editorial pieces suggesting that being German might have played a significant role in his decision to crash the plane, the paper has been accused of ‘massively oversimplifying’ the situation.
The Mail defended its stance, telling us, “History is littered with examples of Germans taking the innocent lives of lots of other people – who’s to say Lubitz is not just the latest in that pattern?”
“Andreas Lubitz had a long history of being German, so why did they continue to let him fly?”
“Worse still, there are literally hundreds of other potential Germans flying planes today, and nobody is doing anything about it.”
“It is our job a respectable news organisation – stop laughing – to highlight these risks to potential future victims.”
“What consumers do with that information is up to them. If they choose to start avoiding people who are German, or stigmatising Germans in general, then so be it.”
Daily Mail on Lubitz crash
Many Germans have reacted with shock at the Daily Mail’s repeated assertions that Lubitz being German contributed to the tragedy, insisting that most Germans lead long and productive lives without ever harming anyone.
German man Simon Schmidt told us, “I think it’s desperately unfair to suggest that he would kill all of those people just because he’s German.”
“But I guess the truth that Lubitz was just a deeply disturbed individual not defined by any single attribute doesn’t sell enough papers?”
I think, therefore I am (not a Daily Mail reader)
