Germany: ARD "Tagesschau" is again criticized for manipulating maps

Berlin - The ARD "Tagesschau" has defended itself against the accusation of manipulating weather maps. "Since 2020, the weather for the 'Tagesthemen' has no longer been supplied by different editorial offices and companies, but by the ARD competence center in Frankfurt. When we took over, we changed the entire design and adapted it to the design of the 'Tagesschau'," said Silke Hansen, head of the responsible weather department at Hessischer Rundfunk (HR). Since then there have also been no more cloud symbols in the “Tagesthemen”, but a cloud film and the temperatures are shown on a temperature map, as has been done in the “Tagesschau” for 30 years.

In addition, the "Tagesschau" referred in its "fact check" to the difference between a temperature and a weather map. While a weather map shows how the weather should be, such as sunny, cloudy or rainy, the temperature map is used to show the number of degrees in colour. The scale can range from dark red for high temperatures to cold blue.

"Tagesschau" is not a blank slate
However, not every temperature has its own color, and the color range changes according to the seasons. A color scale that would be used in summer and winter - i.e. from minus 20 to plus 40 degrees - would no longer have any clearly recognizable color differences, according to the "Tagesschau". That's why the HR weather department uses four different color scales, which always cover part of the scale: five degrees is blue in summer and yellow or orange in winter.

The “Tagesschau” has to listen to allegations of manipulation again and again: last spring, screenshots of the broadcaster’s corona incidence maps sparked a debate on the Internet.

"The presentation of the previous classes always remained the same", says the fact-checkers of ARD. Evidence proves the contrary.

At that time, incidence values ​​were re-illustrated in color. While a soft orange was the symbol for an incidence of 50 until mid-March 2021, the same value was visualized a few weeks later with a dark red.

Source: Junge Freiheit