Horst Pirker is suing Christian Ortner for damage to his reputation. He saw clearly anti-Semitic formulations against Ukraine Prime Minister Selensky in “News” in the tradition of “Stürmer”.
Christian Ortner, the clear voice of economic liberalism and the columnist from the ranks of the cross-written authors of the “Presse”, who has been writing for a long time, likes to offend and likes to provoke. That’s good, that’s his job. Our colleague was recently confronted with a lawsuit from Horst Pirker. Pirker is the owner and publisher of the magazine “News” and was once the CEO of Styria and as such a co-founder of “Presse am Sonntag”. What is the charge?
In a four-page news cover story, psychologist Monika D. Wogrolly dissected Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky in a so-called “depth psychological analysis”. “Under the therapist’s magnifying glass” Wogrolly described Putin as a narcissist with a “tendency for depressive symptoms” who felt “misunderstood, devalued and unloved in the media and between people”. So much for the universally applied kitchen psychology.
Far more unusual is the “News” long-distance assessment of Selensky: He too is probably one of those narcissists “to whom everything is fine to achieve their (secret) goals.” the trauma of the Jewish ancestors. A man who fills his inner emptiness by lying and blinding – “like a vampire”. These lines and the associated lawsuit have now made it into the “Spiegel” from Austria.
Christian Ortner wrote after reading the news in the Israel-friendly blog “Mena-Watch”: Comparing Jewish politicians with a blood-sucking vampire was recently demonstrated by the “Stürmer”, the “Völkische Beobachter” and similar publications”.
Horst Pirker initially apologized for the post via Twitter, but he did not draw any other conclusions. The comparison with the “Stürmer” then went too far for him: “Isn’t there also an excess of criticism?” he tweeted and sued Ortner for credit damage and insult to 20,000 euros. He wants to take this to court and refers, among other things, to the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance: “In 1821, the pogrom inciter Hundt-Radowsky called the “Jews” “circumcised vampires”, and Wilhelm Marr made them “vampires of the German people” in 1880″. The myth was rolled out further under Nazism, and accordingly the Jew is often portrayed as a vampire in Der Stürmer.”
Knowing all the gentlemen involved, this could be an ugly, but journalistically interesting process. In a spirit of collegial solidarity and as someone who would rather give out than receive, I can politely recommend Horst Pirker to withdraw the lawsuit against our columnist.
E-Mails an: [email protected]
–
