Hasty howls of triumph over an alleged Twitter ban

In the absurd “Stern TV” show last Sunday you can study some of the sticking points of the merger of RTL and G+J. Parts of the Twitter public were happy too early about the blocking of Andreas Hallaschka’s account. And Peloton has started a steep descent. The MEEDIA weekly review column.

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Did you also watch “Stern TV” last Sunday? The show – steadfastly moderated by Frauke Ludowig and Nikolaus Blome – came in the media criticism rather so medium on. And it was also really absurd when you saw how the former coach of Eintracht Frankfurt – Dragoslav “Stepi” Stepanović – spoke in very, very confused words about the fact that tennis star Novak Djokovic was actually expelled from Australia because , if he had won the Australian Open, a bust of him should have been erected in front of the stadium and the stadium should then have been named after him. Or something like that. Frauke Ludwig acknowledged such nonsense with the remark that “Stepi” once again expressed a “clear opinion”. You have to see it, in order to grasp the absurdity of Stepanović’s performance. And yes: the huge tables with awkwardly draped “Stern” booklets; the “hot seat” that was dug out of some RTL evidence room and put on by the top “lateral thinker” Markus Fuchs; the Who-am-I insert, in which everyone put on their goggles at the end to guess that Gaby Köster was advertising her new RTL show; the hastily assembled live band, who played the “Stern TV” intro music in an eerily weird way. All of this was certainly not a star hour of (“Stern”) TV. I+U, the production company for the Wednesday edition, even felt compelled to distance itself from what was being done in its studio during the current show. Above all, I found this crazy mixture remarkable: the “Stern” magazines on the table as a symbol of the association with G+J. The reminiscence of the old RTL with the hot seat. That with “Let’s Dance” juror Joachim Llambi a familiar face was squatted so as not to scare the loyal RTL viewers too much. In general, the Blome/Ludowig duo, who could stand for both sides of the “new” RTL: politics/entertainment. You could study all the ambitions and problems of merging RTL with G+J on this show as if under a magnifying glass. The discordant tones of the band provided the appropriate background music.

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I was irritated a while ago when I stumbled across tweets on Twitter celebrating the blocking of Andreas Hallaschka’s account.

There were a few tweets like that…

Andreas Hallaschka is not only the older brother of “Stern TV” regular presenter Steffen Hallaschka, but also a journalist (he was once at “Stern” and editor-in-chief of “Merian”) and opinion holder on Twitter. There he is sometimes provocative and mostly conservative. In my observation, however, he never leaves the civilized discussion spectrum – in contrast to some of his opponents/critics. In the end, the blocking actually only lasted a few hours and, as it turned out, it was a technical process. Twitter automatically identified his account as a spam account. Now Twitter has even (at least) apologized to him for it.

I found the hasty howl of triumph from those who would have preferred to see Hallaschka locked away on Twitter quite disconcerting.

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Something from the marketing world: CNBC reports that home fitness manufacturer Peloton has halted production of its bikes and treadmills due to a slump in demand. The company’s share price plummeted accordingly. Peloton also plasters the social web and TV advertising blocks with advertising for its offers in this country. These are extremely expensive (the training bikes cost between around 1,500 and 2,500 euros). In addition, there is a subscription of almost 40 euros per month, without which the device can hardly be used. At least almost 2,500 euros are also due for the treadmill. The madness: With the devices you can only use the services of the Peloton subscription, such as training and landscape drives. You can’t watch a series on the stapled screen while pedaling along at a leisurely pace or switching to another home fitness provider. You can theoretically use the bike without the Peloton subscription, but then you would either have to do without training instructions entirely or mount a second screen somewhere. Due to the strong integration of hardware and software, the Peloton bike only makes sense in combination with the Peloton subscription. Should the company ever stop its services, you will have an expensive piece of electronic scrap at home. Peloton’s rise to become the hyped fitness brand was unprecedented during the first phase of the pandemic. The descent now appears to be developing at a similar pace.

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Another program note on our own behalf. In this video, I discuss “The Relevance of Media Services” with Turi2 publisher Peter Turi at the invitation of the Frankfurt Press Club. Caution: nerd content inside!

Nice weekend!

PS: In the podcast “Die Medien-Woche” I talk to my colleague Christian Meier from “Welt” about “Stern TV”. In addition, we are devoting ourselves to the plans of the CDU Saxony-Anhalt with the first and it is about the possibly difficult implementation of the Digital Services Act of the EU. I’m glad if you listen!

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