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Just like an even cuter example elevated to cult status recently.

Knut.


A baby polar bear that won hearts around the world has made a very public debut at a German Zoo. Knut hit the headlines last week when animal rights activists called for his execution and that sparked international outrage.

— Channel Ten, News, 24th March, 2007


It certainly did.

You can't have missed the story of poor, sweet Knut rejected at birth and raised by a zookeeper only to face calls that he be given a lethal injection.

Journalists were queuing up to talk about those unfeeling animal liberationists.


Knut made headlines around the world when activists insisted that he'd be better dead than raised by humans.

— Channel 9 (Adelaide), News, 24th March, 2007


…made headlines last week when an animal rights activist suggested he be put down.

— Channel 7 (Adelaide), News, 24th March, 2007


Stephanie Kennedy: Now animal rights campaigners argue Knut should be put down...

— ABC Radio News, 21st March, 2007


Bob Francis: There's always animal liberationists of some sort will make some sort of bloody comment wont they?

— 5AA, 21st March, 2007


Tracy Grimshaw: Now to the polar bear cub at the centre of a fierce debate over whether it should live.

— Channel 9, ACA, 21st March, 2007


Lee Lin Chin: ...and animal rights activists want it killed.

— SBS, News, 24th March, 2007


Virginia Trioli: Bild newspaper quoted animal rights campaigner Frank Albrecht as saying "in fact the cub should have been killed".

— ABC, Local Radio 702, 21st March, 2007


John Laws: As you can imagine the animal rights activists caused an uproar when they said the little bear should be killed...cause they're right aren't they? Anything that cute and cuddly has gotta be dangerous. Idiots.

— 2UE, 23rd March, 2007


Well it was all a complete fiction.

Around the world, the media took the word of the rather dubious German tabloid Bild, as gospel.

In its revelation of the plight of poor Knut, Bild fingered animal rights campaigner Frank Albrecht.

Animal rights activist Frank Albrecht (37, window fitter) continued: "Actually, the polar bear cub should be killed."
Why? He refers to the Leipzig Zoo, where a baby sloth bear was given a lethal injection in December when its mother rejected it.

— Bild magazine, Animal rights activist calls for his death, 26th January, 2007

Read "Animal rights activist calls for his death" - the English translation of the Bild article.


That's a half truth.

Frank Albrecht had taken legal action against Leipzig Zoo for putting down another motherless cub.

He lost, when the court accepted the zoo's argument that raising the cub by human hand would be against the law of nature.

So Frank Albrecht raised the obvious parallels between the Leipzig cub and Knut.

I said okay, if an expert - in this case Leipzig Zoo - says that it's not species-appropriate…then…the hand raising approach in Berlin contravenes the Animal Protection Act.

— Translation of statement from Frank Albrecht to Media Watch

Read the translation of Frank Albrecht’s response to questions from Media Watch.


Frank Albrecht was saying that to be consistent with the court decision, the Berlin Zoo would have to kill Knut.

He wasn't actually suggesting that Knut be put down.


...I never did. I am an animal welfarist. I believe that a bear has a right to life, from the moment that it is in the care of humans, is healthy and able to survive.

— Translation of statement from Frank Albrecht to Media Watch


But Bild preferred to keep its eyes half closed.

And it embellished its story about animal loving nuts wanting to kill Knut with quotes from Wolfram Ludwig, director of another German zoo.

His name was flashed around the world too.

The London Times story ran here in The Australian.

Knut should have been killed when Tosca rejected him, Mr Ludwig says. "They should have had the courage to kill him much earlier".

— The Australian, Call of the mild: Berlin's pampered mascot faces death, 21st March, 2007


That story left out a crucial comment from Mr Ludwig.


..."but it's much too late to put him to sleep and kill him now."

— Bild, Call for Lethal Injection for
Berlin Baby Polar Bear Rejected, 19th March, 2007

Read “Call for Lethal Injection for Berlin Baby Polar Bear Rejected” - the English translation of the Bild article.


It was important after all, that readers believed that the bear was still facing calls for execution.

But whatever Wolfram Ludwig had to say was incidental to the main game.

Reporters couldn't even get his name right!

They got that wrong too. This is wrong…everything is wrong. That's not my name. My name is Wolfram Graf-Rudolf.

I never said anything. This was a bad story.

— Statement from Wolfram Graf-Rudolf (Director of Aachen Zoo) to Media Watch


One reputable German newspaper was keen to expose Bild.


The number of times Frank Albrecht has denied this nonsense...is uncountable. "It is completely incorrect", he wrote for the first time on 12 February in a letter to the editor…Many headlines and internet forums can give one the creeps. People get a work over in these boards all the time once an atmosphere of defamation has been created. It's even easier when the subject is a cuddly animal.

— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The polar bear and the lethal injection, 23rd March, 2007


That's certainly true.

But has anyone in Australia bothered to investigate Bild's story and tell the truth?

2UE's John Laws was indignant on air when we asked what efforts he'd made to check if the story was true.


John Laws: There weren't any efforts made, as there weren't any efforts made by anybody else including your news...Media Watch do you really want me to answer all this stuff?…I couldn't give stuff, frankly.

— 2UE, The John Laws Morning Show, 2nd April, 2007

Here at the ABC Virginia Trioli of Local Radio 702 says...


If Mr Albrecht believes he has been misquoted I am more than happy to correct the record on air.

The Morning team is happy to hear that no-one wants to bump the bear off because we think he's very cute.

— Email from Virginia Trioli to Media Watch


And so do we!

ABC News told us it will now add a correction to its online coverage of Knut.

But it's all a bit late for Frank Albrecht.

For his efforts he's been a target of hate mail on websites around the world.

I think the extremists should be put down on the grounds that they are too stupid to live.

— It's a Matter of Opinion website

I have a suggestion....how about someone euthanizing Frank Albrecht? Wonder how he would like that? These phoney baloney so called "animal rights activist", are nothing more than sadistic creeps!!

— Metro.co.uk


And the zookeeper Wolfram Graf-Rudolf told us...


…and now somebody wants to kill me.

— Statement from Wolfram Graf-Rudolf to Media Watch


So congratulations to the world's media for saving a bear that was never facing death.

And putting in mortal danger two animal loving men who never intended it any harm.

That's it from us tonight.

Thanks for joining us and don't forget, if you go to our website at abc.net.au/mediawatch, you can look at our transcripts and log onto our message board.

We'll see you next week.