KenFM was a German internet journalism portal, established in 2011 by German television and radio presenter

Ken Jebsen Ken Jebsen (real name ''Kayvan Soufi-Siavash'', born in 1966) is a German Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist and former radio host. Jebsen rose to prominence as moderator of his show KenFM#Radio Fritz, KenFM with the public broadcaster Rund ...

. It is the successor of a former eponymous

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production, or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netw ...

, which had over the course of ten years been hosted by Ken Jebsen, aired from 2001 to 2011 on the youth channel ''Radio Fritz'' of

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (; "Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to RBB (; stylized as rbb), is an institution under public law (national broadcaster) for the Germany, German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, based in Berlin and Potsdam. RBB was estab ...

(RBB). Despite its popularity the show abruptly came to an end, because of Ken's surmised repeatedly violating the journalistic standards of RBB. According to the RBB Ken Jebsen had "repeatedly disregarded binding agreements", consequently co-operation was ended on 23 November 2011 and the program was discontinued permanently. Since the program's relaunch on a freelance basis as web portal and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel in spring 2012, KenFM has been producing news reports, interviews, talk-shows, political comments and analyses on a regular basis. The portal is mainly known for publishing "

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

views" and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

, such as about the

9/11 attack The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers, Nineteen terrorists hijacked four com ...

and the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

History

Radio Fritz

On Saturday 28 April 2001 KenFM aired for the first time from a fashion boutique in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

as the show changed its place several times over the course of the following years. Further noticeable publication stations are the

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

Avenue (

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the Tilia, linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. Running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the Tilia, linden trees (known ...

, Berlin-Mitte), Mini-Berlin (Friedrichstrasse, Berlin-Mitte) and the Sony Center (

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building, Reichstag (Bundestag, German Parliament Building), and ...

Berlin-Tiergarten Tiergarten (, literally ''Animal Garden'', historically meaning ''deer park'' or hunting ''game park'') is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin (Germany). Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunifi ...

). The show soon received widespread acclaim by critics for its unconventional style "dedicated to intelligent madness and playing with the twisted spoken word". In an article in March 2004 titled "Neuroscience instead of Quiz Show" the

TAZ Taz or TAZ may refer to: Geography *Taz (river), a river in western Siberia, Russia *Taz Estuary, the estuary of the river Taz in Russia People * Taz people, an ethnic group in Russia ** Taz language, a form of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by ...

newspaper, disillusioned with the "...particularly pathetic example of German

Radio programming Radio programming is the process of organising a schedule of radio content for commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting by radio stations. History The original inventors of radio, from Guglielmo Marconi's time on, expected it to be use ...

", highlights the contrasts and portrays the audience's approval of its authenticity - "four hours live, no rehearsal ..a game based on science, history, philosophy and the arts. Brain research and nuclear physics instead of Super Contest and senseless advertising". Eventually KenFM broadcast every Sunday afternoon from Fritz Studios in

Potsdam-Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter (urban subdivision), quarter of Potsdam, the capital city of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg. The neighbourhood is named after a small hill on the Havel river. It is the location of Babelsberg Palace an ...

. In addition to occasional live shows in the field, recordings of events that did not fit in the four hour live air-time or did not take place on Sundays were separately published. Excerpts of the show were offered as podcast since January 2006. Since March 2006 the KenFM podcast also offered the Fritz.de playlist. Concerts and musical performances were recorded and filmed and a video of the appearance produced plus interviews with bands or band members and published at FritzTV on Fritz.de the following days and a

channel labeled KenFM2008 was established.

Deposition

In early November 2011 an email of Ken Jebsen was published by author Henryk M. Broder, who criticized it for containing

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

statements. In the email Jebsen states among other remarks that he knows "who invented the Holocaust as a PR stunt", he insinuates a connection between

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

, PR-pioneer

Edward Bernays Edward Louis Bernays ( ; ; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession ...

, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

as well as rich "Jews" such as

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

. RBB initially defended Jebsen against the allegation and on 9 November it was decided to carry on with Ken Jebsen, who was instructed to "sensibly check future political issues". However, on 23 November 2011 RBB suspended his show and he was eventually dismissed after it had been surmised, that he had violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on a number of occasions. Although he did not deny having written the email, Jebsen has repeatedly dismissed any allegations of Antisemitism as ''absurd''.

KenFM as an internet portal

The first 90-minute program was published on Sunday 1 April 2012 at 14:00, based on the former radio show format and initially designated as "CamFM", produced in audio and video and presented free of charge on various video portals. Known RBB features and broadcast components were taken over, continued and further developed. In addition, audio publications on current topics are being irregularly published since. KenFM is funded exclusively by viewer's donations. KenFM mainly publishes "alternative viewpoints" on contemporary issues and news. The portal is mostly known for publishing a wide range of

. This includes conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attack, the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

or the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Criticism

Ken Jebsen and the KenFM outlet were regularly subjected to harsh criticism. During his early days after the dismissal from the RBB, he was defended by some commenters. For example, some authors like Evelyn Hecht-Galinski argued that criticism on Jebsen had "gone beyond all measures" with respect to the fact that the wider debate on the Holocaust, antisemitism and related subjects requires restraint and a high degree of decency in Germany. However, with KenFM mainly publishing disproved conspiracy theories, mainstream media warned of the danger of his

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

spreading, especially in the light of serious topics such as the

. Political scientist Markus Linden labeled Ken Jebsen, who he said preaches

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and po ...

under the name KenFM. He argued that KenFM is characterized by "sermonic monologues or long interviews with alternative war reporters, apostates, or marginal politicians and conspiracy theorists." Wolfgang Storz, former chief editor of the

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (''FR'') is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. The ''Rundschaus editorial stance is social liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-wa ...

used the term "political-journalistic

Querfront ''Querfront'' ( – ) is a German term originating from Weimar politics which refers to the cooperation between the far-right and far-left, or between nationalist and socialist ideologies, as well as the combination of their positions. It is p ...

network (politisch-publizistisches Querfront-Netzwerk)" in a controversial analysis for the Otto Brenner Foundation, a foundation for promotion of scientific research and knowledge. Storz identified KenFM as to be one of the protagonists "of persons and organisations who form a political-journalistic Querfront network, in which traditional Left-

Right wing Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...

categories do no longer apply. The network's most striking feature is its activism against the

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

", the government and the associated media (''Systemmedien'').

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official homepage

TAZ article on KenFM

YouTube channel
- This account has been terminated for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines. German news websites