KenFM was a German

internet journalism Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital j ...

portal, established in 2011 by German television and radio presenter Ken Jebsen. 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 netwo ...

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

(RBB). Despite its popularity the show abruptly came to an end, after an email containing anti-semitic statements by Jebsen was released. 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 a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

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''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

views" and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a neg ...

, such as about the

9/11 attack The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

and the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

History

Radio Fritz

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

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

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 brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

Avenue (

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

, 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 ( German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...

Berlin-Tiergarten Tiergarten (, literally ''Animal Garden'', historically for ''Deer Garden'') is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin (Germany). Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of We ...

). 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 ...

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 us ...

", 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 (''Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pa ...

. 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 Henryk Marcin Broder (born 20 August 1946, self-designation Henryk Modest Broder) is a Polish-born German journalist, author, and TV personality. Broder is known for polemics, columns, and comments in written and audiovisual media. Starting as ...

, who criticized it for containing

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

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 Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...

, PR-pioneer

Edward Bernays Edward Louis Bernays ( , ; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an American theorist, considered a pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, and referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". His best-known ca ...

, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

as well as rich "Jews" such as

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the preside ...

. 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 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it w ...

or the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Criticism

Ken Jebsen and the KenFM outlet are 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 has "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 warns of the danger of his

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the ...

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

. Political scientist Markus Linden labels Ken Jebsen, who he says preaches

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Ce ...

under the name KenFM. He argues 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. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-p ...

uses the term "political-journalistic

Querfront The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that were first described in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented a ...

network (politisch-publizistisches Querfront-Netzwerk)" in a controversial analysis for the Otto Brenner Foundation. Storz identifies 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 describes 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 pos ...

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

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

", 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