According to the podcast “Lanz & Precht”: ZDF responds to fuss about Precht’s anti-Semitism

The outrage over Richard David Precht has been gaining momentum since Saturday. In his podcast with ZDF presenter Markus Lanz, the famous philosopher stirred up anti-Semitic prejudices. The Israeli embassy in Berlin responded and politicians from various parties sharply criticized Precht.

He claimed in ‘Lanz & Precht’ that Orthodox Jews were forbidden to work: ‘Except for a few things such as diamond trading and financial transactions.’ And Markus Lanz also supported him in this factually completely false statement, in which he spoke of “correct” and “accurate”.

Despite inquiries, ZDF had not yet responded to the derailment. That will change on Sunday at 11am. When asked by t-online, the broadcaster wrote: “We regret that a passage in the current issue of ‘Lanz & Precht’ has led to criticism. At one point, complex connections were presented abbreviated, which could be interpreted misleadingly. That’s why we removed this sentence.”

In fact, ZDF asked its moderator to upload a new recording as a kind of apology. This can now be heard before the corresponding edition of the podcast: “I would like to introduce this week’s podcast with a few introductory words. This podcast used wording that was offensive and led to criticism […]We obviously do not want that and we deeply regret that this is the case. Mainly because it wasn’t even remotely intended as it was perceived.”

Precht continues: In the next issue he will talk about this with his colleague Markus Lanz. “But we left out the wording in this podcast.”