Among other equally troubling, highly (badly) political printmedia, Spring also publishes Bild, a tabloid “newspaper” that is widely criticized for its sensationalist and explorative style, prioritizing attention-grabbing headlines and complete disregard of journalistic integrity. Their approach has been linked to:
- Invasion of privacy and exploitation of vulnerable individuals, not rarely in relation to family member who just lost loved ones (witwen-schütteln)
- Defamation and manipulating of public opinion
- Bias and polarizing content
- Complete lack of journalistic ethics
- Literally cause death by the way the report on suicides
- Falsely accusing and publishing names and individuals with connection to extreme crimes who are completely innocent
Their practices are not only harming journalistic integrity and destroying some lives of individuals, but they are harming the public discourse of media and the society as a hole, fostering division and hate.
OpenAI partnering with Axel Springer SE is completely ruining your reputation, especially in Germany.
(It is a german video but it highlights some practices: YT Video YinU6NOoRaY)
Please, do reconsider what kind of deal you made there! I know that supporting OpenAI in any form (not privately, but also at work) would not work for me going forward, if I knew this deal was kept in place.