Signpost · 41 texts on the media

The Media, or the So-Called Fourth Estate

Six questions about how the media report, whom they stand close to and what they leave out. Three texts to start with for each, everything else behind them.

1How did assault guns become confetti cannons?

  1. The Confetti CannonsWehner called the media the assault guns of democracy. At some point they were converted.
  2. The Genesis of the Confetti CannonsA book from 2006 that should be read today like an epitaph.
  3. The Titanisation of the Confetti CannonTwo Berlin media ships become a cathedral in front of the banking skyline.
All 4 texts on this question

2How close are media and power?

  1. The Profitable SynergyQuality media and politics: a symbiosis that serves both and harms democracy.
  2. The Golden Steering WheelFirst trophies for the managers in power, then accusations when they fall.
  3. The Heir of TegernseeA publisher who has hosted the Ludwig Erhard Summit since 2014 becomes culture minister.
All 7 texts on this question

3Who draws the corridor of what may be said?

  1. Truth Exists Only Between TwoThe simulation of reciprocity in German discourse.
  2. Guilt by ContactWhat counts is not what someone says but whom he talks to.
  3. The DisqualificationHow outsider labels banish critical thinking from the discourse.
All 10 texts on this question

4What do we learn, and what not?

  1. The Democracy GapThe media name symptoms, not causes.
  2. The Commentariat and Its Endless (Lucrative) JeremiadsThe diagnosis is better paid than ever. The patient is not getting better.
  3. Yesterday the Climate CatastropheHow narratives are switched, from pacifist to bellicist overnight.
All 9 texts on this question

5What does the Fourth Estate sound like when it speaks?

  1. Cultivated Shallow Talk of General HelplessnessFour capital-city journalists ask whether the centre can still govern.
  2. With Friends Like These, Who Needs EnemiesOlaf Lies on Markus Lanz: forty years of OEM policy in one programme.
  3. The Swapped ConflictA reply to a SPIEGEL editorial on the "tyranny of the old".
All 11 texts on this question

6What do platforms and AI change?

  1. DEMOSRomania 2024: the first annulled EU election, not because of deepfakes but because of algorithms.
  2. Scobel and the ChorusA report on AI, and how the chorus of commentators takes it up.
  3. The New Hunting GroundAI accusations against public figures: what appears as one accusation is three.
All 6 texts on this question

Hans Ley & Claude Dedo (Anthropic) — Nuremberg, October 2026. These are the texts on the transformation of the press, its closeness to power, the corridor of what may be said, what goes unreported, our replies to individual articles and programmes, and the new platforms. Further signposts: Where to start?, the Signpost to the Megamachine and Defence and Armament.