Claas Relotius, former editor for Der Spiegel and winner of numerous journalist awards including named CNN's 2014 Journalist of the Year, was stripped of his position and awards after he admitted to falsfying his stories for years. The articles below have been faslified or are suspected to be faslified and have been translated from German and have been compiled into a list by Spiegel.
Relotius was a most brilliant counterfeiter: His pieces are full of minute detail so specific, so precise, as to appear necessarily authentic. And why doubt a celebrated reporter who describes a small-town street corner as if it were etched into his photographic memory?
“He could not have made it up,” his fact-checker may have surmised. “It is so perfect, you feel as if you are standing there yourself.” Too bad Google Earth can do that for you from 5,000 miles away as the all-seeing camera captures the flowerpot on the stoop.