ZDF reported on deportations by the US immigration authorities ICE in today’s journal. The broadcaster initially warned about fake content, but then used it itself. The post has now been deleted and an apology has been issued. In the meantime, however, ZDF has talked its head off and thereby lost its credibility. A commentary analysis.
AI glitch in ZDF “heute journal”
- On February 15, 2026, the today journal showed images from an AI-generated video from the Internet in which two children cling to their crying mother, who is apparently about to be taken away by police officers. The sequence was neither marked as AI content nor classified as part of the show’s plot. Another sequence in which a child is led away is real, but is from 2022 and has been taken out of context.
- It was relatively obvious that the AI clip was not real. Because: That was in the picture Logo of the OpenAI model Sora faded in. This is an AI that allows users to create realistic videos by entering text. For reasons of transparency, the model incorporates the logo itself. After viewers noticed the glitch, it also came to light that another sequence was misleading in context.
- In response to the criticism, ZDF initially admitted that AI-generated images had been used deliberately However, the corresponding marking was not transferred for technical reasons could be. The broadcaster first deleted the post from today’s journal. A revised version was then uploaded in the meantime, which contained a note about the change. The editorial team replaced the AI content and the video taken out of context with other sequences and images. It is now Neither version is available in the media library anymore.
AI content has no place in news broadcasts
The AI disaster at ZDF reveals once again that Speed and scandal often play a greater role in journalism than care and facts. But: How can it be that a public broadcaster, which should actually have completely different requirements than the tabloid and right-wing populist media with four capital letters each, does not notice that an AI video with a watermark is being installed?
Clear: Mistakes can happencan happen and will happen again and again. But the entire incident must never happen like that. Because the ZDF, based on a breakdown – probably due to sloppiness – then talked about their lives.
At first they wanted to give the impression that only the labeling of the AI-generated content had been lost. Then the relevant scenes and ultimately the entire video disappeared. And Only then did classification and apology follow.
The Public broadcasting is indeed a valuable assetmay, no, but must also be allowed to be criticized. Because that is what democracy and discourse thrive on. In short: AI-generated content has no place in news broadcasts unless it is about you.
Whether consciously or unconsciously: The article in today’s journal portrayed the actions of the ICE thugs and murderers as even more heinous than they already are – however at the expense of ZDF’s credibility. However, mainly due to the absurd communication that followed, the station gave grist to the mill of right-wing media and the AfD, gave them something to eat and undermined their own, generally good, journalism.
Voices
- ZDF presenter Dunya Hayali at the beginning of her moderation: “Anyone who is on social networks will have noticed that there are a lot of videos about the operations of Donald Trump’s ICE troops. Not all of them are real, but there are a lot of them. And the violence with which the deportation forces often proceed, and also the arbitrariness that can be seen there, has definitely achieved one thing: there is a climate of fear that doesn’t even stop at children.”
- NRW Media Minister and ZDF Television Councilor Nathanael Liminski (CDU) to Stern: “This blatant falsification in a news broadcast is a serious mistake. The applicable standards and our own demands on quality public journalism should have prevented such a deception of the audience during the creation of the article. The style torpedoes this goal: instead of exposing disinformation and deepfakes, images from unrelated contexts as well as AI-generated fake images are used. This is a breach of taboo and a Absolute no-go.”
- Anne Gellinek, ZDF deputy editor-in-chief and head of current affairsin a statement: “We formally apologize for these errors. The article does not meet our standards and should not have been broadcast in this form. We have therefore removed it from all platforms and will report correctively on ZDFheute and at the same place in the ‘heute journal’ this evening.”
ZDF needs to improve its AI guidelines
At a time when journalistic due diligence is more important than ever due to disinformation and AI-generated content, ZDF has a lot Credibility lost. Not only because the station’s newsroom made a mistake, but also because in the meantime they were arguing about it with flimsy reasons.
The final clarification and apology is as laudable as it is right and important, but it is not enough. Rather, the ZDF television council must deal critically with the issue in order to avoid further mishaps of this kind in the future. Specifically, this means: it needs clear editorial guidelines and instructions – at all decision-making levels.
Because if this duty of care is no longer met, the basic trust in actually serious news will be deeply shaken and partially destroyed. Instead of simply going back to business as usual, ZDF must, above all, refine its AI guidelines to ensure that Reality is not artificially distorted by fiction.
It is now the responsibility of the broadcaster and the editorial team to take responsibility for the resulting content To repair damage to the image. And this is only possible with serious and qualitative journalism that shows reality and does not create it. Otherwise, ZDF will lose audience at a time when doubts about many media are already growing.
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