I don’t really see how telling the truth necessitates putting quote characters around something he didn’t say. Especially not in front of an audience who don’t know Merz as well as politically-inclined Germans do and who may read the words in the sharepic using Google Translate or similar.
The road to fakes like the below is lined with sharepics like the above. I don’t think it makes sense to use the same means as right-wing post-truth propagandists.
Fake (German)
Notably, while this fake has the same basic layout, it even omits the quote characters and includes some “this is satire” small print.
While I understand your argument in theory, there’s another point: who cares if the quote is real in this specific case?
Merz is a pathological liar. So you can either truthfully quote him or tell the truth.
I don’t really see how telling the truth necessitates putting quote characters around something he didn’t say. Especially not in front of an audience who don’t know Merz as well as politically-inclined Germans do and who may read the words in the sharepic using Google Translate or similar.
The road to fakes like the below is lined with sharepics like the above. I don’t think it makes sense to use the same means as right-wing post-truth propagandists.
Fake (German)
Notably, while this fake has the same basic layout, it even omits the quote characters and includes some “this is satire” small print.