Those who dare to step into the public eye can quickly end up with a bloody nose. The same media that glorify a person today can put them on trial tomorrow. They distribute and withdraw reputation, promote and destroy careers. However, the medium itself always remains on the winning side. The laws of market orientation and cynically-ideologized power play apply to broadcasting and television just as they do to print media.

"The Guérot Phenomenon" reveals this process in detail: The person Ulrike Guérot is not the demonic figure she has been portrayed as. Yet, she crystallizes this inhumane process that continues to this day. Ulrike Guérot is among the very few people in Germany whose prominence is based on her outstanding qualities and her actual significance for cultural life.

Due to her nuanced statements on Corona policy and her early and consistent advocacy for a ceasefire and peace negotiations in the Ukraine conflict, she transformed from a well-liked talk show guest on European issues into a projection surface for fundamental societal conflicts. The resolution of these conflicts does not occur through open and cultivated political discourse but rather as a symbolic media execution of the crystallization figure Ulrike Guérot. This serves as a warning to all those who still find themselves in the media spotlight: "Look, this is what will happen to you if you step out of the coalition of the compliant." The phrase "Punish one, educate a hundred" takes on a chilling plausibility here.