[imagesource: RTL]

A German television presenter really dragged her name through the mud on Monday.

Reporting for Good Morning Germany on German broadcaster RTL, 39-year-old Susanna Ohlen (above) had been sent to Bad Münstereifel in North Rhine-Westphalia.

She was there to report on the damage caused by last week’s unrivalled rainfall and flooding, which have destroyed homes in the area and left many people dead.

Moments before going on air, she stooped low and smeared mud all over herself.

Her thinking, which she admits was minimal in the moment, was that she had felt “ashamed” for having clean clothes in the devastated town.

Others have argued that she wanted to make it appear as though she had been helping with aid efforts.

Perhaps if she had put in all her effort to actually help, she would have felt less guilty.

Unfortunately, an onlooker caught the moment on video and shared it to social media where it went viral:

#RTL-Reporterin @SusannaOhlen macht sich vor ihrem Live-Einstieg schmutzig – anstatt anzupacken: pic.twitter.com/dn3ZVPtPUy @RTLde #Hochwasserhilfe #Hochwasser #Flutkatastrophe

— Michael Ziesmann (@M_Ziesmann) July 22, 2021

After the video was widely shared, Ohlen confessed to making a “serious mistake” in a statement, apologised, and said that “this should never have happened to me.”

Too little, too late, though, as RTL suspended her for breaching its standards.

They did not mention whether anything more would be done to handle the matter.

European leaders posit that the historic flood that hit Germany, as well as areas in Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, can be attributed to climate change.

The latest spate of flooding in Germany alone has left 170 people dead, with many still missing, and caused billions in damage.

The clean-up operations are far from over.

[source:bbc]