This is certainly true. One channel broadcasts the evening news (Abendschau) from 20 or so years ago and you can clearly see how diligently they try to adhere to journalistic objectivity (in choice of adjectives for example) whereas today it seems they don't even try it anymore.

Having a public broadcaster means nothing. We (Poland) also have one but the quality of their websites and TV channels was always painfully average and since 2015 it's outright propaganda.

I think no people anywhere at any time has been happy with their media.

Well, German public TV and radio isn’t nearly as good as the newspaper cited in the article. Compared with BBC - it’s certainly is not a great example of spending public funds.

I'd like to object. True, the mainstream channels ARD and ZDF show a little bit too many quiz shows and music shows - and the main local radio stations are very lean on interesting content. But there is a bunch of public TV channels and radio stations that provide high-quality content - 3sat, arte (culture), ARD-alpha (science, education), Phoenix (politics, documentaries), Deutschlandfunk, Bayern 2, Bayern 5, and many more.

And yet most of the money I pay the GEZ, sorry, for the Rundfunkbeitrag, goes to exactly ARD/ZDF. I have neither TV nor Radio, but I'd happily pay what I do to the stations you mentioned. But between quiz shows, reality tv, football licenses and badly researched shows like Frontal 21 I hate paying.

These stations are all part of ARD (actually a "conglomerate" of Rundfunkanstalten der Länder) and ZDF (except Deutschlandfunk, which is a separate entity). So yeah, you already pay for these stations. If you'd watch / listen to them, they'd probably get more attention from the managers and thus the content will be pushed more into the mass channels. Actually, some of the stations are more like incubators for new concepts and shows that they hope to put into the main/mass channels (though others are special interest channels).

My issue is not with the 10-20% news and documentaries, but all the other stuff they do...

Exactly. And worst of all, all the good things they do are to be found on tv & radio channels the average person does hardly consume or at times when nobody watches tv.

And this, I think, is highly problematic as it distorts the way Germans see their country dramatically. Many Germans, I believe, think they fulfill their 'democratic duty' by watching the 'Tagesschau' (the news at 8 pm)

As far as politics is concerned, this shows offers almost zero journalistic value. It's only politicians selling their agenda to the audience (the same goes for prime time talk shows). The only good thing about it is that all parties get enough time to bring their point across and non-political groups are also allowed to have their say. The problem, however, is that it is not in the interest of any party/NGO to actually inform the viewers. They all only include facts when it suits their agenda. What the audience is left with is an incomplete picture of the situation. And based on this (and not well well-researched lists of the pros and cons to the solutions proposed) they cast their vote. Of course, the public broadcasters do also provide these missing information. But you have to listen to Deutschlandfunk radio, search out special documentaries on Arte which are broadcasted at irregular times or watch political discussions at Phoenix at times when you want to go to bed.

The Tagesthemen (which is the late edition of the Tagesschau) is already much better. Some time ago they had a very good comment on mass surveilance that was totally on point. And the average, not Tagesthemen-watching person? They still think "meh .. I've got nothing to hide".