Seven O'clock News

Seven O'clock News was an evening news programme of the Germanic Empire's television (called televisors in the story) system in In the Presence of Mine Enemies. It often lasts an hour long and is used by the Reich to broadcast news and to propagate its view to the public. The news channel is controlled by the Propaganda Ministry and appears to be Harry Turtledove's projection of how the Joseph Goebbels propaganda machine would have developed in the TV Age.

Its chief newscaster is a handsome man named Horst Witzleben who is mentioned as resembling a cross between an SS soldier and a filmstar though it appears he may have undergone surgery and Nazi indoctrination training. Witzleben is presented as the quintessential opportunist. In the beginning of the book he is skillfully inserting Nazi racist messages into his reading of the news; when the democratic reforms of the fourth Fuhrer Heinz Buckliger begin, he reports them faithfully and enthusiastically; during the reactionary coup, he serves what seems the new power group (though it is hinted he may have been coerced); once the coup is crushed, he again works for reform.