Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Saturday 24 October 2009

Anton Vowl skewers press hypocrisy on the BNP

I don't often do blog posts that basically just link to a single other post but Anton Vowl's post on "The Enemies of Reason" today entitled "Hmm... remember this?" is absolutely superb and deserves to be linked to widely. He contrasts the "outrage" expressed on the front pages of today's tabloids regarding Nick Griffin (largely directed at the BBC for letting him on) with many previous front pages of each of them showing headlines that could pretty much have been BNP press releases.


His conclusion is:

It's all very well people blaming Labour, or the BBC, or whoever, for the 'rise' of the BNP. But if there has been a significant increase in BNP support - and it hasn't translated into votes yet, despite a severe recession and growing unemployment - perhaps that might have more to do with the legitimisation and absorption of their extreme views by newspapers creating scare story after scare story concerning race and immigration, often baseless stories created simply to scare? It's one thing going to a BNP meeting but it's quite another to hear exactly the same thing over the breakfast table from a publication which purports to report the facts.

It is one of the best blog posts I have ever seen. If you haven't read it yet, go and do so right now!

3 comments:

Quietzapple said...

Further most of the media have echoed the Dully Tele's headline re 20% would consider voting BNP - including the BBC - rather than pointing to the 4% who say they would vote BNP tomorrow, and the 6% who did in the June Euro Elections.

6% up to 4% is a pretty scary scenario then . . .

Anonymous said...

Speaking for myself, I think this is just one more way to pass the blame.

The media are widely reported to be on the decline with many more people taking the internet as a first choice. That doesn't mean they are finding their news on the Guardian website or the Telegraph website, it means they are getting it from several sources, sometimes from the horses mouth and comparing it with elsewhere. The papers that stick to the old-style, 'this is what you should read' are being left behind.

BNP success is due to principles and policies that the majority agree with not their other policies which are questionable.

No party's manifesto is perfect, the one that ticks most of the boxes is the one you go for. If the worst thing about the BNP is pushing repatriation for those that will be tempted and standing up for the indigenous populace - then the majority of people have nothing to worry about. It's as simple as that, surely.

Anonymous said...

2nd video down.

Notice anything illegal?

http://simondarby.blogspot.com/2009/10/nobody-likes-bully.html#idc-container

-S