Why do we want newspapers to survive, again?
When I saw this Daily Express front page online, I thought it must be a parody. It wasn’t until I saw a physical copy of the paper the next day that I really believed that they had actually printed something so inflammatory and xenophobic:
The current outrage over the BNP, who won a couple of European Parliament seats earlier this year, and whose Führer Nick Griffin was invited on a specially-convened inquisitorial edition of BBC Question Time this week, is more than a little disingenuous.
The demagogic press has been creating and provoking anxieties over immigration and imagined Muslim fifth columnists for quite some time. The Labour government has responded, not by correcting the lies and misperceptions (such as immigrants jumping the housing queue) but by loudly introducing crowd-pleasing immigration controls (like the risible UK Citizenship pub trivia quiz) in some bizarre attempt to outflank the overtly racist BNP.
But the truth appears to be that racism and xenophobia win votes. They also sell papers. Anton Vowl has performed a valuable public service by looking back over recent front pages and stories from the newspapers that are currently excoriating Griffin for the same views, and the BBC for allowing him to present them.
Here’s an example from the Daily Star of a particularly toxic headline:
BBC PUT MUSLIMS BEFORE YOU
The old canard of special treatment for the other is there, but there’s a more insidiously hateful message behind it: Muslims are not ‘us’. We’ve heard that message before.
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing of late about the demise of print newspapers. Personally, I’d be happy for all newspapers to go out of business if it meant the death of spiteful organs like the Star, Express, and Mail. Sure, they’d be replaced by hateful online publications, but, without such an oligopoly on information, the Two Minute Hate against Muslims and foreigners would be harder to co-ordinate.
In reality, though, I suspect that these newspapers will probably cling onto life the longest, using ever more outrageous front page headlines to draw in the crowds.
So, anyway, go and read Hmm … remember this?
2009-10-24 09:26 UTC. Comments: 3.
Phil Champ
Wrote at 2009-11-14 12:37 UTC using Opera 9.80 on Mac OS X:
The truth is, the British love having someone to hate. We are a nation fuelled by barely-suppressed rage, most conveniently and “acceptably” expressed as outrage. Logic and truth have nothing to do with most British newspapers and most British political debate (witness a recent collision between science and politics on drugs policy).dave
Wrote at 2009-11-22 18:34 UTC using Firefox 3.5.5 on Windows Vista:
this headline is not inflammatory or xenophobic, unfortunately for us, the UK is a small island and cannot sustain a large imported population.The statement ‘Britain is full up’ is true, or do you suggest we concrete over every bit of countryside and field before we close the doors?
AC11
Wrote at 2009-12-06 21:17 UTC using Firefox 3.5.5 on Windows NT:
It is true we do have a population limit that was exceeded decades ago, the government make no redress to this issue even when we are rated among the wrost for poverty in developed nations. The USA and UK have serious poverty issues to contend with—without lack of any immigration control. Why not beat on Australians for not allowing more Indians, Chinese into their land? They have stricter controls on immigration and any attempt to beat on them would not be tolerated, there is no chance places like Australasia will adopt policies like the UK, USA has—not unless their governments are hijacked by the European Union at least. The United Nations demographics and stats on poverty and sustainability show the UK can not even produce its own food to feed 25% of its population, we are a ruined nations, thanks to the EU and corrupt whores in power that sell us out and destroy our industry. The corporate takeover happened decadesd ago, England ceased trading long ago, the whole of the UK is icorporated into the EU now the Lisbon treaty was ratified. Any more sovereignty may be given to them that remains, our military—navy—army which is on the list, according to Germany and Brussels, it will be incorporated into an EU military force just as our police force is now trained by EU ready to harmonise its force to the new EUROPOL which will takeover our forces by 2024, unless further delays are expected. Part of the deal is to privatise more of the NHS and Post Office, this was signed and sealed more than a decade ago under EU laws for the UK.