Those who've complained about the BBC using the term 'far-right' to describe everyone taking part in the anti-immigration protests in the German city of Chemnitz - from neo-Nazis to supporters of AfD and Pegida and ordinary people - might still have been surprised at tonight's Radio 4 news bulletin at 10 o'clock as it went even further in its opening headlines:
Thousands of German neo-Nazis have protested against immigrants in a city that's seen a wave of racist violence.
The protest tonight, apparently some 4,500-strong, was led by AfD and Pegida, who may (arguably) be termed 'far-right' but surely they can't be described as 'neo-Nazi', can they? So what's with "Thousands of German neo-Nazis have protested" here?
And in your previous post of the transcript with Jenny Hill, Nick Robinson referred to anti-Nazi protests. My eyebrows shot up at that.
ReplyDeleteI think the BBC logic runs as follows:
ReplyDelete1. If you query their claims you are clearly a neo-Nazi.
2. Only neo-Nazis dispute BBC reporting of neo-Nazi rallies.
3. Therefore all BBC reports referencing neo-Nazi rallies set out what is objectively true.
See? It's all logical. QED - the BBC is right but not "Far Right".
There is one little silver lining in all this...the more the BBC reports that Germany is a seething hotbed of Nazi extremism, the less credible is their other claim that mainland Europe in contrast to "hate crime Britain" is a marvellous bastion of tolerance, progress and harmonious social progress. :) In fact Jenny Hill tries to keep both balls in the air, but without any success whatsoever.