The BNP: Keeping them in the spotlight is the last thing they want
An interesting email dropped into my inbox this week. It was a press release from the Chartered Institute of Journalists and was about the BNP, or rather how it felt the media should cover them.
The BNP's recent success (or rather, the absurdity of the the electoral system for European elections) has apparently made a lot of people think. Back before the election, I wrote a post which suggested that the idea that "journalists shouldn't give the BNP the oxygen of publicity" wasn't the best way to deal with a party who doesn't think twice before peddling mistruths in its pursuit of power.
Since the election, the National Union of Journalists, jumped out the trap with a call for its members to discuss how the media should report the BNP, or as it put it "The BNP's election victories have brought a new urgency to questions about how journalists should report fascists and racists."
The CIOJ doesn't feel the need for discussion. It's line is simple: Treat them like any other party, because, as it says: "Accurate reporting will undermine the strong support of such parties."
And it's the CIOJ I agree with. Simple reporting of the BNP, giving them just enough room to expose themselves for what they really are will ensure that the electorate go into the next elections will the full facts on the BNP.
Simple things such as Yorkshire BNP MEP Andrew Brons appearing on Channel 4 News and having to give his own definition of the term "racist" before he could answer the question: Is the BNP racist?
Or Brons appearing on Nicky Campbell's Sunday morning debate show and announcing that he felt any immigrants or descendants or immigrants who have arrived since 1948 - his definition of when mass immigration began - should be offered the chance "to go home."
Or North West MEP Nick Griffin going off into a rant when asked by the legendary Dimbleby when asked why the BNP didn't allow non-whites to join? His response "You wouldn't ask the Black Police Association why they don't accept whites" sums up the BNP - an incredible ability to remove important facts from an argument to suit their own ends. The Black Police Association doesn't seek political office, that's the difference he chose to ignore.
So perhaps it was no surprise that the CIOJ press release is now being peddled by the BNP, with members claiming the CIOJ wishes for the BNP to receive a "fair press." It claims the Manchester Evening News is being criticised by the CIOJ for its campaign against the BNP - a campaign which the BNP claims was full of lies but has not actually stated what lies appeared in print.
What the BNP's interpretation of the CIOJ press release is missing is one of the opening lines from the CIOJ: "The CIoJ believes that accurate reporting will undermine the strong support of such parties."
The CIOJ isn't criticising any newspaper - in truth it is having a pop at the NUJ for needing to discuss how to respond to the BNP when no discussion is needed - you just keep on reporting - for reporting the BNP. The MEN's journalism was exactly what every other newspaper should do if the BNP is active - report what they say, ensure it's fair and balanced and commonsense follows.
Because the BNP's problem is that it can't stick to the facts. If you go to the BNP website and look at its North West news section (which oddly includes news about Nuneaton in the West Midlands) there's very little of note in there since the election result, apart from an incredible rant against the MEN from a BNP activist.
In it, he trots out a line I've heard before - that a paper campaigning against the BNP drives people to vote for the BNP - but it's a line which the actual election figures don't support.
The BNP struggled badly in Manchester, compared with other parts of the region, and in several other areas including Salford. For the party which tried to cash in on the expenses scandal, it failed to make any real dent to the mainstream parties in Salford, home of expenses postergirl Hazel Blears. If the mass-circulation MEN really did drive people to the BNP, then why wasn't that reflected in the polls?
The areas where the BNP succeeds is in the areas where there isn't a discussion about what the BNP is saying - either because the local political parties aren't having it, or the media is ignoring them.
Nick Griffin told members they were now a mainstream party. Mainstream parties don't react to campaigns like this by throwing insults - they set out to explain why the points made by a campaign were wrong.
They certainly don't write things like this: "The Manchester Evening News' essential problem is that it purports to serve the whole of Greater Manchester, including pro-BNP white working class estates, but the editorial values of the MEN reflect the lentil and bean-eating multicult [sic] lifestyle of the media glitterati who infest the gleaming ivory towers of Manchester city centre.
And here's the problem for the BNP. When it's given the chance to put its point across, the mask slips. And as journalists, we don't need to discuss the way to "deal" with the BNP. They have been democratically elected and therefore have a right to be heard. The fact that when they are heard, it's not hard to dismantle the arugment and find the racism lurking in their arguments, simply proves my point: We shouldn't just ignore them, because in many ways, that's exactly what they want.
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David Higgerson - David Higgerson has covered local and national politics for much of his career as a journalist. This blog aims to look at Westminister from the outside in, at a time when it appears very few are looking out from the inside.
Agreed.
During the last general election I was working as a news editor on a patch which had a BNP member standing.
After much debate, we decided to give the BNP candidate the same platform as the other parties in the paper to answer a series of questions in the run up to the election.
We had a number of letters from readers outraged that we had given the BNP a platform at all.
On election day we had a phone call from one of these outraged readers who demanded to know why we had done it.
'To be fair and impartial, and to not allow the BNP the excuse of media bias for the election result,' he was told. 'And to allow our readers to see exactly what the BNP really considered to be issues of local interest and concern, and how they would make things better for the community.'
The election result reflects exactly what our readers thought of the BNP's in-paper statements:
Labour - 23,461
Liberal Democrat - 7,192
Conservative - 5,064
British National Party - 872
Enough said.
An interesting post. I agree with most of it, but here's a few points where I take a different view:
1 The MEN didn't just 'report what [the BNP] say, ensure it's fair and balanced and commonsense follows.' It was part of a badged-up campaign against the BNP - that clearly isn't balanced.
2 The BNP's vote across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester was over 10% I believe. That's higher than their vote in the North West as a whole, despite the BNP having little presence in most of the Greater Manchester boroughs.
Having said that, I applaud the campaign. Who knows whether it changed any votes either way but the local paper positively supporting the diversity of its area is reassuring. Without Rusholme, China Town, Moss Side, foreign students, overseas tourists etc, this city would be dead.
I would like to believe that journalists can be trusted unmask the true face of the BNP, but I can't help notice how credulous they are when it comes to falling for its racist lies.
This article is a case in point - David Higgerson repeats Griffin's claim that the Black Police Association doesn't accept white member but fails to point out that this is simply a lie on Griffin's part: the Black Police Association is open to police officers of all ethnicities.
I'm all in favour of journalists exposing the BNP as a racist and fascist organisation. But giving the BNP a platform in the media doesn't help do that. On the contrary, as we've seen here, the BNP just uses the platform to spread lies - and typically journalists fail to challenge those lies.
At the end of the day if the media is a representative of the people it is of all people, if people choose to vote BNP that is their call. The media can't ignore that. Many could argue that the only reason the Labour and conservatives have such prominence is because the other parties are financially impaired when it comes to manipulating the media. When the BNP has huge financial backing and the media exposure becomes 'big time' - that is the time to worry. The media can of course be outspoken on the BNP in some quarters but it must also be cautious to maintain impartiality.
The BNP will live by the sword and die by the sword by it's own values.
The pubic still awaits a real alternative to the corruptness of the mainstream parties. And it is apt that they are called parties because that is exactly what life is for the majority of them.
I think the key to your point is that the BNP will live and die by their own words. But those words can only be discussed are their honesty determined if we, as the media, report on them
Jiben, thanks for your comment. Nick Griffin made a statement on election night about the Black Police Association which wasn't challenged instantly, probably because it was a distraction attempt by Griffin. But it's a line they regularly use and if we hadn't discussed it here, how many other people would have believed what Griffin had said? I also wasn't presenting the Black Police Association comment as fact, just something he said. I would, had I been presenting this as a news story, have checked that fact. I don't believe journalists do fail to challenge the BNP "lies" - I know of many journalists who have challenged them.
Paul - you're right, of course, the MEN's coverage was part of a campaign, but I'd argue you can still be fair and balanced in your articles even within a campaign. No campaign is worth its salt if you don't allow all sides the chance to get a view across - and I think the MEN did this, until the BNP refused to talk to them.