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• Thursday, April 3, 2008 05:56 AM

  I expect better from Salon

  Yes, it makes for a salacious headline, which is probably why the British tabloids are covering this "story," but I expect a somewhat higher standard of journalism from Salon.

  The BNP is nothing more or less than the British Nazi Party -- and this is not exaggeration; the party's founder has said that "Mein Kampf is my bible," their current leader has dismissed the Holocaust as "propoganda," and one of their Parliamentary candidates was actually arrested on suspicion of trying to assassinate Tony Blair. As a result, they've never gotten as much as 1% of the vote in any national British election.

  This context is an important part of the story, making it both less surprising (because, well, he's a nazi), and less worrying (because he's a fringe candidate for a fringe party). This context is completely missing from your post.

  The story here is: "An avowed Nazi, leader of a political party that believes that Jews, non-whites, gays, and non-Christians are not human and have no rights, also believes that women are not human and have no rights. And, shockingly, other avowed Nazis don't condemn him very strongly! Is this really newsworthy? To me, the most surprising thing is that he was removed as a candidate.

  I expect this kind of tabloid journalism from the Evening Standard, the British tabloid that broke the story. All they care about is a good headline that gets people to pick up the paper, and Eriksen's statements make for that. I expect better from Salon.

  —chapka Read chapka's other letters
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