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https://theconversation.com/euphemisms-and-false-balance-how-the-media-is-helping-to-normalise-far-right-views-267418>
"This year, a series of rallies organised by neo-Nazi groups in Australian
cities sparked public outrage and concern about the extreme right.
Yet, some media coverage of the rallies downplayed the role neo-Nazis played in
what they called “anti-immigration rallies”. Other commentators misrepresented
statistics on net migration.
Politicians, meanwhile, traded barbs about who was to blame for far-right
demonstrators on city streets.
In the United States, there was a similarly muddled response to a recent
scandal involving genocidal, racist text messages among young Republican
leaders.
The messages included racist slurs, praise for Adolf Hitler and jokes about gas
chambers. Yet, Vice President JD Vance dismissed them as “edgy, offensive
jokes” and called the backlash “pearl clutching”.
The scandal did have repercussions for the Young Republicans, and some senior
Republican leaders did condemn the messages. But the fact Vance and others
could even think to minimise such vile language speaks to the way far-right
politics and sentiments have been normalised today – especially by some in the
mainstream media.
As detailed in a book I recently edited,
The Far Right and the Media:
International Trends and Perspectives, mainstream journalism does not simply
cover far-right politics from a critical distance, it also helps define what
counts as politically acceptable.
And in many ways, the media is failing in this regard."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
