The other side of the story?

by Rick Johansen

In my usual passive/aggressive way, I rarely fail to point out to Daily Mail readers what it is they are spending money on, which is a very right-wing propaganda sheet masquerading as a respectable national newspaper. I add that this was a newspaper which literally supported Hitler before World War Two. The response is either, “I only buy it for the crossword/TV guide” or “That was then, this is now”. Today’s astonishing front page proves, without doubt, that nothing has changed.

The Mail’s ‘World Exclusive’ may, though I doubt it, tell us something new about Unity Mitford who was, in today’s language, a stalker, in this case a stalker of Adolf Hitler. A Nazi and an Antisemite – and that’s just Mitford, never mind the genocidal maniac she idolised. The Mail describes it as “the intimate and profoundly shocking diaries” of Mitford. I call it “the other side of the story”.

Which other newspaper, in its right mind, would lead the front page with “The Fuhrer was Heavenly. He is an angel”? Maybe on a mad, bad day, The Telegraph, perhaps, or the Express or the Sun, but honestly, if I asked you to guess, you’d know, right? One thing that puzzles me is this: why publish this now? Why today?

Mitford’s obsession with Hitler is hardly ‘news’ in the literal meaning of the word. I have not read the Mail’s full account, not least because I struggle to believe anything it prints, but also because I am already aware of the story. Is this wretched organ attempting to normalise fascism? It has history. Take this article from 1934:

 

These simple facts about the Mail:

This piece about Jews – migrants – from the 1930s:

And this selection from more recent times:

Nothing much has changed, has it, and with much of the world lurching to the far right, should we be concerned that history is appearing to repeat itself? Look  at everyone from Putin, Trump, Germany’s AfD, the UK’s Farage and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, Orban, Wilders and Meloni and you would be right to be concerned. Now, the Mail, the most popular newspaper in the UK, is quoting a woman who thought that Adolf Hitler, mastermind of mass murder and actual genocide, was actually “heavenly”, an “angel”. I repeat what I said before, in the form of a question: why is a national newspaper rehashing old news for the benefit of today’s readers? If it’s not to tell “the other side of the story”, then what is it for?

In the olden days, if you wanted to purchase a girlie mag from the top shelf in a newsagent’s shop (not that I did, obviously, oh no), you might also buy a newspaper to tuck it into in order to avoid the embarrassment of being seen with a girlie mag. These days, you’d tuck the Mail inside a girlie mag.

There is no “other side of the story” when it comes to fascism in general and Hitler in particular. So, what’s going on here? Perhaps, they’re preparing us for what’s to come in Donald Trump’s second term? I’m struggling to come up with any other reason.

 

You may also like