A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
Today’s Guardian headline reads: ‘BNP conference backs ballot on non-white members’. Naturally, the accompanying picture shows Nick Griffin breaking wind with a very long pole up his backside.
I found this very interesting. Not because it points to any grave injustice of media bias. All media is biased in one way or another and, frankly, if you’re the leader of Britain’s most successful racist organisation, I feel you probably deserve everything you get. But, for all the mainstream credibility the BNP have gained since their European election breakthrough and despite the flurry of media attention they have received, Nick Griffin continues to be shown in the worst light possible. Once the press largely ignored the BNP and when the party was mentioned it was only to condemn them and everything they stand for. Now the media have been forced to report on their activities as a matter of public interest. But, no matter what headline you read, no matter how bland and neutral and matter-of-fact the text, the accompanying picture will always show Nick Griffin looking a) stupid, b) ridiculous, c) evil or d) all of the above.
Here the Daily Mail quotes Nick Griffin as saying lots of Hindus, Sikhs and ethnic minorities support his views on immigration. Despite largely sharing his views on immigration themselves, the Mail then show Griffin preparing to gnaw through a log:
Here The Guardian reports that the BNP’s membership list has been leaked again, whilst Nick Griffin is shown looking like a satanic priest preparing to summon a demon:
And here is the demon he summoned:
And let’s not forget everyone’s favourite picture of Nazi Nick getting egged on by a less than receptive audience:
Now it may simply be that Nick Griffin is just as ugly as his politics. He’s certainly not likely to win first prize in any beauty contest. But a picture paints a thousand words and here they seem to say much more than the content of the articles themselves. The media has had to grudgingly accept that the BNP are part of mainstream discussion now and an item for public interest. They can no longer ignore them and they can no longer afford simply to denounce them without engaging with the public grievances that have made the party so frighteningly popular. The pictures are a neat, and not all that subtle, way to make the BNP look bad without ever having to spell it out. A picture might paint a thousand words, but they still need only two. Nazi scum.
Reader Comments
But have you seen the BNP’s own pictures of their leader? They are not very much more forgiving than those of the press. I suspect that this is just a man whom it is hard to make look reasonable. (1) He seems to be one of those people who put on weight only in the face. (2) There’s the glass eye which gives him the appearance of having squint. (3) And that particular way he has of opening his mouth that always incorporates a sneer. No – what this demonstrates is what everyone has always known, that pretty people are morally better.
That’s true, but if you look at videos of him, he never looks quite as frighteningly evil as he does in these photographs. At press conferences and events, photographers will be snapping him hundreds of times during the speech. Editors will then select the pictures they want to use later. It’s fair to say he’s not the most attractive of individuals, but what I find interesting is that of the hundreds they could choose, they invariably pick the worst regardless of the headline. That doesn’t happen to many people, unless the press really hates them. I think it allows them to say that the BNP are an ugly, vile party, without having to spell it out.
Good head of hair though
Yes, I think you’re onto something there. Hitler had a good head of hair too. Coincidence, or something stranger? Hmmm…
If the pictures are to make him look bad why dont we see more of the ones with his glass eye staring off in a random direction?
They do exist, and they make him look like hitlers face drawn on a potato.