By Ian Jobling • 5/21/08
An annoying habit of contemporary news reporting is irresponsible ascriptions of nationality. Up until a few decades ago, to be an Englishman or a German meant more than just inhabiting England or Germany. Rather, it meant that you were a member of an ethnic group that had lived in that country for centuries. While the traditional meaning of national designations lingers, for most reporters today anyone who happens to be in Germany, whether he was born in Afghanistan, Nigeria, or Peru, is a German. The new meaning of national designations is annoying not merely because it erodes ethnic identity, but also because when one reads a story about a crime committed by an “Italian,” one never knows whether the criminal was really Italian or not. The press daily attributes crimes to people of European nationalities when the criminals are no more European than Osama Bin Laden or Robert Mugabe.
Alex Lee, who has written for White America, protested one such slander against the German people by the BBC and actually succeeded in getting that mighty oracle to clarify itself. Lee’s example should inspire all pro-white activists.
The title of the story that Lee protested attributed the stabbing of an Orthodox rabbi to a “German.” However, the actual criminal was far from being a neo-Nazi skinhead. The corrected version of the story is here.
Lee wrote to the BBC:
In regards to your article on the “German” stabbing the rabbi: The title of this article is misleading and borderline slanderous. Implying that this Afghani Muslim is an ethnic German through the title of the article is fallacious and confusing to readers. A more appropriate and clear title would have been something like: “Muslim in Germany Jailed for Stabbing Rabbi.” The content of the article was fine, but please try to be clearer with your titles, especially when it comes to the difference between ethnicity and citizenship.
Alex Lee, The United States of America
The BBC replied:
Dear Mr Lee,
Thank you for your comments on the story below which have been noted. The headline has now been altered to better reflect the story’s content. Thanks once again for your interest in the site.
Well done, Alex Lee!