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- What did we learn?
So, last weekend about 57,000 people went to rallies advocating for white Australia migration policies, with actual neo-Nazis given full opportunity to speak, recruit, network with elected politicians and allegedly launch an unprovoked assault on a long-running Indigenous protest site. The marches and events that followed were extensively covered by the mainstream media and new media… and not all of it was done well. Many of us made mistakes, including me, that helped these extremists spread their message. It’s tough to accept.
I think it’s largely because a lot of the journalists, commentators and content creators who were covering the marches do not specialise in covering the far right. To use the journalism term: it’s not our ‘beat’.
Every expert and ‘far right beat’ journalist who I spoke to and listened to this week had eye-opening advice for old and new media about how to cover neo-Nazis the right way. That is: exposing their actions without amplifying their message. I discussed some of this with filmmaker Scobie McKay, who does specialise in covering the far right, on the Crikey podcast here if you want to listen to that.
The audience has a role to play in understanding in this too, because I have seen people in comment sections and on social platforms asking the media and journalists to do things that experts do not recommend.
So I’m sharing what I’ve learnt with you.
White Rose Society’s 9 Principles for Reporting on Neo-Nazis
The White Rose Society is a collective of anti-fascist researchers based in Australia, named after the resistance group formed in Nazi Germany. You can read their “9 Principles” here. These are the ones that really stood out to me:
Do not assist their media strategy. “Neo-Nazis have a simple strategy when it comes to media: If they can't get an opportunity to appear in the media, they create one. They perform public stunts to create opportunities. They confect outrage.”
Not every stunt deserves any media coverage or social media outrage at all. For journalists & new media creators, that’s an editorial decision to make about what’s important enough to report on. But for everyday people there is a lesson here too.
If you see a video circulating of neo-Nazis doing something ‘outrageous’ when there are not a lot of people around (for example, marching in the middle of the night or posing with offensive banners and symbols in the bush) consider whether that has been posted to social media by the group themselves. Don’t share, repost or “stitch” this type of content. Experts advise that the media should not be covering every single thing neo-Nazis do.
I know of one large Australian content creator who has shared videos and photos of multiple neo-Nazi agitation events this year to “call out the media’s silence”, where the footage has come directly from a neo-Nazis ‘news’ website. I doubt he knows that’s where the content comes from, but he is increasing their reach and spreading their message for free.
Some experts have also said that the attention given to the March for Australia by media and progressive influencers may have helped grow the event. Our attention is powerful, so we should be careful with how we use it.
Ask yourself: what is the story they do not want me to tell? This is a great rule of thumb for covering neo-Nazis. White Rose Society even gives examples: they want to appear as “scary, masked militants”, so we should avoid portraying them that way. They want to look dangerous and they want you to think that the majority of the public agree with them – so we should avoid these narratives. The truth is, neo-Nazis are an extreme minority. There are only estimated to be about 100-150 across Australia.
As I wrote last week, not all racists are neo-Nazis. White Rose Society gives the same warning: “These are not “One Nation”-era racists.” The label neo-Nazi should not be applied to everyone who attended the marches, because it exaggerates their membership and influence. They want to appear bigger, we should not tell that story for them.
On the other hand, we should expose and amplify the stories that neo-Nazis do not want out there. For example, everyone should know that neo-Nazis groom and abuse children. In late August, NSW Police arrested a member of the National Socialist Network for possession of child abuse material. We should also be sharing the message far and wide that neo-Nazi groups are structured and function like cults. One of the NSN members charged over the Camp Sovereignty attack is 23-year-old Nathan Bull. His family have released a statement about their sadness and disbelief that Bull left them to join the NSN. Isolating a target from their own family, friends and community is a cult recruitment strategy.
Do not interview them. This is really the golden rule. It was devastating to see huge mainstream broadcasters publish Thomas Sewell’s statements and comments this week, treating him as if he is a public political figure. He’s not – he is literally an insane guy.
Please do not repost, share or amplify content featuring interviews with neo-Nazis.
Laws and police are not the solution. This one is the most difficult to grapple with. But we have to be so for real: it is impossible to make ‘ideas’ illegal. The laws we have only refer to actions. You can make laws for hate speech or the display of certain symbols, but if neo-Nazis use different words and symbols you’re helpless. Above all, it does nothing to get rid of the ideology itself. Banning the swastika won’t make every neo-Nazis spontaneously combust.
The same goes for all those people calling for NSN leader Thomas Sewell to be deported to New Zealand (where he was born). That will achieve absolutely nothing! He will still be a neo-Nazi in NZ, communicating with his fellow creeps in Australia and around the world. We’re all on the internet, folks, and there are no borders here. Plus, deporting a man who was raised in Australia and developed his abhorrent beliefs in our society is such a cop-out. Why should NZ have to deal with him? Australia made him. Just like we made the Christchurch terrorist too.
Neo-Nazi groups will die out if we cutting off their recruitment pipeline. The way to do this is by making sure vulnerable people who they would target are supported by strong communities. If you know someone who attended a March for Australia, or who is sympathetic to the ideas promoted at the rallies, now is not the time to stop talking to them. When they feel abandoned, who do you think will be waiting to welcome them with open arms?
It’s even more important if you are a white person (especially a white man), because they’re only going to listen to other white people. Unfortunately I don’t think white nationalists are subscribed to Zee Feed 🥲
I’m not any expert in any of this. I’m learning from some of the best, and taking you on that learning journey. Some journalists doing great work in this area are: my friend Cam Wilson, Ariel Bogle at Guardian Australia, Scobie McKay, and Tom Tanuki. Some experts whose comments you should look for in the media: Kurt Sengul, Jordan McSwiney, Elise Thomas and any White Rose spokesperson.
We gotta keep our wits about us.
As always, I’ll keep sharing the useful information I find.
Smart stuff on the Internet 💭
All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:
If you need a cheer up after that read, watch Playlunch cover “It’s Raining Men” for Like a Version. It’s silly fun.
Why do artists keep releasing so many album covers? on Dazed
Interesting! “So, what has spurred this shift in culture? Jonas Andersson theorises that it’s a response to the ‘devaluing’ of music that has emerged in the streaming age … It makes sense that mega-stars would seek to reinstate a sense of demand in their work. ‘Ever since the birth of the cultural industries, there’s always been this tendency to invent artificial scarcity where there might not be any scarcity.’”
Our obsession with efficiency is costing us our humanity on Vogue Australia
Lovely little piece. “We live supersonic lives. Everything is frighteningly convenient. Because I’m such a creature of habit, my iPhone can predict my every move: yes, I’m driving to the shops but no I don’t need navigation, yes I’m replying to him again, and yes please turn on Do Not Disturb. ChatGPT has infantilised us—kudos to those who still write their own emails. We are slowly becoming guinea pigs to a bunch of code, metal, plastic, and here comes the dreaded two letters: AI … If this life was a movie, there would be no plot. It’s a tragedy!”