You may think that headline is overwrought, but it’s literally true. Today’s BBC front page http://www.bbc.co.uk currently has up, effectively as quote of the day, without any comment, and indeed with a slight implication of approval, the words of a prominent Nazi.
I don’t know how to record it for posterity, but the quote is towards the bottom left of the front page (as seen from Britain, anyway; the international version of the site may be different).
It comes as part of a “QI FACT OF THE DAY”, just after the information that Arthur Conan Doyle and WB Yeats believed in fairies. Placed thus, it reads to me as a kind of riposte to them:
“Unfortunately this earth is not a fairy-land, but a struggle for life, perfectly natural and therefore extremely harsh. MARTIN BORMANN”
Which is all very well, but the job of saying the stern words of sense in response to credulity could have been given to someone more savoury. Martin Bormann was Hitler’s Private Secretary and head of the Party Chancellery. He was condemned to death in absentia at Nuremberg.
OK, you don’t have to explain it to me. Whoever put this up has no idea who Bormann was but there were lots of those German philosopher blokes weren’t there? The BBC are not Nazis but numpties.
Update: Hat tip to Happysnapper who kindly provided this screenshot. I would also like to pass on Millie Tant’s comment:
It’s extremely crass of the BBC to quote a Nazi – and doubly crass: a murderer talking about the struggle for life. Yeah.
The Bormann quote is still there on the main page at 18.48 GMT.
yeah it still there at 12:00 lunch time
the nazis were big on the law of nature thats why they murdered millions of ppl, sterilised unfit men and women by xrays, carried out euthanasia on the mentally and physically ill ppl
maybe the person who posted the quote wasnt educated in europe, maybe an immigrant who isnt of a christian back ground
pretty disgusting stuff from Al Beeb, but thats why they are all scumbags
But you see Natalie, it’s under the QI “brand” – the oh so clever panel show with right-on “comedians” (regular Jo Brand) chaired by Stephen Fry – so it’s ironic and therefore “amusing”. Oh yes, it’s tasteless alright but since it could be deemed “edgy” it’s quite acceptable to the ignorati at the BBC. Not bias – just stupidity.
The various boxes on the BBC homepage are draggable, so you can rearrange the page to make snapshotting a page easier. Just like this.
QI is well, its QI. Anyone realize that SF is straight? Any who protests so much about being happy, can really only be sad. He is just trying to convince himself. Sad, Sad, not Happy Happy.
Here’s the sort of scoop the beeboids love, UK aid budget to poor foreign agencies, misdirected by evil, manipulative, forces:
Julian Harris, Research Fellow at IPN and co-author of “A Closer Union: The Political Abuse of Foreign Aid”, said, “This would appear to be a grotesque abuse of taxpayer funds. Not only is the money not going towards promoting economic development in poor countries – it is going to a group whose members have close political and financial ties to the Labour Party.”
What, not newsworthy enough, oh, I see, the ‘wrong sort’ of financial abuse.
God I’m listening to the really vile Gabby Logan, she just can’t stop reading out pro Mong text messages “best PM and Chancellor, getting us out of the recession and bringing the boys home soon..”. She read that one out so well she may have written it herself!!
I guess the cliches recycle.
The quoter probably thinks it’s the chap who directed the iconic POINT BLANK, and Excalibur, whose son ponces around the world on a motorbike.
The Nazis believed in “Green” issues and killed Jews. So the Beeboids should support them , except the Soviets fought against the Nazis, ultimately.
Phew, must be difficult trying to reconcile all this in the simle twisted mind of a Beeboid.
Simple !!!
Earth, receive an honoured guest: William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry. In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate; Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye. Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.(I’ve only quoted Part III of the poem.)
Millie 18:29
A little too subtle for the dimwitted Beeboids, I think !
I’m surprised they have not added
“War is eternal War is life”
One of them said this as well.
It may have been Mussolini .
I think they just don’t know who he was.
Probably the quote was chosen by one of the many Muslims that staff the BBC who read Mein Kampf, it’s OK in the eyes of the BBC. Their hatred of Israel and contempt for the British public knows no bounds.
I thought that as well, the BBC love taking the piss out of the Holocaust.
I thought the BBC was fairy-land.
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Would this post exist were Nietzsche or Schmitt the ones quoted? It’s a rubbish quote, I grant you that, but some kind of anti-zionist jibe? Come on, get a grip.
Ben S asks, “Would this post exist were Nietzsche or Schmitt the ones quoted?”
No, because Nietzsche and Schmitt were not part of the ruling clique of a genocidal regime.
BenS,
The point is that Nazis are not usually quoted as if they were respected figures whose words should be attentively absorbed.
It’s not an “anti-Zionist” act but an anti-Semitic one. When you think about it, the Nazis should only ever be viewed with revulsion. Any other attitude towards them is suspect.
Natalie: I don’t find that a strong argument. Instead attack the merit of that quote being a quote of the day in the first place. It’s a terrible quote, doesn’t say anything profound about anything, and in context is chilling (given his nazi party roots blah blah). It’s pure ad hominem to dismiss all potential material based on where it comes from, unless that’s being used to attack someone. In this instance it’s just a rubbish quote that means bugger all out of context, but do you really expect the BBC to pick anything decent?
TooTrue: Firstly, at what point does that quote’s context imply you should ‘attentively absorb’ what it says? That quote could have come from anyone, and if it had been Joe Bloggs 1941 or something you would not have cared one jolt. But all of a sudden, because it was said by a prominent nazi, the quote immediately should be absordbed? What? It’s a rubbish quote by a bloke who happened to be a moron. Reading any further than that is mental. The BBC offers plenty of other actual bias without things like this being brought up.