By educating the public properly on the dangers posed by White supremacists, the mainstream media holds the power to diminish the neo-Nazi threat, writes Tom Tanuki.
YOU MIGHT NOT be aware that last Friday, a group of reportedly knife-wielding neo-Nazis set upon an anti-fascist fundraiser in Melbourne. You will recall the group, of course, because they were plastered across the media landscape amid cries of condemnation and urgent calls for the State Government and law enforcement to act to prevent fascist radicals from seizing public spaces again.
So you’d think setting upon a bar with knives in hand would be the subject of even more feverish media panic about the rise of neo-Nazism and such. It would ordinarily form an excellent opportunity to recruit countering violent extremism (CVE) specialists, sympathetic centre-Left politicians and perhaps the head of ASIO to comment on what new laws and police powers might next be introduced to protect us all.
But there is no panic.
There was instead a smattering of formulaic “neo-Nazis vs Antifa” coverage and we’ve all moved on. That’s because this situation was handled summarily by a small group of Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, or S.H.A.R.P.s. They ran the National Socialist Network (NSN) out of Thornbury where the bar was located, chasing after them with mic stands and chairs and generally leaving them worse for wear.
Read the article by Tom Tanuki in Independent Australia.