The Demonizing Far-Left

On August 25, 2007, Dutch MSM newspaper NRC Handelsblad, calling itself the Whetstone for the Mind, nicknamed (by others) NSB Handelsblatt, has published a condemning article on 'far-right websites'. The article headed Rise and Fall of Right-Extremist sites. Coupled to the article, under the heading of Right extremist sites on the internet, investigating far-right opinions on the internet was a very amateuristic PDF, listing the sites deemed to belong to the (extremist) right. Some entries on the list were not even websites, but article headings, like Moord op Theo van Gogh. Among the sites listed were two other sites I publish on, Vrijspreker, a libertarian site, and Het Vrije Volk, a freedom of speech site.

Obviously, the blog community exploded. Het Vrije Volk filed a complaint with the Journalist Council, and Vrijspreker sent an email-complaint to the editors of NRC. Vrijspreker received a return-email of the piece's writer, Joep Dohmen, who very patronizingly responded to explain why NRC was a good, objective and trustworthy newspaper and all those rightwing blogs were unreliable. With NRC, one could hold the editor accountable, NRC had nothing to hide. In the meantime, the editors had silently changed the PDF heading into Overview of freespeaking, right and right-extremist websites. Hmm... nothing to hide? Dohmen claimed many, many sites had been inventoried, not only right-wing, but the list contained no recognized left sites at all. I use the word recognised here as there were some neo-nazi sites on the list, but neo-nazis are not right, they're left, as I explained in a recent article.

Vrijspreker responded again, and placed the mail-exchange online. Next thing was an outraged protest by Joep Dohmen that his email had been personal and confidential, that Vrijspreker did not have the right to publish it, and that it should be removed from the article. Vrijspreker obliged by replacing the email-text in the article with a condemning response to the demand, and publishing a new article drawing attention to it. One of the commenters then placed Joep's removed email back on-line, after another site had plucked it from Googles cache.Then Joep demanded that his photo be removed, threatening with 'taking steps'. Yeah, accountable, nothing to hide, objective, threatening...

In the mean time, the PDF had been removed from the site, but Dutch blog Geen Stijl had a mirror. All 'corrections' and the removal of the PDF were done silently, without any attempt at rectification. It would seem that the old media had not realised how difficult it is to get something, once publiced, off the internet. Typical MSM attitude.

Because of Joep's demand to have his photograph removed, site owner Hub Jongen sent him an open letter, again published on the site, informing him that the photograph could be found in various places using Google Image search, and that no copyright information had been attached to the image. He then proceeded to publish the picture again, this time with a bar across the eyes, like in a wanted-shot.

Another Dutch MSM newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad, now also received a 'private and confidential mail' from Mr. Dohmen, who is really getting desparate. The mail is not to be published, by any means. In it, he claims again that a journalist makes himself vulnerable and should be held accountable, among other things. It seems good old Joep is prepared to go to great lengths to keep his scheming out of the public eye. Well, too late, mate.

The net result is that numerous sites have addressed the issue, and that both NRC and Mr. Dohmen have been exposed (again) for what they really are: exponents of the Politically Correct, (far-)left MSM, attempting to demonise anything and anyone that utters non-PC opinions. NRC played an important role in demonising Pim Fortuyn, which ended in Mr. Fortuyn being murdered on May 6, 2002 by a left extremist. It would seem Mr. Dohmen's lying in the mud on the left side of the road. From that position, any traffic passing is automatically on the right, or even far-right, should it stick to its proper lane.