Media boss's Nazi slur

[Dover]

Okay, so this is more tabloid than real news....but it's late.

Media boss's Nazi slur

April 23, 2004 - 10:32AM

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/23/1082616304577.html?from=storyrhs

Porn publisher Richard Desmond, the owner of the Daily Express, brought a business meeting to a standstill yesterday after he goosestepped around a boardroom and accused all Germans of being Nazis.

On the day his newspaper announced that it was switching its support from Labour to the Conservatives, Mr Desmond indulged in a display of behaviour described by a witness as the "most grotesque outburst of slander and racism" he had ever seen.

The incident took place at 9am yesterday at a routine monthly meeting of the finance committee of the board of West Ferry Printers in east London. The company is under joint ownership of Express Newspapers and the Telegraph Group, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph.

Upon the arrival of four Telegraph executives - led by Jeremy Deedes, the chief executive - Mr Desmond and the three Express executives greeted them in bad German accents, saying "guten morgen" and "sehr gut" - "good morning" and "very good".

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[truthisfreedom]

1. i wonder if he was on the same thing as the enron executive in NYC?

[Dover]

2. LOL! No, I think it was his response to his company selling out to

Conservatives (the party), which he obviously associates with Nazis. He wasn't hiding his displeasure.

[Philestine]

4. He was actually referring to...

a take over bid from the German media group Axel Springer.

He is a Tory supporter. They have been desperately trying to distance themselves from the whole affair. Unfortunately he is all too sane as well.

[Scairp]

3. He sounds nuts

Anyone who would behave that way clearly has flipped their lid.

[Philestine]

5. Bizarre

I read that article this morning. One of the strangest things I have heard in a while.

That comes straight on the back of another racial slur where Ron Atkinson, a UK based sports commentator said of the black football player Marcel Desailly

"He is what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy, thick nigger."

Unfortunately for him his mic was still on.

Seems us Englishman might be doing a bit of self examination this week.

[buddy22600]

6. what the hell is wrong with people

[ze_dscherman]

7. I found that many English still thought of Germans as Krauts or Nazis

... when I was living their for some weeks. But that was 25 years ago. And most was on a mocking base.

But when it comes to anger, old ressentments are dug up easily. FYI, the Springer publishing group is very conservative, hated by the Left, and has always been a staunch supporter of the U.S. and Israel.

BTW, "Deutschland über alles" (Germany above everything else), once the first stance of the German national anthem, is not part of it anymore since the foundation of the federal republic in 1948. When it was written in the 19th century, it had a very different meaning - Germany did not exist, only smaller states, and the idea was to put national unity above the interest of local/regional kinglets. Of course, later it became the expression of German supremacy.

[James T. Kirk]

8. "Nazi"

This is bad. Calling someone a Nazi, who is, strictly speaking, not a Nazi is an evil slander.

[Philestine]

9. AND

what makes the whole affair even more tasteless is the fact that one of the men present lost a relative in a concentration camp. As the article explains

"Mr Howard, the son of Romanian immigrants and whose grandmother died in a Nazi concentration camp, needs no reminding of the sensitivity of mockery involving the Third Reich."

[Vladimir]

10. Well that's Richard Desmond for you

The Daily Express is one of the most viscious right wing hate rags in Britain. The only reason they dislike 'nazis' is because they are German - the Express would probably have backed the majority of Hitler's policies...

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Your quote come from this Guardian piece, I think

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,12123,1201564,00.html

which also has this bit (strangely absent from the Telegraph piece reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald :evilgrin: )

Mr Desmond added: "After three years dealing with a bunch of crooks I'm starting to enjoy this. You sat down with that fucking fat crook and did nothing." This was an apparent reference to Lord Black. Various other expletives were hurled at the Telegraph directors as the rant unfolded.

Howard wasn't actually at the meeting; he's involved because the Express has just said it's switching its editorial support from Labour to the Tories (though the story says Desmond claims that's nothing to do with him). It also says Desmond himself is Jewish.

He's long had a reputation for behaving apallingly to his employees (note that those present obeyed his command to join in 'Deutschland uber Alles); but doing this with his buisness partners takes it to a new level.

[Scurrilous]

11. "He goose-stepped up and down the room...

...holding two fingers to his upper lip - in a Basil Fawlty parody of Hitler's moustache - and giving stiff-armed Nazi salutes."




Basil: "Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. So it's all forgotten now and let's hear no more about it."

[Moderator]

13. Dover

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you.

DU Moderator