Breivik has not been given a platform
Television has exposed the mass murderer for who he really is.
By Steven Baxter Published 23 April 2012 10:54
Is a televised trial giving Anders Breivik what he wants? It’s one of those odd coincidences that the start of Breivik’s trial should happen in the same week that cameras were allowed in a British courtroom to see the sentencing of murderer David Gilroy.
Not for Gilroy the chance to be facing the camera or crying at his own manifesto; he was well out of shot while the judge sent him down for 18 years. But as ever, one of the fears about cameras in British courtrooms might be that attention-seekers like Breivik could commit atrocities to find a primetime TV platform to justify their despicable views and actions.
Breivik is one of those people for whom the phrase "the banality of evil" could have been designed. As he recalls, with calmness, the meticulous planning of ending other human beings’ lives, there seems barely a trace of compassion gutting in his eyes; he could be reading out a shopping list, or talking about the weather. Only when he saw his own hateful manifesto did he blub like a baby.
He looks like everyone and no-one; he could be your next-door neighbour or your friend. It’s only when you see the photographs of him in his military gear, or making that pathetic little man’s salute, that he steps out of the everyday. Is this trial, his time in the spotlight, giving him exactly what he has always wanted – to be the centre of attention, to have a platform for his noxious ideas, to coldly justify his atrocity on the grounds of politics?
Without courtroom television, his trial would have been very different: we would have had to have relied upon court sketches of Breivik rather than moving pictures; we wouldn’t have been subjected to that salute every day (although that has now been curtailed); we would only have had reports of his statements, rather than hearing them in his voice.
It must seem to some that Norway is bending over backwards to accommodate the wishes of this mass killer, and that television coverage is way in which he is spreading his message. But the case is of such public interest, such magnitude, that it seems too important not to be covered in this way – particularly when one of the key judgements to be made is in the mental competence or otherwise of the defendant. How else can the public be informed unless they can see? There are only a few limited places in court, most of which are taken by press and relatives.
Far from glamorising Breivik’s crimes, the televised proceedings have brought home the stark reality. He is not getting a platform, he is just getting what anyone else would be entitled to, no more, no less. He is no-one special, even though he hoped he would become so through his actions.
The more I watch, the more uncomfortable it gets. It is hard for most of us to conceive of the "evil" that would wilfully cause such suffering, but there seems to be no evil surrounding Breivik. He has made a serious of calculated choices over a considerable period of time that led him to slaughter other people, to fight a war that no-one else was fighting. Seeing the trial is a sobering experience, but without seeing, how can we try and understand how these atrocities happen, and hope to prevent them in the future?
Perhaps putting cameras in courts is one way of taking the mystique away from criminals, and showing them for the people they really are. There for all to see is the banality of evil, the pathetic grandiose dreams of someone like Breivik. His "manifesto" of cobbled-together lies and distortion has been put out, but how many has he converted to his ignoble cause? And how has television done anything but exposed him for who he really is?
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19 comments
While Breivik openly expressed his views online, there was little to indicate that the young man - described by friends as quiet, friendly and ordinary - would go on to kill dozens of people, many in cold blood.
While Breivik openly expressed his views online, there was little to indicate that the young man - described by friends as quiet, friendly and ordinary - would go on to kill dozens of people, many in cold blood.
While Breivik openly expressed his views online, there was little to indicate that the young man - described by friends as quiet, friendly and ordinary - would go on to kill dozens of people, many in cold blood.
While Breivik openly expressed his views online, there was little to indicate that the young man - described by friends as quiet, friendly and ordinary - would go on to kill dozens of people, many in cold blood.
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"But in reality this case is about much more than that." motorcycle jeans
To be honest, I don't think he's particularly deluded. His views are pretty common these days in right wing populist circles. The only difference is that he was actually willing to take the logic of his beliefs to their full conclusion. He won't be the last. Society seems to have doubts about going after extremist Muslim sects, so we shouldn't have any about the extreme rightists either. Let's face it, we are surrounded by little Breiviks, just waiting to be pushed to edge.We should be steeling ourselves for a defense against them, not moralising over their sanity. The Breiviks and the Bin Ladens are two sides of the same coin, they serve a common purpose, to divide and destroy us. If we don't wake up to this, a lot more kids are gonna die. Even Hitler said that the only way his rise to power could have been stopped is if the world recognised what the Nazis were from day one. We should at least be smart enough not to take the risk. No pasaran.
The media coverage of the trial of mass murderer Breivik amounts to lying by omission. On his own admission in his 1500 page Manifesto, Breivik is not merely a mass murderer but a racist, genocidal, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, pro-Israel and pro-Zionist mass murderer just like the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel that he so admires. However Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden mainstream media resolutely refuse to make the connection.
By way of example, the Australian ABC (like the BBC) TV Four Corners investigative program broadcast an analysis of the Breivik Massacre in which it made clear Breivik's anti-Muslim position but failed to mention his pro-Israel, pro-Zionist position, his hatred for anti-racist Jews and his desire to ethnically cleanse not just Norway and Europe of Muslims (genocide) but also Palestine, China, India and other countries. Also ignored by the ABC was that several days before this atrocity the Young Labor Norwegians rallied on Utoya Island with banners in support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel (for the key image of the event NOT reported by the ABC see "Palestinian civil society expresses solidarity with people of Norway": http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/solidarity-with-people-of-norway-7684#.T... ).
This Elephant in the Room reality of Breivik's pro-Israel and pro-Zionist position could not be ignored in Apartheid Israel where the conservative, pro-Zionist Jerusalem Post reported Breivik's attacks on anti-racist Jews in particular - yes, the same decent, anti-racist Jews who are routinely sidelined, censored and grossly defamed in Australia and elsewhere under an appalling new anti-Semitic regime of Zionist-promoted anti-Jewish anti-Semitism applied to decent Jews critical of the genocidal crimes of Apartheid Israel. Google together the words pro-Zionist and Breivik and you will get as #1 out of 420,000 results the Jerusalem Post article entitled "Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views": http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=230762 .
According to the Jerusalem Post: "In one passage, he lashes out at the Western media, which he accuses of unfairly focusing on the wrongdoing of Jews.
“Western Journalists again and again systematically ignore serious Muslim attacks and rather focus on the Jews,” he wrote. Breivik also took a jab at leftwing Jews. “Jews that support multi-culturalism today are as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism as they are to us,” he continued. “So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists.”"
In addition to being a a racist, genocidal, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, pro-Israel and pro-Zionist mass murderer, Breivik further resembles the racist Zionists and their Western leadership supporters by being anti-Jewish anti-Semitic in relation to anti-racist Jews.
The Zionist-beholden Mainstream media not only censor themselves - they also censor decent, humane, anti-racist Jewish opinion. Thus anti-racist Jewish criticism of Apartheid Israel (see "Jews Against Racist Zionism": https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ) and of the Zionist-beholden US Alliance War on Muslims (12 million war-related Muslim deaths since 1990; see "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ) has been repeatedly censored by the Australian university-backed, academic-based The Conversation (for a detailed record of such censorship of anti-racist Jewish opinion see "Censorship by The Conversation": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ). For more on such egregious censorship of humane anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish opinion see also "Censorship by the BBC": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/bbc-censors-palestine , "Censorship by The Age": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-th... and "ABC Censorship": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ and , “Censorship by the ABC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbytheabc/ and "Censorship by ABC Late Night Live: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbytheabc/censorship-by-abc-late ).
Wow, are you sick. Deluded, too - all your screams about "Zionist censorship" & yet you were perfectly free to spew all these hysterical lies. Rather than dignify your tripe any more than I have to by going through each ridiculous bit of nonsense, I will simply state a key point: people who have actual experienced - no, *imposed* apartheid deny emphatically that Israel is apartheid. More proof of the total falseness of your rant is that even African refugees, as isolated as can be, cross entire deserts just to make it into -where, the many Arab countries surrounding them? No: tiny Israel, where they know they will be safe. See, THEY don't get the media: they only get word-of-mouth, from people who actually know what's going on in that part of the world.
What disturbs me is that the author of this article has fictitiously stated that the Breivik trial has been televised. This is clearly not the case: The prosecutions statements and arguments are televised, but Breivik's testimony has been omitted/censored by the trial Judge. Officially, this case is about a murder trial. But in reality this case is about much more than that. The prosecutor's would undoubtedly be under strict instructions from the very upper echelons of power to achieve a specific goal, as this case exhibits every semblance of a 'Schmittian moment' - the state defending itself with the monopoly of force which it has against the individual. Achieving an insanity ruling would enable the state to claim a double victory: Firstly, it would be perceived as largely discrediting the anti-Multiculturalist doctrine. Secondly, it becomes easier to have Breivik 'suicided' in a mental asylum after he has an apparent mental breakdown. According to the information which has been released from the trial, Breivik has been earnest and honest with his account and descripiton of the events that occurred in Norway, as well as the reasons why he conducted them. The author of this article, however, has not addressed any of these outstanding issues but has instead opted to jump on-to the populist bandwagon of arbitrary condemndation by offering his little more than his own cobbled-together opinions and distortion.
"But in reality this case is about much more than that."
yeah, thanks for your conspiracy theory. personally i think it's those lizard men who faked the moon landing, hide left footed socks, and make metal coathangers proliferate in one's wardrobe....
"populist bandwagon of arbitrary condemnation "
It's terribly terribly unfair when mass murdering lunatics aren't treated as insightful members of society and given the platform to spread their message.
Just curious why the alleged transparency of this trial does NOT include any of Brevik's testimony or excerpts from his alleged 1500 page manifesto. If you are televising this "event" then do so in its entirety. Censorship or Omissions are not acceptable and lead this reader to believe that there are facts contained therein which are being hidden for some reason from the public eye and the free media.
Don't try to excuse these acts of omission and censorship by offering reasoning that the details are too vivid or disturbing for the public to absorb or comprehend.
We need not be coddled.
If he's so scared of going to a mental hospital, why not send him there. He's clearly as deluded as a tree- the guys living with psychosis and he's one of those extremely rare psychotic patients who has become extremely violent in his deluded state and disconnection with reality. No matter his beliefs and protestations, they are not in alignment with what would be expected for a person of his background. He is sick and needs treatment. If his treatment is anything like my own experience of psychosis and schizophrenia + depression treatment, believe me, it WILL be punishment enough.
None of his testimony is being televised, just reported via 'tweet'/live text. Other parts of the trial have been and will be televised, but not him speaking.
perhaps another way to view the televisation of such a court case is that it is part and parcel of a transparent democracy. there is no mystery left, just the crime and the criminal.
i also find the argument that a tv courtroom appearance could provide the tipping point for atrocities as deeply flawed. we already have Youtube allowing global exposure of one's crimes, which is far more 'exciting' than being handcuffed to a desk in a court.
I don't think that people have a problem with the press related to these type of crimes because they think this mass murderer is going to turn out to be a resonable guy with some valid points to make and suddenly everyone is going agree with him. Rather, the problem is that Breivik and people who commit these types of crimes seem to expect that and that's why they go for a public platform, and that is a problem.
Are other people (however small a number) going to look at this and say "Breivik is obviously wrong, but look at all the publicity he's getting. Imagine what I could do with that kind of publicity about"?
This is what worries me, not the idea that Breivik will turn people to his cause but that other people will see this as a way to publicise their own cause.