Disgrace of the British Press

German paper outraged at British coverage of 'Nazi' pope

Recently, I have rarely sided with the Germans.

The way German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder snubs President Bush and his administration, undermining the U.S. at every opportunity, drives me absolutely batty. Therefore, it pains me somewhat to agree with the Germans and chastise the British.

In this case, however, the issue is so black and white there can be no other reasonable conclusion.

From Bild:

Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild was furious at the coverage of the new pope by British newspapers, which had accentuated Benedict XVI's past as a teenager in Nazi Germany.

"English insult the German pope," said the front-page headline, below the words "Hitler Youth".

The Sun, like Bild the highest-selling daily newspaper in its market, had headlined its coverage of the election of Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday with the words "From Hitler Youth to... Papa Ratzi."

"It is impertinent to reduce the German pope to a Hitler Youth on the day after his election," Bild fumed.

...Bild was also unhappy with the front-page headline on Wednesday's Daily Telegraph broadsheet which described the pope as "God's Rottweiler", a reference to his role as the moral guardian of the Catholic Church's conservative wing.

A Bild editorial written by senior journalist Franz Josef Wagner said: "If you read the British tabloids yesterday, you would have thought Hitler had become pope.

"Only the devil could come up with such a thing. Or you English, with your complexes.

"It is like in football matches, we are always the Nazis."

The editorial added: "I do not hate in return. The pope in his goodness will include you idiots in his prayers. Yes you, the editors of The Sun and the Daily Mirror. Even idiots go to heaven."
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To be sure, Wagner goes over the top in his editorial and he loses the high ground because of it.

Clearly, there is a lot of bad blood between the British and the Germans. It didn't start with the coverage of Pope Benedict XVI and most likely won't end there.

That aside, Germans should be fuming about the way the British press covered the election of the Pope. All Catholics, all rational beings for that matter, should be troubled by the British headlines.

Can you imagine the newly-elected leader of any other religion being demonized in such a fashion?

Catholic-bashing is so deeply engrained in the liberal Western mind that slanderous, bigoted headlines, like the ones that stained the front pages of British publications, are considered acceptable by many.

Although Wagner's editorial is an embarrassment, his outrage is right on target.