alisdare1
"Saviours of Italy"!??! - Cheerleaders & fake news peddlers for Sir Benito Mussolini and the fascists.
The British press as cheerleaders for Sir Benito Mussolini and the fascists. A selection of 20 British newspaper headlines and articles from June 1922 to October 1923.
Fake news was already alive and well 100 years ago.
For a detailed analysis and hundreds of examples of British press coverage of fascism in Italy from June 1922 to October 1923 please see my article here -
roguenation.org/mussolini-fascism-british-press/
And yes, 'Sir Benito' is no typing error; Mussolini was awarded with a knighthood by King George V, just six months after overturning Italy's nascent democracy through the widespread use of terror, murder and intimidation. You'll notice two articles in the image which reference his knighthood.
Otherwise, the image is a compilation of just a few of the many shockingly pro-fascist articles from 1922 and 1923 I found in the newspaper archives, and was created for an essay on British press coverage of fascism during the weeks just prior to Mussolini's fascist coup in Italy (28/29/30 October 1922) as well as the subsequent 12 months as Mussolini began to tighten his grip on power. The essay contrasts the euphoric eulogies to Mussolini and fascism in the British press, with the brutal reality of the fascist reign of terror in Italy.
Hundreds of pro-fascist quotations from the press are listed below the article and cover a period of fourteen months from June 1922 to September 1923. See the link here -
roguenation.org/mussolini-fascism-british-press/
They include citations from articles from across the political spectrum of the mainstream press from the Daily Mail and the Telegraph on the right to surprisingly pro fascist articles in otherwise relatively progressive newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian (later the Guardian), the Daily Herald and the Daily Mirror.
They also include citations from reports in the Times, the Sunday Times, the Observer and leading regional newspapers such as the Scotsman, the (London) Daily News and the Yorkshire Post. I did not have time to check through some national newspapers such as the Daily Express, the Daily Chronicle and the Morning Post.
Nor did I have the time to investigate British press coverage of Mussolini and fascism during the subsequent twelve years up to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 or, indeed up to its entry into the Second World War in 1940 - but I suspect that the total number of fervently pro-fascist reports and editorials in the mainstream British press might number well into the thousands.
It's unfortunate that all that is usually remembered now is Lord Rothermere's 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' article in the Daily Mail, which was not published until 15 January 1934. The truth is that, while that headline might be one of the more memorable, almost the entire British mainstream press had been editorially sympathetic to fascism since Mussolini's seizure of power in 1922. A fact that is conveniently forgotten today.
"Saviours of Italy"!??! - Cheerleaders & fake news peddlers for Sir Benito Mussolini and the fascists.
The British press as cheerleaders for Sir Benito Mussolini and the fascists. A selection of 20 British newspaper headlines and articles from June 1922 to October 1923.
Fake news was already alive and well 100 years ago.
For a detailed analysis and hundreds of examples of British press coverage of fascism in Italy from June 1922 to October 1923 please see my article here -
roguenation.org/mussolini-fascism-british-press/
And yes, 'Sir Benito' is no typing error; Mussolini was awarded with a knighthood by King George V, just six months after overturning Italy's nascent democracy through the widespread use of terror, murder and intimidation. You'll notice two articles in the image which reference his knighthood.
Otherwise, the image is a compilation of just a few of the many shockingly pro-fascist articles from 1922 and 1923 I found in the newspaper archives, and was created for an essay on British press coverage of fascism during the weeks just prior to Mussolini's fascist coup in Italy (28/29/30 October 1922) as well as the subsequent 12 months as Mussolini began to tighten his grip on power. The essay contrasts the euphoric eulogies to Mussolini and fascism in the British press, with the brutal reality of the fascist reign of terror in Italy.
Hundreds of pro-fascist quotations from the press are listed below the article and cover a period of fourteen months from June 1922 to September 1923. See the link here -
roguenation.org/mussolini-fascism-british-press/
They include citations from articles from across the political spectrum of the mainstream press from the Daily Mail and the Telegraph on the right to surprisingly pro fascist articles in otherwise relatively progressive newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian (later the Guardian), the Daily Herald and the Daily Mirror.
They also include citations from reports in the Times, the Sunday Times, the Observer and leading regional newspapers such as the Scotsman, the (London) Daily News and the Yorkshire Post. I did not have time to check through some national newspapers such as the Daily Express, the Daily Chronicle and the Morning Post.
Nor did I have the time to investigate British press coverage of Mussolini and fascism during the subsequent twelve years up to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 or, indeed up to its entry into the Second World War in 1940 - but I suspect that the total number of fervently pro-fascist reports and editorials in the mainstream British press might number well into the thousands.
It's unfortunate that all that is usually remembered now is Lord Rothermere's 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' article in the Daily Mail, which was not published until 15 January 1934. The truth is that, while that headline might be one of the more memorable, almost the entire British mainstream press had been editorially sympathetic to fascism since Mussolini's seizure of power in 1922. A fact that is conveniently forgotten today.