They could have used "alleged Nazi salute", they didn't, they used the BS "controversial gesture". That's cowardly and white washing behavior helping to normalize the abhorrent behavior.
And no calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute is not a purity test for fucks sake.
You don’t need a degree or a certification to be a journalist. You are taking a flimsy norm that is on shaky ground anyway and elevating it to some higher status.
Journalists can use definitive language and protect themselves with adjectives like ‘alleged’.
Choosing ‘controversial gesture’ instead of ‘alleged nazi salute’ is an intentional choice and a cowardly one.
Coming from Germany where a gesture even vaguely similar to a nazi salute is a criminal offence I naturally have a different stance on that. What fascists enjoy doing (and this pattern can be seen all over the word) is provoke with gestures, statements and symbols that look very similar to their fascist equivalent and they always have that smirk. They think it's very clever. When called out on that of course they feign outrage and again with a slight smirk.
Journalistic integrity needs to recognize these patterns instead of giving the "benefit of the doubt". They are being played otherwise because there will never be definitive proof if they did it or not.
There are very old posts on American neo-nazi BBSes that instruct users in this exact process. They know exactly what they are doing, even the “aren’t I clever” smirking is part of it.
Interesting. I always thought it was just some kind of a shared mannerism, didn't expect there to be actual instructions for that. Do you have any more info on that?