Friday, October 02, 2009
Johann Hari gets it spot on: If we care about the BBC, we must fight to defend it.
Labels: BBC, David Cameron, media, News International, Rupert Murdoch
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Fair and Balanced as Ever.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I talked on Sunday about not believing the media about the 'swine flu' epidemic because they were wrong about 'avian flu'. Ben Goldacre says that's wrong but understandable.
All people have done is raise the possibility of things really kicking off, and they are right to do so, but we don't have brilliantly accurate information... Someone has said 120 million could die. Well I suppose they could: I'm sure it was done on the back of an envelope, by guessing how many would be infected, and what proportion would die, but I don't think anyone's pretending otherwise... By Tuesday, pundit-seekers from the media were suddenly contacting me, a massive nobody, to say that swine flu is all nonsense and hype... I assumed they were adhering, robotically, to the "balance" template... [he said] "Yeah, but you know, it could be like Sars and bird flu, they didn't materialise, they were hype." Simon Jenkins suggested the same thing. It's not true, I said. They were risks, risks that didn't materialise, but they were still risks. That's what a risk is. I've never been hit by a car, but it's not idiotic to think about it. Simon Jenkins won't be right if nobody dies, he'll be lucky, like the rest of us.
New Scientist have an expert analysis which seems hopeful at the moment but also reminds us that there just hasn't been sufficient time for detailed analysing to be done yet.
All people have done is raise the possibility of things really kicking off, and they are right to do so, but we don't have brilliantly accurate information... Someone has said 120 million could die. Well I suppose they could: I'm sure it was done on the back of an envelope, by guessing how many would be infected, and what proportion would die, but I don't think anyone's pretending otherwise... By Tuesday, pundit-seekers from the media were suddenly contacting me, a massive nobody, to say that swine flu is all nonsense and hype... I assumed they were adhering, robotically, to the "balance" template... [he said] "Yeah, but you know, it could be like Sars and bird flu, they didn't materialise, they were hype." Simon Jenkins suggested the same thing. It's not true, I said. They were risks, risks that didn't materialise, but they were still risks. That's what a risk is. I've never been hit by a car, but it's not idiotic to think about it. Simon Jenkins won't be right if nobody dies, he'll be lucky, like the rest of us.
New Scientist have an expert analysis which seems hopeful at the moment but also reminds us that there just hasn't been sufficient time for detailed analysing to be done yet.
Labels: Ben Goldacre, health, media, media scares, newspapers
Sunday, April 26, 2009
News
I don't know if, like me, you were disappointed when the giant Flupocalypse of 2003 didn't wipe out all the life on the planet that had worked out how to get the fire out of the rocks. We weren't prepared, we didn't have enough vaccines, Osama Bin Laden was working out how to teach ducks with a cough to hijack planes, and yet, we survived, we go on, and we wonder whether Joss Whedon will ever make another TV show that goes beyond a series. But don't worry, just because Avian Bird Flu didn't get us, those dirty birds have teamed up with pigs and, it would seem, Mexicans? to give us a new killer virus to worry about. This does lead to the interesting question: Has Michelle Malkin already reached the maximum that she can hate Mexicans or will this enable her to take her racism to new heights? We'll wait and see.
The comments on this article are typical of the great minds of the world vomiting forth into the electro-ether.
I strongly feel that children and elderly people will be at risk from this killer flu the most.
Harpreet, Stafford.
Everyone seems to have decided to ignore the second page of the article, where it says:
Avian flu, which has killed 250 people since 2003
Look at that. The media went batshit-mental back then, convincing us we were all going to die and, like the MMR vaccine scare, it turned out not to be the case. Two hundred and fifty people? That's nothing. Somali pirates have killed more than that, and they bankrupt themselves in millet seed for their parrots. So I see no reason for keeping on keeping on and not worry that we're going to all be killed until, perhaps, people start falling ill?
These medical sounding scares based on absolutely no evidence are one of the many reasons why I don't bother to pay for news any more.
Meanwhile Tory MP Nadine Dorries sues someone over something. Nadine Dorries is a fairly obscure MP only well known to followers of the Westminster soap opera that is the House of Commons for her Sarah Palin-like ability to seize and repeat the stupid in any subject that gets her interest. She's normally pretty quiet between bouts of conservative Christian sponsored attempts to get the date by which a woman can have an abortion put back to eight months before her own birth. I'm not sure if she can successfully sue someone over suggesting to someone else that they spread a rumour she had an affair if they don't do it, even if the only reason they didn't might be because they were revealed to be thinking about it, but her primary reason for this bout of legal action is presumably to keep it in the news as long as possible in the lead up to the next general election. Of course, one doesn't need to tell lies in order to recognise them...
The Sindy has more positive news, namely that the BNP is as equally messed up a party as the proper political groups full of burned-out members who are just bitter and more likely to fight with one another than the vast majority of people who they think shouldn't be in the country. Less comforting is the comments, in which it seems that a cadre of BNP supporters have taken up residence, you might need the Independent Livejournal thread if you want to see them though, they have a tendency to keep vanishing from the 'proper' website.
The comments on this article are typical of the great minds of the world vomiting forth into the electro-ether.
I strongly feel that children and elderly people will be at risk from this killer flu the most.
Harpreet, Stafford.
Everyone seems to have decided to ignore the second page of the article, where it says:
Avian flu, which has killed 250 people since 2003
Look at that. The media went batshit-mental back then, convincing us we were all going to die and, like the MMR vaccine scare, it turned out not to be the case. Two hundred and fifty people? That's nothing. Somali pirates have killed more than that, and they bankrupt themselves in millet seed for their parrots. So I see no reason for keeping on keeping on and not worry that we're going to all be killed until, perhaps, people start falling ill?
These medical sounding scares based on absolutely no evidence are one of the many reasons why I don't bother to pay for news any more.
Meanwhile Tory MP Nadine Dorries sues someone over something. Nadine Dorries is a fairly obscure MP only well known to followers of the Westminster soap opera that is the House of Commons for her Sarah Palin-like ability to seize and repeat the stupid in any subject that gets her interest. She's normally pretty quiet between bouts of conservative Christian sponsored attempts to get the date by which a woman can have an abortion put back to eight months before her own birth. I'm not sure if she can successfully sue someone over suggesting to someone else that they spread a rumour she had an affair if they don't do it, even if the only reason they didn't might be because they were revealed to be thinking about it, but her primary reason for this bout of legal action is presumably to keep it in the news as long as possible in the lead up to the next general election. Of course, one doesn't need to tell lies in order to recognise them...
The Sindy has more positive news, namely that the BNP is as equally messed up a party as the proper political groups full of burned-out members who are just bitter and more likely to fight with one another than the vast majority of people who they think shouldn't be in the country. Less comforting is the comments, in which it seems that a cadre of BNP supporters have taken up residence, you might need the Independent Livejournal thread if you want to see them though, they have a tendency to keep vanishing from the 'proper' website.
Labels: abortion, BNP, Conservatives, Fundamentalists- Christian, media, media scares, newspapers, science
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Labels: Charlie Brooker, death, media, newspapers, YouTube
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Sarah Palin has dashed to her tame TV station to complain about how mean Katie Couric was to her. Much as each interview she does demonstrates yet another area of life on which she has no knowledge or intellectual curiosity so here she expresses anger that Couric actually asked questions to try and elicit some evidence that Palin ever thinks or what McCain is standing for rather than just standing back and letting her have a go at Obama. To be honest, if she's wanting to go and claim that Obama has crazy mad spending plans after eight years of Shrubya it's probably best for the Republican party that those sorts of claims are restricted to GOP-TV where rampant lying is standard. It is worth remembering that the McCain campaign approached Couric believing her toothless interviewing style was best suited to introducing Palin to the country. To paint Couric as Jeremy Paxman is silly but hey, all politics is 99% farce so it'll probably work.
Talking of farce, Peter Mandelson is back in UK politics. When you've been in power for over a decade it's difficult to find new faces for Cabinet posts but it seems a desperate choice for Gordon Brown to make, maybe he hopes to have some luck by having someone in Cabinet less popular with the British public than him, and a strange choice for Mandelson to accept, what with the imminence of Labour's exile to the Opposition benches, you'd have thought that he'd wait until after that to then come back and start the fight back, much like he did with Blair and Brown in the Eighties.
Talking of farce, Peter Mandelson is back in UK politics. When you've been in power for over a decade it's difficult to find new faces for Cabinet posts but it seems a desperate choice for Gordon Brown to make, maybe he hopes to have some luck by having someone in Cabinet less popular with the British public than him, and a strange choice for Mandelson to accept, what with the imminence of Labour's exile to the Opposition benches, you'd have thought that he'd wait until after that to then come back and start the fight back, much like he did with Blair and Brown in the Eighties.
Labels: media, politics, Republicans, stupidity, United Kingdom, United States
Monday, August 11, 2008
Madeleine McCann is Bigger Than Jesus!
That's if you misspell 'Jesus' by using a random collection of numbers and letters, but we're in the silly season and I have to fill this blog somehow. Much in the same way as the usual offenders but primarily the Daily Mail (because The Sun is still watching Big Brother in the hopes someone flashes a body part of some description). It seems that Madeleine has been kidnapped to order by Belgian paedophiles or taken by some distraught hippy and is now in the European Union or possibly OUTSIDE the European Union. She has truly become Schrödinger's Kidnap Victim, a waveform of probabilities encompassing the globe which will stay that way until someone collapses the waveform and finds the body, pulse optional.
Septicisle presents a warning from the future of what could lay ahead if the media continue down the path of filling column inches with the most meaningless gibberings of drunk holidaymakers. [via Bloggerheads]
Septicisle presents a warning from the future of what could lay ahead if the media continue down the path of filling column inches with the most meaningless gibberings of drunk holidaymakers. [via Bloggerheads]
Labels: Daily Mail, Madeleine McCann, media
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Don't Vote For Boris
These two articles pretty much highlights why residents of London should not vote for Boris Johnson today. The Guardian explain why a vote for Johnson is a bad idea (there's more detail here or here) while even the rabidly anti-Ken Daily Mail can only manage "Yes, I know Ken has been very good for London and Boris has no obvious qualifications for the job, but he's my mate".
Look, if Boris gets in we don't get to laugh at the United States for electing Shrubya any more! This is a serious issue!
Look, if Boris gets in we don't get to laugh at the United States for electing Shrubya any more! This is a serious issue!
Labels: Boris 'Buffoon' Johnson, London, London Mayor, media, Red Ken Livingstone
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Satire is dead. Bill O'Reilly, broadcast on FOX, says:
Now for the top story tonight, for the first time ever, a political party may have a network news organization in its pocket!
But wait, he's not decided to come clean about the links between the channel he works for and the GOP, no! He's claiming NBC is a tool of the Democrats.
O'REILLY: You've got now a network who's thrown down the gauntlet, is going to support the Democrats in subtle ways sometimes, in overt ways in other times. Is that a big advantage?
GAVIN: Well, you know, if that's their strategy, I don't think it's a successful one. I mean, people...
O'REILLY: No, no, but is it an advantage for the Democratic party? I don't care about NBC. Is it an advantage for the Democratic party? Is it?
GAVIN: Yes and no. I mean, on the one hand, sure. If you know, if the notion about NBC is friendlier for Democrats, great. But are they just going to reach people who already agree with them? Are they not going to reach across the aisle to people maybe who won't tune in because they might...
O'REILLY: No, it's an interesting point. But remember, it's a big cannon. I mean, it's a big, big organization.
I don't think we've seen cheek that big since Brontosaurii bestrode the world.
Now for the top story tonight, for the first time ever, a political party may have a network news organization in its pocket!
But wait, he's not decided to come clean about the links between the channel he works for and the GOP, no! He's claiming NBC is a tool of the Democrats.
O'REILLY: You've got now a network who's thrown down the gauntlet, is going to support the Democrats in subtle ways sometimes, in overt ways in other times. Is that a big advantage?
GAVIN: Well, you know, if that's their strategy, I don't think it's a successful one. I mean, people...
O'REILLY: No, no, but is it an advantage for the Democratic party? I don't care about NBC. Is it an advantage for the Democratic party? Is it?
GAVIN: Yes and no. I mean, on the one hand, sure. If you know, if the notion about NBC is friendlier for Democrats, great. But are they just going to reach people who already agree with them? Are they not going to reach across the aisle to people maybe who won't tune in because they might...
O'REILLY: No, it's an interesting point. But remember, it's a big cannon. I mean, it's a big, big organization.
I don't think we've seen cheek that big since Brontosaurii bestrode the world.
Labels: Conservatives, Fox, media, United States
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Memo to the McCanns: you're not helping. Yes, almost six months later and someone 'just happens to remember' something that happened at the time of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in which a figure was seen carrying a child wearing the identical nightclothes to Madeleine, but she didn't think it was important at the time and she can't remember what he or she looked like.
This is the biggest pile of shit on the planet since dinosaurs looked up and saw the meteor coming. The number of people genuinely concerned about this poor child's disappearance has, since the start, been massively outnumbered by the vast bulk of the British public who don't care. If the McCanns genuinely worry that public opinion is turning against them and it's not just another ploy to keep their name in the news then they need to stop pulling this crap. I mean, what is it supposed to achieve? Are they trying to annoy the United Kingdom so much that the entire country empties in to Portugal to find the body? The criminal investigation is being conducted in another country. If the McCanns are charged with their daughter's death then they will be on trial in another country where no Brits will be on the jury.
The sad truth is that the disappearance of this little girl is just another soap opera, up there with some stick-thin actresses new diet or Jade Goody's latest racist outburst. If people are less sympathetic it is perhaps because the McCann's mistook their interest in the story for genuine feeling, when in fact the public just want the story to end. After all, J.K. Rowling finished her story eventually, when are the McCann's going to have the grace to do the same? Have they not found their kid yet? That's too bad, shuffle them off the stage, we've got another celebrity sex scandal ready to go. If the McCanns refuse to go quietly well, fuck them. Who do they think they are?
Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker has it about right on the media's shameless behaviour during the summer.
This is the biggest pile of shit on the planet since dinosaurs looked up and saw the meteor coming. The number of people genuinely concerned about this poor child's disappearance has, since the start, been massively outnumbered by the vast bulk of the British public who don't care. If the McCanns genuinely worry that public opinion is turning against them and it's not just another ploy to keep their name in the news then they need to stop pulling this crap. I mean, what is it supposed to achieve? Are they trying to annoy the United Kingdom so much that the entire country empties in to Portugal to find the body? The criminal investigation is being conducted in another country. If the McCanns are charged with their daughter's death then they will be on trial in another country where no Brits will be on the jury.
The sad truth is that the disappearance of this little girl is just another soap opera, up there with some stick-thin actresses new diet or Jade Goody's latest racist outburst. If people are less sympathetic it is perhaps because the McCann's mistook their interest in the story for genuine feeling, when in fact the public just want the story to end. After all, J.K. Rowling finished her story eventually, when are the McCann's going to have the grace to do the same? Have they not found their kid yet? That's too bad, shuffle them off the stage, we've got another celebrity sex scandal ready to go. If the McCanns refuse to go quietly well, fuck them. Who do they think they are?
Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker has it about right on the media's shameless behaviour during the summer.
Labels: journalists, Madeleine McCann, media
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Kate McCann claims she's being persecuted for being beautiful. Well, pretty much . I think all pretence that they are playing the media for the sake of Madeleine is gone now, now it seems they are trying to game the British public to support them if the Portuguese police decide to charge them with Madeleine's murder.
Ten shiny new pence for the first person who puts a "Leave Kate McCann alone!" video up on YouTube.
Ten shiny new pence for the first person who puts a "Leave Kate McCann alone!" video up on YouTube.
Labels: Madeleine McCann, media
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
If there was one thing that would make me suspect that the parents were somehow involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann it's the soap opera style of the unfolding of the story. Yesterday was all about how the Portuguese police had decided not to charge the parents unless they find a body and more conclusive evidence, today it's all about whether a couple of pixels in a photo show Madeleine is in Spain because, of course, there aren't going to be any other children in the whole of Spain and any differences between the two children, such as hair colour, can be explained by hair dye, not the possibility that OF COURSE THIS ISN'T HER! Another alternative is that Paul Dacre arranged this kidnapping so his paper would have something to write about all Summer between gaps in it's attacks on the BBC. I think we've long past the stage where this is a valid possibility worth examining.
Labels: Madeleine McCann, media, newspapers
Monday, September 10, 2007
Isn't British policing wonderful? Isn't foreign policing awful? Wouldn't things just be better for everyone if British police officers policed the planet?
It would seem that nothing else happened over the weekend. Yes BBC News 24, I'm looking at you. Blanket coverage of the McCann's driving to the airport, then repeated ad nauseam until the plane they were on touched down in the UK, then that was rolled around until they returned home to the village they live in, now that's swarming with reporters with no news to report.
There's been talk over the last weeks of how the BBC should cut back on it's digital channels so that minority interest shows like The Today Programme on Radio 4 aren't axed. Now, as far as I'm aware Today is only listened to by politicians, newspaper columnists who need inspiration to fulminate against the world and retired early risers in the counties. It's The Archers for Westminster folk, of practically no use to anyone else. Still, I'd be quite happy to sacrifice BBC3 to keeping it open, if it could be sealed in concrete, along with the casts of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and TittyBangBang , and dumped in the North Sea, then that is something to be applauded. But hands off BBC4 which, with a few exceptions, is like Radio 4 only people pay attention to it. News24, I still don't understand why our money is wasted on this. If you watch News24 then you realise very quickly that, just because something newsworthy could happen any time, that does not mean that news is happening any time. Or rather, there is lots of news going on that the BBC don't bother covering. It increasingly seems that when anything happens outside of Washington then the BBC turn over coverage to ABC. I can't remember Western Africa cropping up in the news since Mark Thatcher and a load of ex-Eton pupils decided to try and take a country over for a laugh. Those little Russian or ex-Russian states round the edge of the old U.S.S.R. don't get a look in (is there still a civil war going on in Chechnya? I watch News24, so I don't know). And China? Supposedly Murdoch dropped the BBC from a satellite TV package he wanted to flog to the Chinese people, I don't know why because they only ever get mentioned in the financial news.
So yes, let's shut down News 24 and BBC3, and give the money to John Humphrys for his pointless little show.
It would seem that nothing else happened over the weekend. Yes BBC News 24, I'm looking at you. Blanket coverage of the McCann's driving to the airport, then repeated ad nauseam until the plane they were on touched down in the UK, then that was rolled around until they returned home to the village they live in, now that's swarming with reporters with no news to report.
There's been talk over the last weeks of how the BBC should cut back on it's digital channels so that minority interest shows like The Today Programme on Radio 4 aren't axed. Now, as far as I'm aware Today is only listened to by politicians, newspaper columnists who need inspiration to fulminate against the world and retired early risers in the counties. It's The Archers for Westminster folk, of practically no use to anyone else. Still, I'd be quite happy to sacrifice BBC3 to keeping it open, if it could be sealed in concrete, along with the casts of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and TittyBangBang , and dumped in the North Sea, then that is something to be applauded. But hands off BBC4 which, with a few exceptions, is like Radio 4 only people pay attention to it. News24, I still don't understand why our money is wasted on this. If you watch News24 then you realise very quickly that, just because something newsworthy could happen any time, that does not mean that news is happening any time. Or rather, there is lots of news going on that the BBC don't bother covering. It increasingly seems that when anything happens outside of Washington then the BBC turn over coverage to ABC. I can't remember Western Africa cropping up in the news since Mark Thatcher and a load of ex-Eton pupils decided to try and take a country over for a laugh. Those little Russian or ex-Russian states round the edge of the old U.S.S.R. don't get a look in (is there still a civil war going on in Chechnya? I watch News24, so I don't know). And China? Supposedly Murdoch dropped the BBC from a satellite TV package he wanted to flog to the Chinese people, I don't know why because they only ever get mentioned in the financial news.
So yes, let's shut down News 24 and BBC3, and give the money to John Humphrys for his pointless little show.
Labels: BBC, Madeleine McCann, media, news, police
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Following up on this story, the second trial of Robert Cottage has finished and he's got two and a half years for stockpiling chemicals in his house because he thought a race war was coming and he wanted to be ready.
The news of this has been as annoyingly low-key as the reports around the time that he was originally charged, so far I've seen it on the BBC and the Guardian, and even there it's already slipped off the front page. Men with skins of darker hue have been treated far worse for far less, and only last week the wife of one of the 7/7 bombers talked about how she's been treated by British society despite the fact her husband deliberately concealed from her what he was up to, only for some papers to turn around and practically call her a lying bitch.
Even the judge sounded almost as though she was apologetic for having to sentence Cottage to prison as he was obviously such a great guy: "I am satisfied it was Cottage's views on how he put it 'the evils of uncontrolled immigration' would lead to civil war which would be imminent and inevitable." Those wacky racists huh? I can only assume that this time, the court wasn't told about his desire to kill Tony Blair. As it is, he's already served half his sentence, he's lucky that terrorism would appear to be considered a brown man's game, then the Government would have preferred to lock him up without trial.
God this is depressing.
The news of this has been as annoyingly low-key as the reports around the time that he was originally charged, so far I've seen it on the BBC and the Guardian, and even there it's already slipped off the front page. Men with skins of darker hue have been treated far worse for far less, and only last week the wife of one of the 7/7 bombers talked about how she's been treated by British society despite the fact her husband deliberately concealed from her what he was up to, only for some papers to turn around and practically call her a lying bitch.
Even the judge sounded almost as though she was apologetic for having to sentence Cottage to prison as he was obviously such a great guy: "I am satisfied it was Cottage's views on how he put it 'the evils of uncontrolled immigration' would lead to civil war which would be imminent and inevitable." Those wacky racists huh? I can only assume that this time, the court wasn't told about his desire to kill Tony Blair. As it is, he's already served half his sentence, he's lucky that terrorism would appear to be considered a brown man's game, then the Government would have preferred to lock him up without trial.
God this is depressing.
Labels: 07/07/05, BNP, British National Party, courts, Islam, media, newspapers, racism, terrorism, United Kingdom
Saturday, February 17, 2007
I've been listening to Radio 4's Archive Hour on gay and lesbian radio. No surprises that the 'B' word isn't ever mentioned. But in it's coverage of BBC queer programming amidst the work by other radio stations it does bring back memories, most strongly of 'Out This Week', a sometimes rather po-faced half-hour news and current-affairs programme on Radio 5 that I came across while coming out in the mid-nineties. It apparently ran for five years and I probably listened to it for about the last three. By the time they had finished they'd already been transferred to a late slot on Sunday evenings and the BBC announced it was cancelling the show because 'gay issues were now mainstream' so we didn't need our little show any more. And ten years on you realise what bollocks that was. True, back then I couldn't believe they bring back Doctor Who let alone have him snog a dashing fifty-first century guy, that openly queer people wouldn't get typecast as 'the gay' on TV and in films. But it's still a hetero, hetero, hetero world out there and all the gay marriages in Ambridge are going to change that. The fact that an hour long programme can cover the last ten years of queer radio in the last five minutes of the show would suggest a marginalisation of the LGB voice on radio, not that it's conquered the mainstream. So, when do we get rid of Women's Hour , on the grounds that surely women's issues are mainstream? When do we get rid of all the Radio 4 shows about books and reading as that has been proved to be a fairly mainstream activity? When do we get rid of Quote, Unquote , because it's shit?
Labels: BBC, bisexual, documentaries, gay, lesbian, media, news, queer, radio, Radio 4, Radio 5
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Terror! Terror! Terrified yet?
The news media are finally reporting on a BNP man who stockpiled explosives in his house and fantasised about killing Tony Blair and John Prescott. Hey, we can relate... However, this has been 'news' for several months, as this man was arrested last autumn but, other than a regional newspaper's report which then got distributed liberally amongst British bloggers, there has been something of a self-imposed media blackout over this story. When the BBC were asked why they weren't reporting on what was a bona case of British men who were apparently prepared to take part in acts of terrorism they replied they didn't want to prejudice any future court case.
I'm sure Mohammed Abdulkahar and Abul Koyair could relate. They were, after all, two Muslim men arrested in a highly publicised raid by the police on a house in Forest Gate that they thought was the nerve centre of possible terrorist activity. The media devoted considerable time to this over the next few days, until the police quietly admitted that it was all a mistake and let the two men go. By this time their names and photos had been liberally printed and shown on screen, while Robert Cottage and David Jackson, the BNP men, were ignored.
Anyway, the two men complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the people that decided the police were justified in shooting Jean Charles de Menezes in the head. Luckily the IPCC had stocked up on whitewash in preparation and announced that the police were fully justified in doing whatever they want because they're the police. They threw the two men two small bones, upholding piddling complaints about their food and pain killers (due to the fact the police shot one of them in the arm) and suggesting the police should consider apologising. Apparently the police training manual doesn't cover being magnanimous in victory, as according to the Daily Mail, the police are refusing to apologise to the two men. The police are claiming they've apologised three times already but none of their apologies are to the two men for arresting them as terrorism suspects and allowing their pictures to be circulated to the media.
Robert who? David what?
The Sun are reporting on the BNP plotters story but notably describes neither of these men as terrorists or would-be terrorists. Unlike some of their other news stories they aren't offering readers the chance to discuss the story either. The t-word does get used, though only once, in their report on the IPCC story, which shows how half-hearted their momentary concern about racism actually was.
The news media are finally reporting on a BNP man who stockpiled explosives in his house and fantasised about killing Tony Blair and John Prescott. Hey, we can relate... However, this has been 'news' for several months, as this man was arrested last autumn but, other than a regional newspaper's report which then got distributed liberally amongst British bloggers, there has been something of a self-imposed media blackout over this story. When the BBC were asked why they weren't reporting on what was a bona case of British men who were apparently prepared to take part in acts of terrorism they replied they didn't want to prejudice any future court case.
I'm sure Mohammed Abdulkahar and Abul Koyair could relate. They were, after all, two Muslim men arrested in a highly publicised raid by the police on a house in Forest Gate that they thought was the nerve centre of possible terrorist activity. The media devoted considerable time to this over the next few days, until the police quietly admitted that it was all a mistake and let the two men go. By this time their names and photos had been liberally printed and shown on screen, while Robert Cottage and David Jackson, the BNP men, were ignored.
Anyway, the two men complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the people that decided the police were justified in shooting Jean Charles de Menezes in the head. Luckily the IPCC had stocked up on whitewash in preparation and announced that the police were fully justified in doing whatever they want because they're the police. They threw the two men two small bones, upholding piddling complaints about their food and pain killers (due to the fact the police shot one of them in the arm) and suggesting the police should consider apologising. Apparently the police training manual doesn't cover being magnanimous in victory, as according to the Daily Mail, the police are refusing to apologise to the two men. The police are claiming they've apologised three times already but none of their apologies are to the two men for arresting them as terrorism suspects and allowing their pictures to be circulated to the media.
Robert who? David what?
The Sun are reporting on the BNP plotters story but notably describes neither of these men as terrorists or would-be terrorists. Unlike some of their other news stories they aren't offering readers the chance to discuss the story either. The t-word does get used, though only once, in their report on the IPCC story, which shows how half-hearted their momentary concern about racism actually was.
Labels: BNP, British National Party, Independent Police Complaints Commission, IPCC, media, news, News International, newspapers, police, racism, terrorism, The Sun
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Crikey! Now that Shrubya hasn't got any more elections to win the American press are increasingly judging it safe to turn on him. Ten minutes of anger.
Labels: George 'Shrubya' Bush, Iraq, media, United States
