At 07.00 this morning, BBC News gave a mention of less than ten seconds to the release from anti-terror questioning of the nine men they still called “terror suspects”. This was followed immediately by a non-news piece on the testing of barriers to protect us from car bombs, which gave the BBC the excuse to show two bomb explosions at 07.03, right at the front of the news. That will take people’s minds off the fact the terror plot was a fabrication, and get them good and scared again!
The BBC gave massive coverage to these innocent mens’ arrest and Gordon Brown’s and Jacqui Smith’s lying statements about them. The real story is the concoction of huge terror scares by politicians for propaganda purposes. But you won’t see it on the BBC.
The more they cry wolf, the sooner and more profound the destruction of their credibility.
The crucial question is what will they leave in their wake: law that few trust and respect; and a Tory government with no opposition.
I predict a lot of riots in the coming years.
At one time the BBC was the only effective opposition we had but it was emasculated by the Hutton Report and the ousting of Greg Dyke. Now, if you want to know what’s going on you’ve got Al Jazeera (although that has its own problems of bias and doesn’t really report in detail on UK news), or Channel 4 News.
Sickening indeed. The other day the attempted assassination of the Bolivian leader Morales was also given about 5 seconds on the BBC world news. Yet when Obama merely sneezes its a 5 minute segment.
Interesting article by Simon Jenkins in today’s Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/cnbmgf), which makes some similar points.
Keep up the good work, Craig.
Good going BBC, that other highly regarded independent news agency akin to CNN and the like.
I like how all those victims (men, women and children) of the drone killings in Pakistan are causing confusion as they are all referred to as ‘Collateral Damage’.
Better stop now Obama, your necks on the line for this one…..I dont think you’ll be able to defend this one on any sort of justification, but hey the previous incumbent of your job certainly tried….how funny things turn around …eventually.
Good luck on the 28th Craig…..gonna to try and get down…..what time? and where is it?
Convenient co-incidence of budget news today may be more prominent? Think not.
This is a lot like what happened with the recent arrests in the Netherlands. It was international news that some people had been arrested, were of Moroccan descent, and ‘had ties to the Madrid bombings.’ When it was revealed a couple of days later that the source was unreliable and the people were released without charge, I could only find this news on Dutch sites.
I’m not sure that it’s propaganda so much as that retractions aren’t news (consider the ‘autism jab’ in the UK; fits the theory of news outlets not wanting to publicize retractions, does not fit the theory of government propaganda).
To be perfectly fair, Radio 4 did cover the release in somewhat more detail.
But, yes, Auntie had her legs cut out from under her by NuLabour and has been given her marching orders. Had there been riots in the streets as a result, perhaps things might have been different, but nobody seems to care.
As long as news has to sell or is guided by political agenda, it will always be sensational rather than educational and balanced.
We see the same in science and humanities programs in the last decade; presumably modern education is following the same route.
Are we in the grey region prior to a new dark age?
I am less sure. This site is heading about 70,000 unique visitors in April, of whom about 25,000 are first time visitors. As it is not publicised at all, I think the vast majority of people who would agree with it don’t find it. And compare our 70,000 to the 100,000 Iain Dale gets for his infinitely more publicised blog.
These have become standard tactics. Remember the tanks at Heathrow timed to coincide with the massive anti-war marches? The deportation of these 9 people is also a standard tactic to get the public to think they must have been guilty of something. The case of Hicham Yezza is another example.
Not a day goes by when I do not rejoice that I left Britain six years ago.
“All of 12 men arrested over a suspected bomb plot in the UK have now been released without charge by police.” BBC website 10.59 am
How laughably pathetic! One hour before the budget. They’re digging hard to bury that bad news.
Has the word ‘innocent’ been removed from the latest edition of the Newspeak dictionary?
Dissent IS being shut down. This came yesterday about a protest planned for this morning.
Subject: POLICE SHUT DOWN BUDGET PROTEST… DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE TREASURY 5PM-7PM!
http://www.theircrisisnotours.org.uk
POLICE SHUT DOWN 11.30AM PROTEST… DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE TREASURY 5PM-7PM!
The police have refused to authorise our planned demonstration on Whitehall at 11.30am and have made clear that, if it takes place, the organiser will be liable to arrest and imprisonment for up to a year.
To avoid any police action against protesters turning up, we have been forced to cancel this demonstration.
Our protest from 5pm-7pm outside the Treasury (1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ ?” click link for map) will still take place. Please spread the word and attend the protest to demand a People’s Bailout.
We will also be going ahead with our 7.30pm Question Time event with John McDonnell MP, economist Graham Turner and others in Committee Room 10, House of Commons.
Make sure you come along and exercise your right to protest.
Best wishes,
Owen Jones – Campaign Convenor
——————–
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=77949919479&mid=57e116G2148d88cG18ca24fG0
___
All 12 now released without charge (to no-one’s great surprise)…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8011341.stm
Mary
It has alsways been the case that demonstrations require police approval in advance. That is part of the normal democratic protest and it has worked reasonably well for years. See the Met’s wesbite. My guess is that this protest did not seek permission. The policing of G20 may have been wrong and unlawful on occasions but the police do have a responsibility to maintain order and the licensing system for demos is sensible.
http://www.met.police.uk/events/
Craig
These increased numbers of visitors are very heartening, and bear witness to the value of speaking truth to power.
But is anyone else listening? I’m still very pessimistic about the continuing ability of Labour to sustain its lies about terrorism, ably abeted by the “Dead Tree Press” and BBC.
I still think the vast majority believe them, or at least don’t want to disbelieve them.
“La, la, la, I’m not listening” seems to be the refrain.
We’ll get a better idea when we se how the media cover your SC appearance, I guess.
Your first piece took me by surprise and now your analysis proved to be correct! I give you full mark
It seems Brown sacrificed those poor men for propaganda purpuses, while Blair used to deploy the Army around Airport, showing himself protecting the ocuntry against terrorists who may even think of existing
Blair tactics save money.
I’m surprised the media aren’t going to town more on the fact these men have been released, though it is still early in that regard. I’m sure many will make the most of it. But usually it’s given huge coverage when they don’t make charges against high profile arrests.
I think the reason is this.
It’s getting much harder to make the claim that such arrests were done because the government and police decided to scare everybody for their own evil purposes. We all now know that when charges are not made, it can ONLY be hugely damaging to the police as we have seen in previous cases. The media is now maturing and understands that it’s simply absurd to claim they are trying to get some sort of PR advantage out of a situation which is always transparently bad PR for them and damages relations with the Muslim community, so there is much less silliness about this and williness not to make that worse than it needs to be.
We know too that it’s important that the police stay proactive and disrupt plots at an early stage. It’s harder to pretend this is not important anymore. Lets face it, when lives are at stake it is very important to follow up leads. The Islamophobic backlash from a successful terror attack will be a lot worse than a case being dropped.
Jess
Twelve innocent people’s lives have just beem ruined. Your pathetic attempt at a NuLab spin on the media participation in this propaganda exercise can’t take that fact away.
Does anybody doubt they were held till Budget Day as a piece of news management?
Jess
Welcome back – not.
Relativism is a curious beast. Yes the Beeb is a stinking festering carbuncle of sulphurous yellow journalism, capitalising on it’s light – read trivial, entertainment battalion, but the Beeb under Dyke was crap as well. Don’t credit the idiot Please. He resigned because a single employee did something good in the Beeb for pity’s sake, and allowed the grubbyment to crap all over what remnants of proper journalism remained.
Lest anyone think that the UK isn’t taking its (non-) marching orders from the US, here’s Naomi Wolfe explaining why protest in the US no longer works.
http://dancewater.blogspot.com/2009/04/naomi-klein-fake-protests-due-to.html
Really, if you want to know what the government is going to do, or what Tory/NuLabour talking points are going to be, just watch Fox News. These people have no imagination; American fast food, television, fashion, consumerism, and politics: it’s taken over everything and it makes me ill.
Jess actually makes me wonder about a particular scenario here. I have absolutely no knowledge of the particular case so let’s make up an imaginary scenario. Let’s say a bunch of Pakistani students are studying in the UK. Let’s further say (for example) that they are loudly proclaiming that the West is rubbish, women should do what they’re told and walk around completely covered, death is a reasonable punishment for apostasy, Hitler had the right idea, homosexuals should be burned at the stake, and converting people to Islam by conquest is entirely reasonable. In that imaginary scenario, it seems entirely right and proper that those hypothetical people should be made to piss off back to where they came from and not abuse our hospitality any further. (I am widely travelled myself, and always keep my head down whilst abroad and respect the ways of the country I am visiting.) What is *not* the right thing to do, in my imaginary scenario, is to go after the brats using terrorism legislation, and cynically using the action for political purposes.
The Muslim community are showing great reserve in not striking back, given the amount of provocation they’ve suffered.
Would it be immoral to hold a sweepstake on when the first revenge killing of a bobby takes place?
And why don’t the police themselves protest about these silly operations; even soldiers during war have the right to disobey immoral orders.
One more thing. Craig, you make repeated references to the fact you think there are terrorists out there, and doubtless a few other probably hold that opinion also. But I find it very frustrating that if they believe, then why don’t they ever examine the reasons why?
It’s STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM that’s the root problem and is the thing people should fear – as 60m brits are slowly learning (if they haven’t been conditioned appropriately…
“If you don’t want to be tortured, spied upon, robbed of all your money, in agreement with underfunded schools and closing hospitals, no pilfered pension, you’re holocaust denying, anti-Semite”
lwtc247
Of course terrorism exists. And of course terrorism is, broadly speaking, borne out of the reaction to injustice. But that does not justify violence against civilians – by ndividuals or states.
I’ve been concerned with BBC news for a few years now. Some of the subtle stuff I have seen on BBC Breakfast has caused me great alarm. They probably think a fair few folk watch it that don’t watch the other news in the day. Let’s start identifying the ‘individuals’ that are running the agenda and writing the scripts! Let’s make it clear we are looking at them! Let’s ask them who is pulling their strings! Let’s make it clear they better take notice of us and do their job properly! Like Craig said about Amnesty sending faxes to dodgy politicians, this sort of tactic can work. Obviously no correspondence can be physically threatening and no such action is intended. We are all the same. Humanity. A small, sick element is dividing us and conquering us!
Craig. Whether it exists wasn’t the issue. And the ‘weightage’ of your answer proves my point, unless grubbyments have somehow been the victim of injustice that is.
‘Of course terrorism exists. And of course terrorism is, broadly speaking, borne out of the reaction to injustice. But that does not justify violence against civilians – by ndividuals or states.’
Islamic fundamentalism terrorism never existed, as we have been told, and if any does now surface it is ‘solely’ our doing. High up tossers are pulling our strings. Bin Laden is the big, bad BOGEY MAN. Everyone needs to do as Jessy exhorted us. I have him on record. Don’t believe everything you read and logically question everything! I’m off to hide under my bed.
“Twelve innocent people’s lives have just beem ruined.Your pathetic attempt at a NuLab spin on the media participation in this propaganda exercise can’t take that fact away.”
Firstly, their lives haven’t been ruined. They will simply go back to Pakistan. But lets be realistic. It’s very likely indeed that the security services had a high degree of intelligence on these people. Just because the police believe they haven’t got enough to get a conviction in a British court doesn’t mean everything is fine and dandy.
As for media manipulation and propaganda, that’s quite simply ridiculous. This type of story only hurts the police. You know that, I know that, we all know that. It should be our job as intelligent people not to fuel absurd conspiracy theories and instead try to explain to ignorant people why such things will happen at a time when other major plots have been stopped. It’s just not realistic to expect 100% success on every occasion – lets stop lying about this.
As for budget day, even more people catch the news on a day like today, thus even more people will now about this story. We know our media in particular only highlights a story even more if they think it’s being burried – they fucking hate that – so you don’t have to worry about that.