Thursday, September 04, 2008

What a lot of balls

Based on a couple of recommendations, I've just picked up a copy of this book...



Flat Earth News

An award-winning reporter exposes falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media

"Finally I was forced to admit that I work in a corrupted profession." When award-winning journalist Nick Davies decided to break Fleet Street's unwritten rule by investigating his own colleagues, he found that the business of truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production of ignorance.

Working with a network of off-the-record sources, Davies uncovered the story of the prestigious Sunday newspaper which allowed the CIA and MI6 to plant fiction in its columns; the daily newsroom where senior reporters casually refer to 'nig nogs' and where executives routinely reject stories about black people; the respected quality paper which was so desperate for scoops that it hired a conman to set up a front company to entrap senior political figures. He found papers supporting law and order while paying cash bribes to bent detectives and hiring private investigators to steal information.

Davies names names and exposes the national news stories which turn out to be pseudo events manufactured by the PR industry and the global news stories which prove to be fiction generated by a new machinery of international propaganda.

He shows the impact of this on a world where media consumers believe a mass of stories which, in truth, are as false as the idea that the Earth is flat - from the millennium bug to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, tainting government policy, perverting popular belief.


One of the problems I understand that Nick Davies identifies is that journalists, even if they are pure of heart, no longer have the resources to expend on genuine investigative journalism.

Genuine investigative journalists may spend months or years pursuing a potential story with no certainty of a result worth publishing

Channel 4, for example, has become particularly adept at commissioning and knocking out trash documentaries which clearly took no more than a couple of weeks of Googling and a couple of days of filming on a high street somewhere to produce

The harsh reality of this kind of commercial pressure is, of course, one of the principal arguments used to justify those fuckers at Capita extorting £140 with menaces from every household to fund the BBC

It clearly doesn't work though, as the BBC produces the same kind of vacuous, superficial dross dressed up as investigative journalism as the commercial outlets.

In recent years the main BBC news bulletins have been transformed into vehicles that simply repeat government and corporate press releases; in a way that's far too reminiscent the kind of Propaganda Ministries seen in dystopic fiction to be at all funny


There are, however, noble exceptions to the rule. The BBC is still willing to invest resources in hard-hitting quality investigate documentaries that take over a year to produce and will only ever be shown when the Beeb gets round to it...


"Pandora: Conspiracy theories abound over BBC's London bombings film

By Henry Deedes
Thursday, 4 September 2008


The BBC has found itself under siege from all sides over its decision to make a documentary about the bombings that took place in London on 7 July, 2005.

In June, the Beeb was criticised by the victims' families after it emerged that it paid the expenses of the disgraced academic, Dr Nick Kollerstrom, to appear in a programme about the atrocity as part of the Conspiracy Files series.

Kollerstrom, who denies the Holocaust, thinks the bombers may have been "innocent patsies" set up by elements of the Israeli, British and US security agencies. Now it is the turn of the conspiracy theorists to start spitting feathers.

Kollerstrom and another of the interviewees, the journalist Tony Gosling, claim they were told the programme would be aired some time this month, only to be informed that it has now been shelved until later this year.

Being conspiracists, they naturally smell fish. Gosling says: "We have been told that it is down to legal reasons but this seems to be another tentacle of the war on terror. To be honest, I'm a bit shell-shocked about it. Some of us have put our necks on the line for this."

While the corporation says the documentary will eventually see the light of day, it insists that there was never any plan to show it this year. "It was never on the schedule so there was no set release date," says a spokesman.

"We tend to air these programmes when there is some sort of report to peg them to. It is definitely not for legal reasons."



First off, I no fan of the carefully selected 'troofers' the BBC is going to use in the show

But it strikes me as awfully strange that the BBC is sitting on material for so long that it runs a very real risk of becoming outdated before it is broadcast

So my guess, based on a little hard evidence, is that the BBC was planning to air the program round about now

Now what could have caused the delay?

The BBC spokesperson concedes that these kind of shows are normally timed to coincide with an event such as a government report, or ...a trial verdict

So, have there been any terror trial verdicts that didn't quite go the way they were supposed to recently?


Majority option for bomb plot jury - Thursday August 28 2008


The jury in the trial of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic passenger jets has been given a majority instruction...


Lordy, lordy what a surprise

Juries, eh? What a pain in the arse - it's about time someone did something to do away with them

and not forgetting the recent trial of three alleged 7/7 conspirators which also went tits up recently

that would be the trial where it was revealed that the alleged 7/7 bombers scattered their personal ID around the tube carriages and took off their rucksacks before the bombs went off

No doubt the excellent and entirely honourable BBC investigative journalists will be able to blow apart any conspiracy theories arising from that little revelation and publish their findings just as soon as the next show trial goes as planned


Confused as to how all those chilling plots fit together? You won't be after you've worked though this pile of balls


-

It's intermission time now - touch wood, back in a few days...

.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

All big terror trials went tits up, NY 9/11, London 7/7, Madrid 11-M, and the Bali bombings which nobody seems to care about although it reeks of false flag.

Anyway I wasn't so sure I wanted that thing aired at all due to the Kollerstrom factor. But now I'd be more inclined to think many people would see some truth through the layer of bollocks, just like many people I know have now persistent doubts about building 7 after watching Conspiracy Files despite the fact it was denied.

Anonymous said...

License payers should demand a refund. The Beeb predicted the vry rapid spectacular 'collapse' of the massive WTC7 skyscraper 20 minutes too early.
Thats very very shoddy journalism.
Its not like the building was slowly disintegrating, where there was a gray area of 'is that considered a collapse? vs. is that not considered a collapse?' over the course of 20 minutes. No, they coincidently called an event which happened in just a few seconds, 20 minutes too early, and were straight-faced about it. Even as the said building stood in the background.
You would think that with all the tax payers funding, the video feeds would continue to work as the real 'collapse' happened. But Shiite happens.
Now I know what being forced to fund The Daily Mash feels like. At least The Daily Mash doesn't take itself seriously.

Stef said...

behind the gags the Daily Mash is usually more accurate and always better value

Anonymous said...

"behind the gags the Daily Mash is usually more accurate and always better value"

I agree.

paul said...

I'd wondered where martin gilbertson took his mad flash presentation skilz after the iqra bookshop.

Key to terror presentation:
blue: Supporters, plotters, associates
red: Groups that have committed terror attacks
white: Military intelligence

These guilt by proximity things can get awfully tangled if you're not careful, so its best to keep it simple

Anonymous said...

Humans Can Learn from Subliminal Cues Alone
By Alexis Madrigal August 27, 2008

"Takeo Watanabe, a psychologist at Boston University who was not involved with the study said that the new research shows unequivocally that humans can be trained to learn a system they don't understand with cues they can't see."

Anonymous said...

The presses are turning at Sanders Research where they're asking, "Will U.S. Troops Invade Mexico.

"... In the 1980s, U.S. bankers pressured Latin American nations to privatize their national industries to allow foreign ownership with the idea this provides competition. This had been resisted for nationalist reasons, until American bankers persuaded foreign leaders that free trade was highly profitable for insiders.

Active ImageBlood Bankers by James Henry describes how major American banks helped Latin American leaders loot their nation by selling national assets. These were purchased by insiders at deep discounts, who then sold them off piecemeal for huge profits, or sharply raised rates in monopoly markets like utilities. This caused great resentment and spawned a “socialist” movement to undo this robbery, now led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mexico underwent a similar transition with similar results. ...
"

Anonymous said...

So it seems that one of the primary questions of our day is to what degree are some human beings capable of conspiracy at the expense of strangers, in the service of their own group's interest? History would seem to suggest that there is a considerable capacity...

Anonymous said...

Google Chrome - Google claims data passing through it.

Someone mentioned a bit about Chrome earlier, and supplied tinyURL's. I can't remember what was said, but it's adviseable to read this...

"the 5 most laughable terms of service on the net"

http://tinyurl.com/5mey3h

Shahid said...

@lwtc247: Chrome privacy issues probably not as worrying as some had feared:

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/privacy.html

Anonymous said...

I like the Browser.You can turn off many of the things concerning privacy in the options.
There are some bugs in the browser however.
Writing text and spell check, copy and paste etc do not work properly.Moving words and deleting words seem to get all fucked up using chrome.

Anonymous said...

well Fannie got the fucking she deserved.she´s a cent 70 cheep god for nuttin whore now!


http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=fnm

Anonymous said...

The airport (Heathrow) was broadcasting the "terror trial" today from the BBC on its screens. I guess the patsies got convicted? I couldn't make out anything over the din at work, Heathrow is noisy at the best of times..

paul said...

No, three were convicted of the lesser charges they had already plead guilty to. The rest were acquitted.

It should be henceforth be called the non liquid bomber of people with some vague intention of doing something or other at an unspecified time while under total surveillance trial

£30 million great british pounds it cost I read somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Well, apparently having household cleaners = chemical weapons. I wonder if everyone will be so indifferent when this starts happening to non-Muslims\whites...

Anonymous said...

good rant from Putin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z...h? v=zBVxnhkvzyI

good rant from Keith Olbermann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f...ars.com/? p=4468

come on Stef where are the new posts?
http://whatreallyhappened.com/
Magnetic forces to blame for 9/11 tower collapse
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/magnetic-forces-to-blame-for-911-tower-collapse-924509.html

Scientists can finally explain why the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, despite the temperature of the fires being well below the 1,500C melting point of the steel girders holding up the buildings.

The discovery that unusual magnetic forces within the girders made them weak at temperatures of about 500C explains away the conspiracy theories that have spread like wildfire since the disaster.
Webmaster's Commentary:

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. That's it. Unusual Magnetic Forces. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Just because no building ever collapsed before or since from Unusual Magnetic Forces doesn;t mean anyhting. It was Unusual Magnetic Forces that did it. Unusual Magnetic Forces. Yeah. Unusual Magnetic Forces. Sure, sure. Unusual Magnetic Forces melted right through those beams on a sharp diagonal line that made it LOOK like thermite cutter charges. Sure, sure." -- Official White Horse Souse

Anonymous said...

LOL @ strange magnetic forces.

Guess what? The large numbers of people will instantly accept it. Why? Because their honest and altruistic gubnt said so.

I think Stef if doing something about moving away from the UK(?), but it's been almost 10 days now.

This cold turkey ain't letting up Stef!

Stef said...

/ flattered

Stef said...

I think Stef if doing something about moving away from the UK(?)

well-spotted - though the process is somewhat convoluted and involved a week in the land of my forefathers

...then back to Blighty to catch up on my emails, a week's worth of news and links folks have been kind enough to leave here

and it is, of course, mushroom season - an irrelevance to most but of great significance to the mycologically obsessed

Stef said...

/ getting up early tomorrow

Anonymous said...

Mushroom season!!ah yes in Scotland we did enjoy this time of year as it was Magic Mushroom harvest time!!,,what fun we had with our large dilated pupils.

Anyway listen somewhere on this blog not too long ago I said "would it not be nice if the a Russian diplomat told the Brits to fuck themselves

well apparently,,

David Miliband was subjected to an astonishing four-letter tirade from his Russian counterpart at the height of the Georgia crisis.

The Foreign Secretary received the undiplomatic tongue-lashing over the telephone after expressing the EU's anger with the Kremlin, it was revealed yesterday.

At one point Sergei Lavrov, the colourful Russian foreign minister, became so incensed that he reportedly barked: 'Who the f*** are you to lecture me?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054850/Who-f--lecture--Russian-ministers-extraordinary-rant-David-Miliband.html

yep here it is,,

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8225855&postID=2013654887752959453

Exclusive interview.

BBC spokes wanker-"when is Russia going to withdraw from Georgia?"

Russian spokesperson-"we aint going nowhere"

BBC spokes wanker-"don´t you think Russia should make an apology for it´s action in Georgia?"

Russian spokesperson-"no"


BBC spokes wanker-"why not?"

Russian spokesperson-"I´ll tell you why not ,because we are sick of listening to a hypocritical nation of US arse sniffing poodles telling us Russians what we can and cannot do!you pathetic lying fucks have invaded Iraq and Afghanistan under the protective wing of your US masters and killed thousands of civilians and here you are preaching to us about Georgia,,,I suggest you shut the fuck up or we might just bomb your fucked up country back to the Bronze age,a couple of Tzar bomb would do the trick,,,,copiersky?!!!!!


maybe he reads this blog?!!