Tag: media

April Fool: A man in Jalawla walked into a bar…

Medialens spotted that the BBC attributed a bomb attack on Monday in Iraq to “al-Qaeda”, with apparently little evidence.  They wrote to the BBC’s “man in Baghdad”, Hugh Sykes, and asked him “what is the evidence that al-Qaeda, rather than some other insurgent group, were behind the attacks”?.

Hugh’s answer genuinely made me think this was an early April Fool’s joke. In fact I’m still not sure Medialens aren’t making me look like an idiot:

No proof, but circumstantial evidence and reasonable presumption of AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] involvement – very much their modus operandum. Suicide attacks are their signature method, and this was a dramatic detonation suggesting a lot of explosive – again, very AQI.

And…who else would do this?

So, process of elimination, history of AQI attacks in Diyala etc.

And the logic of it Sunni Arab vs Iraqi Kurds. As a man in Jalawla told Reuters:

“Al-Qaida is targeting the Kurds because it believes that
we are involved in the political process and collaborating
with the Americans.”

This blows my mind. “very AQI” and “a man in Jalawla told Reuters”. “Who else would do this?”

As Medialens point out, the BBC claim they are “committed to evidence-based journalism”. Except they pick and choose when their committment applies, such as when they refused to report the use of banned weapons by US forces in their November 2004 assault on Falljuah.

Rehumanize

At the end of these…

Israeli girls write on shells

…are scenes like this

Lebanese boy with mother dying from shrapnel wounds

Why won’t the British and American governments support the end of this violence? Why is America rushing to continue it’s arms supply to Israel? Why is the British government allowing the transport of these weapons through our country? In the face of mounting evidence, why don’t the corporate media challenge the claims that our governments support peace? Why do we let all of this happen? Do we not care? What is wrong with us?

Iran is dangerous nuclear threat

Media Lens Alert: Iran – The media fall into line

The “liberal” “left-wing” media are, once again, falling into line to support another war to enforce the status-quo (along with all the “right-wing” media too, but that’s rather a given). Iran is 10 years away from creating even one nuclear weapon (assuming that’s what it’s trying to do) yet the mainstream media are telling us they are a major threat.

This is how it always works. When the powers that be announce a new threat (Iran) the mainstream media fall over themselves to support it without question.
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BBC ignored weapons claims

The BBC has been accused of failing to investigate claims that the US used banned weapons in Iraq. Is it ignoring the story or has it done its best to seek out the truth?

Well, they’ve:

  • not mentioned that the US have already admitted to using modified napalm
  • stated (falsely) that Human Rights Watch investigated these claims and found nothing (something HRW deny, as they do not have the freedom to conduct investigations in Fallujah)
  • Ignored multiple media reports (rebroadcast on the BBCs very own worldwide monitoring service) stating that “the occupation forces used poisonous gas”
  • Ignored investigations and reports made by Iraqi medical staff and officials at Iraq’s health ministry
  • Stated, falsely, that their reporters had full access to all military documents and briefings and heard nothing of banned weapons

And it’s clear that they’ve only published this Newswatch article because they’ve been repeatedly pressed by Medialens.