The News of the World today publishes an "apology" to the Kalam family whose lives were traumatised last year when the police raided their home in London's Forest Gate. A false tip off, that all or some of the occupants of the house were Islamic terrorists, led to the raid in which one man was shot and injured by the police. For more on the case and the police apology click here. For a thorough profile of the case click here.
The Screws had no choice but to "apologise" for telling the following lies:
1. That Abul Koyair - one of the young brothers - had a criminal record.
2. That the Kalam brothers' parents planned to go on holiday despite the shooting.
3. That there was strong evidence that child porn had been found on a computer at the house.
4. That a large sum of money found at the house could not be accounted for.
The paper now admits that the police were immediately informed of the cash savings ... and as for the child porn images, the paper artfully dodges a tricky truth. Let's just say for now it would have taken a techie expert to plant those - and the victims here were not techie experts.
The "apology" is framed within a big lie: that the paper "incorrectly implied" these fabrications. There was no implication: the paper expressly repeated - or made-up - these claims while laundering its police-fed propaganda with the word "suspects". The Screws' Lucy Panton pantingly reported on July 30, 2006: "ANTI-TERROR cops were stunned when their massive raid on suspect bombers in Forest Gate turned into a chilling child porn probe, we can reveal." How many more copies of the paper did that lie sell?
The man who presided over this malign exercise in demonising a perfectly respectable Muslim family was editor Andy Coulson, since dismissed for other reasons, but now resurrected as the Tory party's PR boss - telling untruths is certainly his metier. But he alone cannot be blamed for the News of the World's Goebbels-like approach to minorities, the truth and reporting: at the top of this heap of shit is Rupert Murdoch himself who back in October told The New Yorker this:
"We keep having to speak politically correctly about it, saying Muslims are wonderful, it’s just a tiny minority. They are not all terrorists, of course, but the frightening thing is that it is the children of those good original immigrants who are being brainwashed in big numbers."
Yes, old Rupes must have nodded sagely when his trash staff dreamt up their Islamo-phobic fantasies over the Forest Gate incident, adding his bit to the growing tragedy of international mistrust and paranoia.
PS: The Screws' "apology" is buried in a tiny coffin on page 2 of the paper, the least read bit of Britain's top masturbation rag. On the Screws' website homepage I do not see the "apology" at all. I'm sure it's been sneakily hidden somewhere, while the coverage stories were splashed all over.
4 comments:
The editors are even more vicious than that in the old Europe: first they make up the rumor, and then a little later they conspicuously apologize about it. It provides them with two wonderful opportunities for selling a lot of copies. There are no limits to hypocrisy and cynicism in Hackland, I thought you knew that already, cara. :-)
My surprise is that you disapporove of these, er, "professional" tactics.
Aw... Do you think I'm too pessimistic? As the Russians use to say, a pessimist is just a well-informed optimist. ;-)
I'm here incognito, you know, and I write my private opinions. Besides, there's nothing very new or daring about this one, is there?
Maybe not but one should make a fuss periodically about these things.
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