Roundup

By | |

  • Cunningtitle wonders if an article about David Cameron has been deliberately buried. My experience of the BBC search system suggests chaos rather than conspiracy, but you be the judge.
  • A lot of media outlets, the BBC pre-eminent among them, siezed on Tony Blair’s “It has, but…” as an admission that Iraq had been a disaster. Powerline calls it “wishful thinking” in the link. I’d call it gaffe-mining. My impression was that the comment was basically phatic: Blair is always saying, “yes but”.

    There’s about one “look, look, the warmongers admit it” story a day at the moment. The Hutton report must have really riled them.

    Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

    • Bookmark the permalink.

    11 Responses to Roundup

    1. Jack Hughes says:
      November 20, 2006 at 2:44 pm

      Yes, this was trumpeted all day on the BBC – and when I got to see the interview I was expecting some kind of “mea culpa” confession – TB saying something like “Yes Its all been a tragic mistake and I will personally take the blame for this”.

      Sadly it as not like that at all – he said something like “it has, but blah blah blah” with the emphasis on the second part of his sentence.

         0 likes

    2. Cockney says:
      November 20, 2006 at 3:09 pm

      Contrast the reaction in the left wing media to Blair’s ‘yes but…’ with the reaction to John Kerry’s ‘getting stuck in Iraq’ ‘joke’ against Bush/US troops. Benefit of the doubt?

      Do the same with the right wing media’s response to the same.

      Like a f**king bunch of kids isn’t it? This is what happens when all the clever kids are working for hedge funds.

         0 likes

    3. Heron says:
      November 20, 2006 at 3:43 pm

      If the media are so sure that Blair was admitting disaster why did no-one in the media quote even as far as the 4th word? Don’t remember the right-wing media cherry-picking 3 words of Kerry’s joke. They just repeated what he said and let the audience come to the obvious conclusion.

         0 likes

    4. AntiCitizenOne says:
      November 20, 2006 at 3:57 pm

      “This is what happens when all the clever kids are working for hedge funds”

      Well you will at least find weapons of financial mass destruction there.

         0 likes

    5. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:
      November 20, 2006 at 7:13 pm

      AntiCitizenOne:

      “Well you will at least find weapons of financial mass destruction there.

      Interesting you should allude to WMD. I came across this the other day (not on the web), by anti-war journalist Martin Woollacott, on Page 22 of The Guardian of 24 January 2003 (i.e. prior to the invasion of Iraq). The piece was entitled “This drive to war is one of the mysteries of our time”; and it carried the strap line: “We know Saddam is hiding weapons. That isn’t the argument“:

      “But here it is necessary to be as hard on many of the opponents of war as on its proposers, as well as to clear away the misleading idea that evidence that Saddam is concealing weapons of mass destruction is at the centre of the argument. It is at the centre of the manoeuvring, yes, but not of the argument. Among those knowledgeable about Iraq there are few, if any, who believe he is not hiding such weapons. It is a given.“

      And yet, if memory serves me correctly, according to Al-Beeb and Al-Guardian, we all knew for certain that Saddam had no WMD, and the notion that he had was a fantasy cooked up by Bush and Blair.

         0 likes

    6. AntiCitizenOne says:
      November 20, 2006 at 7:39 pm

      Oh dear I was hoping a lefty fell for that one.

      After Iraq was liberated from Saddams rule 1.5 tons of enriched uranium was removed.

      However I was of course also referring to Warren Buffets view of Hedge Funds as “Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction” which I think are coming a cropper as over-regulation and state money creation schemes force more and more risky and opaque investments.

         0 likes

    7. AntiCitizenOne says:
      November 20, 2006 at 7:40 pm

      This news didn’t get much attention on the website.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm

         0 likes

    8. John Simpson says:
      November 20, 2006 at 10:18 pm

      Musnt be just the BBC then, but all the the world’s media thats biased then? . Except those who’s agenda fits yours of course.
      The Beeb are out to get the Gov after Hutton, the Beeb were totally cowed by Hutton. (Delete as appropriate)

         0 likes

    9. Orla Bowen-Geurin says:
      November 20, 2006 at 11:56 pm

      Re: John Simpson | 20.11.06 – 9:23 pm | #

      Short answers to your points –
      Nope
      Nope
      Yup
      Nope

      Always remember that in the BBC lexicon – Integrity, honesty, fairness and repect are four letter words.

      When Beeb media bods use them its usually as a lead in to some utter tosh masquerading as reportage.

      i.e.
      “with all due respect — dah-da-da-da-da”
      or
      “in all honesty — dah-da-da-da-da”

      Know what I mean.

      Any way, got to rush now, got a hot date with a ‘buff’ Pally ‘fighter/militant/insurgent’ — don’t wait up.

         0 likes

    10. computer says:
      November 25, 2006 at 2:50 am

      http://www.computers-guide.co.in

      In the developed world, virtually every profession makes use of computers.
      However, certain professional and academic disciplines have evolved that
      specialize in techniques to construct, program, and use computers.
      Terminology for different professional disciplines is still somewhat fluid and
      new fields emerge from time to time

         0 likes

    11. movies says:
      November 25, 2006 at 2:52 am

      annu is the
      best site in
      this moviesmania

         0 likes