Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Our Racist Press

Page: 1(2)3 4 5

11:26 / 12.10.06

Hey, I'm the last person on earth to not yell "conspiracy" at the smallest thing, and I'm not saying there isn't any kind of editorial decision not to cover this, but just thought the skinny might be useful.

11:41 / 12.10.06

Well, while we wait to see whether the nazi dentist gets reported here's another fine example for you all I've been emailed;

Baseball star and instructor die in plane crash in New York - two deaths, front page news.
155 Brazilians on a Boeing jet downed over the Amazon by a small plane crashing in to it - all jet passengers dead - footnote on BBC Online (the two American pilots in the small plane survived so not a news story). See story below from Monday.
bbc online

See, when the Americans survive it's not news. Worst air disaster in Brazilian history, "The people are indignant. They want to see justice," not exactly splashed over the papers was it?

12:20 / 12.10.06

is that really racism, though?
i understand that the people are quite probably from a different race to the people using the aformentioned media, but is that why the stories were prioritised that way?

i dont see that the main issue was one of race. i see the main two issues as 1)a crash with 11/9 echoes and 2)a crash involving a famous ball player.

the echoes of 11/9 seem to me to make the story much likely to be read by many of the people browsing any articles on offer. i dont have proof of that, i guess, but it feels a pretty safe bet.
likewise, the involvement of celebrity would get many more people to read than if the crash had involved someone unknown by the world at large.

i dont disagree that it is hideous that people react this way, but i dont feel the reaction, or indeed the pandering to it, was mainly motivated by racism.

that said, it wouldn't surprise me if it was number three on the list of reasons.

12:42 / 12.10.06

Anyone who has any illusions that the mainstream press prioritises coverage with regards to importance rather than with regards to how many papers it will sell has a fairly naive view of the Western media, really.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:47 / 12.10.06

Yeah, it's like that Depeche Mode song-

Jet airliner shot from sky
Famine horror, millions die
Earthquake terror figures rise

Princess Di is wearing a new dress

It's interesting that the very lack of coverage of the Nazi dentist is meaning an awful lot of people are talking about it. Not as many as would be if it was on the news, but at what point, if any, does anyone think the "alternative media" aspect of the internet will catch up to the mainstream?

13:10 / 12.10.06

Oh, very quickly and with a massive jolt to the established media, I should think. There are a huge number of people, especially aged, say 16-30 - probably most of the people on this board, in fact - who don't actually buy a newspaper but get their news coverage from various internet sites.

It's probably the reason I'll be out of a job in five years.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:19 / 12.10.06

It's probably the reason I'll be out of a job in five years.

You and me both, mate.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:34 / 12.10.06

And the guy from Lenin's Tomb has had a response from the BBC.

Who are claiming they didn't know about it. Come the fuck ON. Don't they pay people to look for stuff anymore?

13:38 / 12.10.06

i have emailed the BBC and left posts on the editors blog, none of which were deemed acceptable for publication.
i not only described the situation in brief, but gave names and links to facilitate searching for information.

they are talking out of their arse, or they need to employ soeone to read their email that has a clue.

either way, they are failing in the job i demand of them as journalists.

13:39 / 12.10.06

toksik, it wasn't a choice between the two stories- the Brazil crash was September 29th, about a fortnight ago. Maybe it wasn't racist, what's the word for caring only about your own countrymen or language sharers? I notice people talk about 9/11 and 7/7 without mentioning Madrid, why is that?
Fair point Sax, it's all about the circulation, but it seems very odd to me what gets reported and what doesn't. Things like the satanic ritual sacrifice of sheep on Dartmoor, alleged nazi dentist bombers and Brazilian catastrophes don't make the news much but the veil row gets weeks of headlines? It just seems anything to do with Islam is hot news right now and anything else is trivialised or ignored.

F'rinstance, what's top of google news right now?
A Briton arrested amid a massive U.S. security alert two years ago admitted in a London court on Thursday to plotting to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and carry out "dirty bomb" attacks in Britain.
Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert, admitted to plotting to blow up the stock exchange...

13:41 / 12.10.06

Further to what I said on the previous page, from Lenin's Tomb:

have investigated how the story was missed. It appears a reporter from BBC Radio Lancashire investigated initial reports but the police "played it down". Our regional televison centre in in Manchester found out about the story only after it was reported in the Colne Times. By this time it was several days old. On investigation they discovered that reporting restrictions were in place which severely curtailed what could be said by the media.

13:41 / 12.10.06

I think I'll write an article on the Pendle case and see if someone will take it up.

13:42 / 12.10.06

and it still doesnt show up on a quick search of their site.
unless they just forgot about it as soon as they sent an email to lenin's tomb..?

total arse-speak, i reckon.

13:51 / 12.10.06

Of course, I don't need to point out here that referring to R***** C***** as a "Nazi dentist bomber" is highly defamatory as he has yet to even enter a plea, let alone be convicted of any offence, so if he is found not guilty and his lawyers do a quick google of his name there'll be a lot of people, not least Tom Coates, facing a hefty legal bill and possibly even contempt of court charges...

13:56 / 12.10.06

Ah, time to go back and insert 'allegedly' a bit methinks.

13:57 / 12.10.06

And maybe just star out his name, as above, to stop search engines finding it.

13:58 / 12.10.06

English and Welsh law must seem pretty weird to our American friends, who can pretty much say what they like when they like.

14:07 / 12.10.06

Well, US law seems pretty weird to me (OJ Simpson, the Bush election..) so fair's fair. Let's move the server to America!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:22 / 12.10.06

Just put some mod requests in- from now on, it's probably best to asterisk the guy's name until the case has been heard.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:29 / 12.10.06

According to a Lenin's Tomb poster, The current fash theory is that the, um, pro-multicultural media holding back media coverage until the trial itself, when it will be thoroughly exploited, because it's within a week of Griffin's hate-speech retrial.

As another points out, theory has never been their strong point.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:35 / 12.10.06

Maybe it wasn't racist, what's the word for caring only about your own countrymen or language sharers?

Parochial?

16:28 / 12.10.06

I was thinking blinkered or nationalist or bigoted, insular, clannish, prejudiced, sectarian, provincial, isolationist, solipsistic... but none of them quite fit. I want a word that means discriminating against cultures that don't share one's language but 'linguist' isn't it.

19:50 / 12.10.06

(you fucking hack)

Was a joke.

21:03 / 12.10.06

Just watching BBC Three and the news came on with a story about a British man being arrested for planning to blow stuff up. So it appears to be a case of better late than never.

23:43 / 12.10.06

I can understand how the London focus of the media let this one slip by them as it all took place in the wilds of t'North. What I don't get is the lack of mileage the police made of all this. I find that a little bit weird given the televised raids we have been routinely seeing recently. I am not suggesting that there was some kind of sting that might have been filmed but, at the very least you'd expect a bit of trumpet blowing from the plod on this, before it got to the magistrates court. Haven't we seen that in other cases, or did I just make that up?

06:11 / 13.10.06

No but I think I might have been imagining things about the BBC Three report. I haven't heard anything about it since.

16:39 / 13.10.06

I just got this in my email:

Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

of particular note to me was that people really do say

"political correctness gone mad."

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:47 / 13.10.06

They do. They say it all the time. Believe me, I read newspapers (including the Mail) for a living. They say it an awful lot.

A few years back it was even more popular than "if... (insert event or action here) then the terrorists have won", if you can imagine that.

16:48 / 13.10.06

Sadly they say it a lot

17:09 / 13.10.06

I'm not quite sure how you could use a phrase like that and not hear how ridiculous it is.

"gone mad" attached to anything should trigger over the top alerts. Doesn't it register as automatically negating productive opinions and signal hyperbole?

Though reading the article it strikes me how very different the U.S and the U.K are in some respects. I'm fairly certain racist comments would get a kid expelled post haste in many schools but the cops would just laugh at a teacher asking them to arrest an adult for such things let alone a child. If a child was arrested for racist comments the entire town/city would probably come down like a ton of bricks on the PD for bringing a child into a police station.
I could be totally wrong though but considering my high school experience arrests for non verbal violent actions were quite rare unless parents pressed charges. From hearing tales of my peers' child wrangling it sounds much the same these days.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:32 / 13.10.06

I'm not quite sure how you could use a phrase like that and not hear how ridiculous it is.

I think it's actually used so often people don't even think about it any more. It's almost become entirely phatic.

17:57 / 13.10.06

Except when people say 'It's PC gone mad, it really is' to be emphatic. Scary how often people say it seriously.

19:12 / 13.10.06

Read those shitty comments tagged onto the end of the article. I'll give them political correctness gone mad!:-

No one seemed arsed that a by-lingual child was having to coach three other kids with limited english, yet could commend little Miss Chuck-a-fit for standing up for her rights.

No one again commenting on the fact that kids with minimal english were winging a science class instead of getting some english lessons or science in urdu.

No extrapolation of events into reasoned conclusions about the pressure cooker environment of state schools, the inability of lots of teachers to cope with having high demands made whilst few resources are provided and the general shitness of having the joy sucked out of teaching.

23:54 / 13.10.06

The evil scum have also stolen her eyebrows, apparently.

All Acting Regiment

10:00 / 14.10.06

Oh dear, oh dear. I mean it's the perfect Mail-fodder in so many ways: you've got the basic dodginess of a minor (white, female) being taken to a police station, and they'll now link that to the Urdu-speaking kids and make it look as if they were to blame. If you look at the facts of the case you find that she was arrested for throwing a tantrum and being disruptive, something quite separate from the fact that she didn't like the group she was in.

Page: 1(2)3 4 5