17 Responses to YES!

  1. dc says:

    On News24 BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan wonders “does [the capture of Saddam Hussein] actually change the situation on the ground or not?” ROFL!

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  2. Don Eyres says:

    It will fun to watch the spin from a large collection of “the usual suspects” on this story!

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  3. DumbJon says:

    I predict some dentists will get very rich dealing with an epidemic of badly ground-down teeth in the Shepard’s Bush area of London.

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  4. Alan E Brain says:

    Have a look at How the BBC is Spinning This in their comments section. As per flippin usual. *Sigh*

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  5. lee moore says:

    I enjoyed this too – after grinding my teeth a bit first. It’s not bias at all – it’s just mindset.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3113417.stm

    Even though the American-led invasion removed him from command, it did not wholly remove him from influence. His spirit hung over the Iraqi people like a ghost in a Shakespeare play.

    Do ghosts in Shakespeare’s plays have a particular way of hanging over people ? Do they have a tendency to hang over whole nations of people ? Iraqis in particular ?

    I think that our correspondent wanted to say “like Banquo’s ghost” • a not particularly apt simile as the Iraqi people are not a feast, and the particular feature that distinguishes Banquo’s ghost from other ghosts is that he appears to Macbeth alone and not to the whole company. And he appears to Macbeth alone because Macbeth is guilty of his murder, which is rather the reverse of Saddam’s relationship with Iraqis. So why Saddam in relation to the Iraqi people should

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  6. lee moore says:

    (continued)

    But having selected Banquo’s ghost for his simile, why didn’t our correspondent just say “like Banquo’s ghost” ? I think our correspondent, or perhaps his sub editor, decided that Banquo was not the sort of fellow who is well known to the British public and it might just be a little elitist to refer to him. Hence the absurdity of “like a ghost in a Shakespeare play.”

    There is an ancient and powerful diagnostic principle in linguistics, the Latin for which I won’t trouble you with, but in English it is “By their cock ups, ye shall know them.”

    The BBC is an organisation in which a journalist (or sub editor) will go to any lengths to avoid being thought” elitist.”

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  7. lee moore says:

    Whoops – sorry. It should have continued as follows :

    be likened to Banquo in relation to Macbeth is a bit odd. But let’s accept that both Banquo and Saddam are haunty type ghosts, and let our correspondent go ahead and select Banquo.

    But having selected Banquo’s ghost for his simile, why didn’t our correspondent just say “like Banquo’s ghost” ? I think our correspondent, or perhaps his sub editor, decided that Banquo was not the sort of fellow who is well known to the British public and it might just be a little elitist to refer to him. Hence the absurdity of “like a ghost in a Shakespeare play.”

    There is an ancient and powerful diagnostic principle in linguistics, the Latin for which I won’t trouble you with, but in English it is “By their cock ups, ye shall know them.”

    The BBC is an organisation in which a journalist (or sub editor) will go to any lengths to avoid being thought” elitist.”

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  8. Chris says:

    This comment from George Galloway was on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3317491.stm at about 1300 GMT today (Sunday, the day of capture):

    “This will not stop the Iraqi resistance… if anything, it may set the resistance free, if you like, from the cloud of Saddam Hussein, and transform it into a purely national resistance movement without the charge that it’s being controlled from behind by the deposed president.”

    By 1519 it was gone. (See http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2003/12/sir_i_salute_yo.html#comments)

    How stupid do they think we are?

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  9. dc says:

    Interestingly the editor of Al Quds, Abdul Bari Atwan, was interviewed on News24 and expressed exactly the some hope for renewed resistance as Gorgeous (as well as some bonkers raving about Saddam being drugged/gassed to prevent his noble self-martyrdom).

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  10. Barry Rab says:

    Did you see the general trend on this site
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3106787.stm
    “What is your reaction to his capture? How should he be dealt with?”
    Just read who reacted and how. Like this for starters: “This ‘fantastic news’ is just that for Bush and Blair but not so much for the Iraqi people who suffered at his hands – ”
    Oh well, let’s go make a cuppa.

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  11. Matthew says:

    Chris,

    I don’t know how stupid they think you are, but what actually are you trying to say? The quote is still on the BBC site, but in a different location. Obviously as more important people have commented they have changed to those.

    What a shame on a day of joy you can only carp.

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  12. Chris says:

    I note that the quote is still floating around on the BBC. However, I thought the purpose of this site was to criticise the BBC. I may have been mistaken in thinking this was yet another stealth edit, but how the hell do you get from a criticism of the BBC to the suggestion that I’m trying to take the joy out of Saddam’s capture? Prat.

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  13. Susan says:

    Fuck the BBC and fuck the horse they rode in on. “Have Your Say” would have probably broadcast regrets from Oswald Moseley after the Allies found Hitler and Eva Braun dead in the bunker.

    Have a happy Christmas, Boss Hogg. You’ve just been sucker-punched by a simple-minded cowboy from Crawford, Texas. How does it feel?

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  14. yip says:

    OFF TOPIC
    Humphrys’ weasel words from today’s Sunday Times column –

    “Many Americans are growing increasingly uneasy at being told that they must accept a diminution of civil rights in the face of an unseen danger. A friend recalled the chilling words of Martin Niemöller, the German pastor: “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist . . . Then they came for me. And there was nobody left to speak out for me.”

    My friend was not making a comparison between modern America and Nazi Germany. He knows that would be preposterous. But he worries about civilised values in an uncivilised world.”

    Humphrys doesn’t liken the US & neither does his imaginary “friend” – so why mention it at all?
    The sooner this biased prat is booted out of the BBC & left to his printed ramblings, the better.

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  15. dek says:

    The BBC this morning rushed to get a comment from my local loony MP, Alice Mahon.
    Her “joy” at Saddam’s capture was much tempered by her need to remind us that Saddam had been armed by the US.
    The BBC chooses not to correct her & point out that it was the BBC’s friend, Chirac, that played a rather larger part in that enterprise –

    USSR 57% of weapon supplies
    France 13%
    USA 1%
    UK

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  16. mal says:

    Blunkett got hauled over the coals for statements presuming guilt of a person arrested under the anti-terrorism laws.

    All day today the BBC have been coaxing interviewees to state that the trial of Saddam by Iraqis would not be justice (the wogs don’t know how to organise a trial, seems to be the BBC’s thought).

    But lordy, are not the BBC prejudicing any fair trial of Saddam by reporting that he was responsible for the deaths of many Iraqis?

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  17. Barry Meislin says:

    First they came for the terrorists, and…

    Oh, never mind.

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