Should the Mirror apologise for fake pix?

Sorry, Snapper….that should have read “political support” – I think all this sunshine must have affected me. I’ve amended it accordingly.

Anyway, when did UK Governments start worrying about what we Little People think, Snapper? Other than during election campaigns, that is…….

“Although support for the war (and the Government) is initially high”

I don’t recall that being the case. I seem to recall the majority opposing it.

I notice the other Iraqi thread has gone – and yet still no word about moderators.

Flood.™

OK – let’s take this from the top. 😀

The Government commited our forces to war in Iraq on the basis that it was essential to remove a clear and present danger to this nation and/or it’s interests – Iraqi WMDs.

Although political support for the war (and the Government) is initially high, it begins to fall as it becomes plain that the “clear and presnt danger” was no such thing.

In addition, the people that intially welcomed our forces as liberators now see them as occupiers and casualties are steadily mounting even though the fighting is officially over.

Evidence appears in the mass-media that Iraqi POWs held by our allies are being abused and humiliated, and rumours begin to circulate about the conduct of our own soldiers in this respect.

All of this is highly embarrasing for a Government that is under growing pressure to distance itself from US foreign policy.

Now – given the warm pride and affection that the British people traditionally feel towards their armed forces – just how handy do you think a diversion like readily-refutable fake pictures of British squaddies mistreating a POW would actually be if you were Tony Bliar right now?

Especially if the editor of a newspaper that has been critical of the Government (and has asked some very awkward questions indeed about the war in Iraq) loses his job as a result.

Hmmmmmmmm…………..

TOO FEW journalists realise it’s not our leaders who are lying about Iraq, but the media. This week, for instance, we learned the devastating front-page picture in London’s Daily Mirror of a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi’s head was a fake.
Also this week, the Boston Globe ran on its front page fake pictures of American soldiers raping Iraqi women.
Media here, meanwhile, falsely claimed that pictures from the Abu Ghraib jail also showed soldiers raping Iraqi women.
And, of course, the BBC lied when it claimed the British Government “sexed up” intelligence on Iraq’s weapons.
In each case, not coincidentally, these lies were run by media outlets most hostile to the war and to the Coalition’s leaders.

Just because the Mirrors pictures were faked doesn’t mean those events never took place – just not in front of that camera.
The Globes pix came from a porn film, and I’d assume that these would be the same pictures you refer to as coming from Abu Ghraib – although apparently American senators have been shown images from rape videos collected from American forces.
As to the BBC lying… As far as I am concerned the government did sex up its claims when telling us that Iraq was a threat, with its weapons of massed destruction being ready in 45 minutes and being able to hit Britain, etc, as the American government did when it attempted to link the Iraqis with the WTC terrorists. The UK government was found ‘innocent’ of its charges by a government-appointed judge undertaking an enquiry which helped hound a weapons investigator who knew that there was no nukes in Iraq into suicide. The BBC was found guilty of a reporter lying on air – but the BBC and the reporter did not take the country to war on its lie…

Without standing up for these massed media organisations – they are big enough and ugly enough to do that for themselves – the saying that there is no smoke without fire still fits the bill here; shame it has been somewhat diluted.

Flood.™

TOO FEW journalists realise it’s not our leaders who are lying about Iraq, but the media. This week, for instance, we learned the devastating front-page picture in London’s Daily Mirror of a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi’s head was a fake.
Also this week, the Boston Globe ran on its front page fake pictures of American soldiers raping Iraqi women.
Media here, meanwhile, falsely claimed that pictures from the Abu Ghraib jail also showed soldiers raping Iraqi women.
And, of course, the BBC lied when it claimed the British Government “sexed up” intelligence on Iraq’s weapons.
In each case, not coincidentally, these lies were run by media outlets most hostile to the war and to the Coalition’s leaders.

Still calling for treason?

Flood.™

I wonder how the Compact OED defines “hyperbole”? 😎

I fail to see how the action of the Mirror can be classed as treason.
It was not an attempt to bring down the monarch – unless you know better.
It was not an active attempt to bring down the government of the day – except, maybe, by turning popular opinion against the government so that they would be voted out at the next general election. Sorry but if that is classed as treason then Bliar has been happily blundering his way through treason for the last couple of years.
Has any British service personnel been killed (yet) because of these pictures? Can you prove that these pictures did cause somebody to die?

Difficult, isn’t it.

Maybe your attention should be on the people who made up the pictures and see if there actually is a story to be told. After all, no smoke without fire. The chances are they where told that they would get a lot more money/coverage if they had pictures, and the red-top tabloids can be very hungry for an exclusive story…

Flood.™

“the crime of betraying one’s country”

Any arguments?

Hmmm….The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines treason as:

noun: the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government.

Your move…………… 😀

But you know that they will never go for that…

Flood.™

Personally I would like toi see the Mirror banned from publishing anything at all and removed from sale for the period of at least one month. I also agree with Damien that they be tried for treason, as they have wilfully endangered the lives of Her Majesty Armed Forces. I also believe that they should face charges of manslaughter on the grounds of the guy who had his head hacked off on video. Same applies to the submitters of the picture, and I think that should they be members of HM Forces they should damn well serve their (long) sentences in a military nick.

According to the BBC Piers was sacked by the Mirror boards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3716151.stm

That was the initial newsflash… Obviously if you want detail you could wait until the enquiry.;)

Flood.™

how pity that just a mention of the western media abt the things to be fake that all take it as true??….. very well indeed that all believe that US soldiers are indeed a bunch of santiised bachelors who are brough up from their childhood under the caring of the parents that sex is not moral untill u get married and that u don view opposite sex just as a pair of curves etc etc …… and now all these abuse will die down coz of this propaganda …. and the victims still …. and many think that the CIA or the US wont go abt their ‘enquiry’ in ‘addressing’ facts and bringing out the ‘truth’….. hmmmm ….. so pity …..

And Piers Morgan has stood down as editor of the Daily Mirror now…

Flood.™

According to the BBC Piers was sacked by the Mirror boards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3716151.stm

I should think it’s a fairly simple case of treason

Despicable it certainly is, but treason it is not.

Let’s keep it real, guys.

Treason is the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which one owes allegiance, or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power.

Those British tabloids make me sick !!:(

For what reason?
Sometimes newspapers are too reverential – take the American ones for example: they were all expected to back the invasion of Iraq for patriotic reasons; where is the public interest or free press involvement in that? In France there was the head of a political party (I cannot remember who, but it has been brought up several times by trainee journalists that pass through my paper) who apparently repeatedly spouted on about how only his party could help maintain family values despite it being an open secret (to those in the know, anyway; although apparently not to his wife and children) that he actually had a mistress and child secreted away…
In Britain the papers are in competition with each other and if one says or does one thing then another will usually take a completely contrary point of view: and somewhere, somehow, the public is served with its important news. MPs taking cash for asking questions in parliament, or having two chauffeur-driven fuel-guzzling cars at his beck and call (and using one to drive less than 200metres from his hotel to a conference because it is windy). Or highlighting that security measures are extremely lax for the royal family and at air ports. Or to keep asking why our military had to buy their own boots when the minister concerned insisted that our military equipment was the best in the world (but that didn’t stop the issued boots from melting in the desert…) or that the standard rifle did work properly (but they revamped it anyway…) or that there was more than enough body armour for the troops in theatre (but troops were having it taken from them to issue to others elsewhere, and still having to go out on patrol without them) or that there was enough ammunition (but not for those squaddies who were given three rounds – or less – and told to blag more from their colleagues).
There is, of course, that ‘celeb’ section of the gutter press who seem to think that the world will end if they cannot fill the papers with the latest ‘news’ about some pointless soap opera actors latest battle with reality, or the witterings of some boy bands press agent about their most recent publicity stunt, but this can usually be ignored… Oh, and the sports section – which premier league football player is cheating on his wife with a porn starlet or something. You know what I mean.

Flood.™

To the Daily Mirror, Nelson says HA HA!

However, that still begs the question- did British troops commit any acts of torture, even if the pictures were faked, or were the pictures reproductions of real incidents as Flood pointed out?