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We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Media cluster trolls, Allison Pearson and old-fashioned hate
IT’S ages since I last thought of Allison Pearson, once of the Daily Mail parish, now ventriloquising for the middle-class mutes of the Daily Telegraph. She re-entered my head with the horrible news that she had fallen victim to the troll virus. Some dreadful person-reader had unleashed the fruitcakes of Twitter upon her good name and exposed her to words yet to be recognised by Wikipedia. One of them, with a ‘gynaecological’ connotation! Allison opined eloquently against trolls – read her piece here.
The business of trolling – ie conducting a targeted and persistent campaign of threatening abuse – reminded me of a piece Allison wrote in her Mail column in March 2008 about Fiona MacKeown. You may recall that Fiona’s daughter, British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling, was raped and murdered in Goa – it was largely thanks to Fiona’s tenacity the case ever got to trial. Allison, among others, though I am sure privately empathetic, publicly used this tragic event to reproach Fiona for being a selfish hippy. Fiona had not bought into Allison’s addiction to workaholic conformist angst otherwise known as bourgeois life – and so was now deserving of the kicking Allison happily gave her as editor Paul Dacre pulled yet another one of his theatrical faces.
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Posted: 9th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (8)
China bans anyone talking about how unhappy they are
THE World Happiness Report (here) is banned in China. The United Nation’s publication ranked China the 112th happiest country out of 156 countries. China is not as happy as the UK (18th) but happier than Afghanistan and Chad.
Of course, the recipe and measure for happiness might be hard to define. For most Britons happiness is another parent’s badly behave child, being the first in the queue to spot a new supermarket checkout opening and changing lanes, tuning down Sarah Ferguson’s demand for a night of passion, pulling a shoelace trapped beneath your socked foot in a brogue, getting into bed, daytime telly and finding someone to blame for all your troubles.
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How to host a “sinking party” to experience the Titanic, minus the shipwreck
EVER wondered what it was like travelling on the Titanic? Then you’re in luck because this year’s centenary of the ship’s sinking has brought plenty of opportunities to experience life on board a boat heading for an iceberg. This weekend, party fixers around the world will be hosting morbid luxury meals, Titanic viewing parties and dinners with actors impersonating shipwreck victims in commemoration of the passenger liner’s doomed maiden voyage.
On Sunday, the Titanic Memorial Cruise set sail from Southampton, England with 1,500 passengers on board – the same number of people that were on the original boat. Some are relatives of Titanic survivors and many dressed in period costumes. During the trip, the passengers will sample the food and music enjoyed by Titanic’s passengers before the boat hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912.
In St Louis, Missouri the centenary has inspired a new trend, “sinking parties“, where guests experience the food and entertainment offered to the Titanic’s passengers. At the city’s Fox Theatre, dinner guests will fork out $500 to sample a 38-dish menu that includes poached salmon with mousseline sauce, roast duckling, Filet Mignons Lili, Squab and Cress, Pate de Foie Gras and Waldorf Pudding. Tickets are limited to 327, the same as the number of the Titanic’s first-class passengers.
A champagne brunch costs just $45, and will have actors impersonating Titanic passengers. A local paper reports that “countless” home sinking parties are also being planned, with chefs updating vintage recipes from the Titanic’s last menu for those who wish to prepare their own commemorative dinners.
A Hong Kong restaurant will also be aiming to “recreate the ambience on the ship” by offering diners a $200 10-course dinner imitating the one served to the Titanic’s first-class passengers just before disaster hit.
For those who don’t have first-class budgets, bloggers are offering tips on how to host the perfect Titanic-themed party at home.
Perhaps the thought of hundreds of people drowning and of restaurants and tour companies turning a tragic event into a money-making opportunity puts you off your dinner? Well, then you could just head for the cinema to watch the new 3D-version of Titanic.
Posted: 9th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Moses was Muslim and so was King David says Palestinian expert
IN today’s history lesson the Middle East and the Bible, Dr. Omar Ja’ara, ma lecturer at Al-Najah University in Nablus, tells Palestinian TV that Moses was a Muslim who led the Muslims out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
That was after David, another Muslim, had defeated Goliath (not a Muslim, but very possibly a tall Jew)…
Erase history and erase a people’s right to the land.
Spotter: PalWatch.
Posted: 9th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (16)
Lies turn Trayvon Martin’s death into a race crime
WHEN is a racist attack not a racist attack? Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists. Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a “white hispanic”. In the video at the foot of the story, a white tourist gets beaten up and assaulted – sexually? – by blacks. Is it racist?
NBC featured the 911 call Trayvon Martin’s killer Geroge Zimmerman made before a shot was fired:
Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”
911: “Okay. And this guy, is he white black or Hispanic?”
Zimmerman: “He looks black.”
NBC edited that exchange and created:
This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.
ABC reported: “Trayvon Martin Video shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman”. Days later and ABC had another look and noticed that Zimmerman seemed to have been hurt:
Barack Obama told all media that Trayvon Martin could be his son. This is the same Obama whose Homeland Security issued a video telling Americans that people in hoods are up to no good and must be shopped to the police. The official line is: “If You See Something, Say Something (TM).”
So. Is this a racist attack, then?
The video shows a man being punched in the face in Downtown Baltimore. You can hear his head hit the pavement near the entrance to Courthouse East.
Instead of helping, people laugh. Then, the crowd strips him naked and takes his car keys, watch, money and iPhone.
Posted: 9th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
Face of the day – The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter revival
FACE of the Day: The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu (left) baptises Edward Cooke, outside York Minster as part of the outdoor baptism service held on Easter Saturday.
Are blacks the most racist against blacks than whites are?
ARE black people more prejudiced against dark skin tons than whites are? One study notes that not all blacks are treated the same. Those with darker skins get a raw deal. The darker the skin, the longer the prison sentence:
Villanova researchers studied more than 12,000 cases of African-American women imprisoned in North Carolina and found that women with lighter skin tones received more-lenient sentences and served less time than women with darker skin tones.
The researchers found that light-skinned women were sentenced to approximately 12 percent less time behind bars than their darker-skinned counterparts.
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After the psychopathic polar bear Knut meet cute Anori
REMEMBER when polar bears were used to illustrate the man-made global melting? News media featured the sad bears sat on a small patches of ice. Well, polar bear numbers are up – 66 per cent higher than estimates. Polar bears are doing so well because scientists have been leaving them alone.
In Newfoundland the polar bears are attacking and making home visits. Two were shot dead just last week.
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Blackburn police give cannabis plants to allotment farmers
BLACKBURN police boast that they have seized loadsa marijuana plants and then “donated” them to Little Harwood allotments.
The police later amended the story to read: “PCSO Sarah Wilson donates soil and pots to Donald King at Great Harwood allotments.”
Spotter: Karen
Reports tie the Invisible Children charity to gay-hostile groups
NEW REPORTS have tied Invisible Children, the charity behind internet smash hit “Kony 2012”, to right-wing groups hostile to gay rights.
Bruce Wilson, of the Talk to Action website, writes:
“Invisible Children, which has branded itself as welcoming cultural, religious, and sexual diversity, also enjoys extensive institutional and social ties to the global evangelical network known as The Fellowship (also known as ‘The Family’) – which has been credited with inspiring and providing ‘technical support’…for Uganda’s internationally-denounced Anti Homosexuality Bill, also dubbed the ‘kill the gays’ bill.”
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Ten little boys in blue done for racism – Terrelle Ferguson speaks
TEN Metropolitan Police officers have been suspended for alleged racist behaviour. Shocking. But it’s all too believable that the police are racist. Terrelle Ferguson alleges he was abused by police officers in Forest Gate station. His video is further down the page.
Today the Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner, Craig Mackey, stood outside Scotland Yard and stated there was “no room for racism in the Met”.
First came Stephen Lawrence. Then came Mauro Demetrio, and an unnamed youth.
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
Charles Manson in photos – 12 parole hearings and 77 years
CHARLES Manson is 77. He kept his hair. It’s long and grey.
The California Department of Corrections has released to media a photo of Manson. His latest parole hearing on April 11. Will Manson – convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to death for his part in the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate, pregnant wife of the film director Roman Polanski, and six others – get out? No. The parole hearing is a procedure. This will be Manson’s 12th. The only reason he’s not already dead is because California stopped executing people for a period in the 1970s when Manson’s sentenced was commuted to life.
He never committed those killings. He ordered his followers to.
Manson had a grudge against a record producer who used to lived in Tate’s home. He was trying to cover up his own part in the murder of a drug dealer and the two other victims – Rosemary and Leno LaBianca – were randomly selected to make it seem as though a serial killer was at large
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
Samantha Brick is the victim of a Twitterhunt – tweeters want her raped, murdered and punched
SAMANTHA Brick, troll-bait protagonist and victim du jour of the Mail’s misogynistic editorial policy, told ITV’s This Morning that she intended her article to be witty. It wasn’t. It was devoid of humour. It was shaped by words, sub-editing photos and headline to make Samantha Brick look like a delusional vanity case – and she fits the bill. Even her name – Brick – appears to work of the parodist, a shaped lump of clay that think because it’s stuck in a wall at Buckingham Palace or by Kate Moss’s left shoulder it is it the people have come to see.
But was the reaction to her nonsense any more humorous than her article? No. Not all of it.
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (7)
Falkland Islands grass up the Argies
WITH Argentina reduced to invading the Falkland Islands with T-shirt slogans, nasty words and Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez make-up explosion , thus not troubling our man with rifle and colander, Andy Beckett tells Guardian readers:
In the Falklands, even the plant life seems to send a political message, leaning perpetually eastward, away from the prevailing wind and Argentina.
Yeah, even the grass hates the Argies.
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Did police kill man’s pet cat for fun?
THE Mary Bale Fan Club welcomes the Swedish police who rescued a cat “with a limp” . They then shot it and dumped it by the roadside.
Says Göran Hjalmarsson, the cat’s owner:
“Cissi was everything to me, she was my rock. She was part of my family, she understood me. I couldn’t sleep if she wasn’t nearby. I live alone now, and Cissi had been my only consolation after my daughter died of cancer ten months ago. Cissi was all I had left. I’m extremely saddened by the whole thing, I want the police to come to my home and apologize. I want answers.”
Hjalmarsson says he found his cat, which had been buried by local children. He checked it over for signs of injury. The police said the cat looked as if it had been in a traffic accident. They said they could not trace the owner, but Ciss was wearing an ID tag. Hjalmarsson says that aside from the bullet hole in his chest, the cat had no injuries.
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Liz Jones is the Daily Mail’s hait-bait: Samantha Brick and Kate Middleton get trolled
WHEN Liz Jones read about Samantha Brick, the woman set up to be the Daily Mail’s go-too hate figure of the day, she knew she had to step up her game. At the morning editorial, the paper’s misogynistic editors looked at the usual faces – Brick, Platell, Moir, The White Witch, Cruella de Vil, Lady Macbeth – and wondered which would pen the troll-bait. And then in stepped Liz Jones, dressed in a blazer and air stewardess scarf. Her hair is pushed back behind one ear. She clasps her hands over her stomach. She smiles. And the blind man at the back of the room screams, “Lumme! It’s Kate Middleton.”
Liz will be the tabloid tampon soaking by bile and vitriol. She will be make a ridiculous, self-aggrandising statement – “Is Liz Jones turning into Kate Middleton? – and have her breasts and mind appraised by a willing commentariat eager to stick the knife in and in and in and keep on plunging until the story bleeds all over the internet and makes the Mail famous on Twitter, Facebook and beyond.
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
The pitiful case of the USA versus Howard Morgan
HOWARD Morgan is black. Howard Morgan was once a Chicago police officer. Howard Morgan has been shot 28 times by four policeman. He lives. The policemen who shot him are all white.
Morgan works as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. While driving his car – he was off duty – Howard Morgan was pulled over by the police. No, not for DWB (Driving Whilst Black) – he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. It was Feb 21, 2005.
The white police officers claim they tried to arrest Morgan. They say Morgan drew his service gun and shot at them. They say his bullet hit one officer, who was wearing a bulletproof vest. So. The three others officers shot Howard Morgan 28 times. Twenty-eight. He was shot 21 times in the back. The police either lost control or just wanted Howard Morgan to die. Why?
Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, tells the Sun-Times:
“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous.”
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Posted: 4th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (10)
Face of the day – the bloody Jesus of Philippines Holy Week
FACE of the Day – a blood-spattered Jesus at Philippines Holy Week. Filipino self-taught artist Ronald Bautista works on his version of the Passion of Jesus Christ Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at the financial district of Makati city, east of Manila, Philippines in his neighborhood’s observance of Holy Week. The giant art installation, made of recyclable materials, has attracted a number of local and foreign devotees. The Holy Week, which is marked by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday and his resurrection on Sunday known as Easter, is the most important holiday-of-obligation among Catholics other than Christmas.
Donald Trump boasts about his private parts to transgender Jenna Talackova
DONALD TRUMP, the real-estate mogul, US Apprentice boss and owner of the Miss Universe Organisation, bragged about is genitalia when addressing the controversy surrounding Jenna Talackova (photos), a transgender beauty queen who was disqualified from the Miss Universe pageant in Canada last month.
During a press conference, the 23-year-old Talackova ‘s attorney, Gloria Allred, referred to Trump’s private parts, saying that Talackova “didn’t ask Mr. Trump to prove he’s a naturally born man, or see photos of his birth, or to view his anatomy… It made no difference to her.”
In response, Trump phoned in to TMZ, telling viewers that “I think Gloria would be very, very, very impressed with me”. As regards sharing his baby pictures, Trump joked: “I just wanna know how much will Gloria pay me? Because if the payment is enough, I might just do it. Boy, would she be impressed.”
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The Hunger Games gives a Daily Mail writer’s drippy daughter nightmares
MORE signs that the Daily Mail and its online sister is aimed not at reporting news but at fomenting comment and outrage. Shona Sibary took her two daughters to see The Hunger Games. And – yep – it is a corrosive influence on young minds. A scare story is born:
Ever since the moment we stepped out of the cinema, I have quite genuinely been worried sick that they may have suffered lasting emotional scars.
One of Shona’s children cried when “her younger brother once, accidentally, trod on a ladybird”.
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Posted: 4th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (6)
Chronically ill Black Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain Sr shot dead by police sent to look after him
IN light of the killing of Trayvon Martin, news of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. Mr Chamberlain was black. He was 68-years-old. He was once a Marine. Police killed him at his home in White Plains, NY on Nov. 19, 2011.
Before shooting Mr Chamberlain dead, police called him a “nigger”, electrocuted him with a stun gun and shot him with a beanbag gun. They then double-tapped him twice in the chest.
The police were there to help Chamberlain whose medical alert pendant had accidentally triggered an alarm while he slept. That alarm has a built-in recording device. Reportedly, the police can be heard yelling: “I don’t give a fuck, nigger, open the door!” They banged on the door for an hour.
The alarm went off at 5:08am. At 5:25am, police arrive. At 7:09 am, Mr Chamberlain is dead in hospital, shot by the police.
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Posted: 4th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Pensioners have no teeth for a fight – Times letter of the day
AFTER Samantha Brick, is everything a parody in the press? This letter appeared in the Times on March 23, 2012:
Sir, Successive governments treat pensioners in a disdainful manner as we are seen as a sector of the population who have no teeth and no organisation to fight our cause.
Peter Jackson
Rhyl, Denbighshire
Dentists might hang their heads…
Police in action 1939-1945: photos of a time or racism, riots, murder and joy
WHAT was it like for the police between 1939 and 1945? We’ve raided the archives and produced a montage of photographs that reveal a taste of events in the War years that have been overshadowed by bigger stories. The captions by the Associated Press and Press Association writers are added flavours of the times. A policeman’s lot was not always happy lot, whether in the UK, Italy, France, Germany or the US, Look out for Bridget Hitler’s tax problem, zoot suits fights, Detroit race riots, German terror and Paul Colette…
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Posted: 3rd, April 2012 | In: Flashback | Comments (2)
Samantha Brick: When Craig Brown and Jan Moir collaborate for the Daily Mail the results are wonderful
“SAMANTHA Brick” has penned an article in the Daily Mail that explains why she is hated because she is beautiful. After a few hundred words, it becomes clear that there are a myriad reasons to dislike or even hate La Brick, and only one of them is her alleged beauty.
Brick is 40 years old. Her blog informs us:
Samantha juggles life as a freelance TV consultant, journalist, writer, yogi and, of course, French housewife (still very much in training alas).
If you do not already dislike her or see her as work of parody, you’re on the wrong website.
Says Brick:
Throughout my adult life, I’ve regularly had bottles of bubbly or wine sent to my restaurant table by men I don’t know.
Because you dress like a sexually available drunk? No. It’s because “my pleasing appearance and pretty smile made their day”.
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Posted: 3rd, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (13)
Amphetamines are good for you – selling drugs to the fat and depressed (photos)
AMPHETAMINES were once legal. They were advertised as being good for you and yours. Appetrol was a drug that acted as an appetite suppressant. In world War 2, the troops were fed Benzedrine to keep them sharp.
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Posted: 3rd, April 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, The Consumer | Comments (3)
