ME and Ophelia

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WHERE'S THE APOLOGY FROM THE BBC?
No other hoax on the scale of the faked Mirror pictures

The Daily Mirror newspaper and BBC News online hoax over two solid weeks endangered British troops. So much damage has been done in the meantime.

The Mirror, on its front page apologised to UK troops, saying: "SORRY..WE WERE HOAXED - Iraqi PoW abuse pictures handed to us WERE fake."

Where's the apology from the BBC? They were just as complicit in doing so much damage. The BBC should apologise too. And everyone responsible for this hoax should be prosecuted.

Note the BBC's report "Mirror not first to be duped": who can recall any other hoax on the scale of the faked Mirror pictures? The allegations made were strong enough NOT to require the use of pictures if there was any degree of suspicion.

Following on from my below listed posts, I am pinging here - via Technorati - four blogging Members of Parliament, in the hope that someone will demand that the BBC apologises to UK troops:

Clive Soley MP
Tom Watson MP
Richard Allan MP
Austin Mitchell MP

May 01: DOUBT CAST ON IRAQ TORTURE PHOTOS - Truck shown in photo was never deployed in Iraq
May 02: WHY IS THE BBC CONTINUOUSLY STIRRING UP TROUBLE FOR EVERYONE IN IRAQ - And not headlining shocking photos of rape and genocide in the Sudan?
May 03: SUDAN IS NOT IGNORED BY THE BBC - It's lack of political and media outrage
May 13: MIRROR PHOTOS CATEGORICALLY NOT TAKEN IN IRAQ - Truck in the photos had never been in Iraq
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Update Sat 18.00 - This morning, BBC News online headlined this world news report: "Mirror apologises to UK troops".

This afternoon, they've replaced it with this headline: "Four arrested over 'Iraq abuse' - four British soldiers have been questioned over allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, the MoD says." Click into that BBC report and see the soldiers were questioned under caution and released without charge. Note, it was not connected to the fake Mirror picture story.

The BBC quickly dropped "Mirror apologises to UK troops" in favour of headlining four British soldiers being questioned under caution and being released without charge and that the questioning of the soldiers was unconnected to the fake Mirror pictures. I won't be surprised if they keep that story as a headline for much longer than they kept the "Mirror apologises to UK troops" as a headline story.
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THE BBC IS A NATIONAL MENACE:
It is an enemy of this country’s interests and a fifth column in time of war
And it is now helping poison the discourse of the world

Huge thanks to Melanie Phillips for her May 15, 2004 post The British Quisling Corporation. Read the full post - especially note the report on Ann Clywd MP. Here are some excerpts:

"Over the past few days, the BBC’s virulent bias over Iraq, America and Israel has gone into an utterly astounding overdrive. The scandal over the ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners has clearly destroyed the last vestiges of any attempt at fairness as hysteria has descended on our public disservice broadcaster. Item after item has mounted attack after attack on America, hyping up the distorting defeatism over Iraq and continuing to promulgate the view that Israel, the victim of the most barbaric atrocities, is instead the root of the problem in the Middle East.

What all this shows is that the BBC has become far more than a redoubt of Guardian and Independent values; far more than a journalistic disgrace; far more than betrayal of the concept of public service broadcasting. It has become nothing short of a national menace, an enemy of this country’s interests and a fifth column in time of war. There is no doubt in my mind that a major reason why otherwise sane and sensible Britons have totally lost touch with reality, believe the US and Israel are the source of all evil while people who play football with the heads of Jews are the victims of injustice, and are on the way to pressurising the British government to pull out of Iraq, denounce America and thus hand victory to religious fascism, is because of the influence of the BBC, our secular church. And because of its immense global prestige and the fact that it is trusted to tell the truth, the BBC is now helping poison the discourse of the world.

The new BBC chairman, Michael Grade, is reported to believe that the BBC must draw a line under the Hutton controversy and that his job is to restore morale. In other words, business as usual. The government, badly burned by the inextricably linked public hostility to Hutton and the war in Iraq, will now not touch the BBC. The Tories, who do not appear to grasp the vital strategic importance for this country of standing shoulder to shoulder with Blair against the anti-Americanism that threatens Britain’s security, have opportunistically sided with the BBC against the government

If the BBC had behaved in this way during World War Two, we would have lost it. If it is allowed to carry on in this fashion, we may lose against the new fascism that threatens us."