Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Friday links, Sept 19

Following up from Ben Goldacre's crushing victory over quack Matthias Rath, George Monbiot looks at another libel bully, Sheffield Wednesday, who took it upon themselves to hunt down fans who had complained about their beloved team being shit, including one fan called Nigel Short:

In November 2007, Short was diagnosed with throat cancer. The case continued. But on Wednesday 3rd September he announced that his treatment had been successful. On Friday 5th, the club dropped the case and agreed to pay his costs. It issued a press release which suggested it had done so because of "Mr Short’s medical condition." I asked the club whether it had abandoned the case because it knew that Nigel would now live to fight the action. It has refused to answer my questions.

What a splendid family club.

Speaking of bastards, here's a lovely tale from David Corn at Mother Jones of what journalists think compared with what they write:

As I sat in the bar writing my piece, the tables next to me slowly filled with senior reporters and top editors from the Washington Post. Typing away, I could hear them deride Bush's speech as a collection of misrepresentations. Their consensus was clear: Bush was trying to pull a fast one.
Yet the next morning, the paper's front page flatly proclaimed, "Bush Promises 'a Safer World': Acceptance Speech Sets Lofty Goals." The lead article was a straightforward account of the address, with not a hint at the well-founded skepticism of the paper's own reporters and editors. A media outfit, abiding by the conventional rules of journalism (just the quotes, ma'am), had once again enabled a president who was not being honest.

Hmm. I wonder if something similar might happen come next January?

Closer to home, 5cc takes a look at this week's bullshit about England being the most crowded (major) country in Europe (if we assume the Netherlands has not had any immigration since 2002).

The Quail looks at those internet lies, and where exactly they might come from. Hmm and one newspaper appears to have lied quite a lot, doesn't it?

Finally, Mark Easton takes a responsible look at the UN Convention on Rights of the Child - explaining why it might be a good idea to think about refugee and immigrant children as human beings rather than evil vermin coming over here to leech our tax pounds away from us. The filthy Stalinist BBC bastard.

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Related posts:

1. Friday links 24/7/09
2. Friday Links List, September 26
3. Friday links October 10: Your own eyes aren’t good enough
4. Friday links 20/3/9
5. Friday links 25/9/09