Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

A crock of shit from start to finish

The front page of today's Currant

is an especially pissweak piece of journalism. Thousands of miles away, let's remember, journalists are having grenades chucked into their building for having the temerity to report the news accurately and fearlessly telling stories that may upset the Government. Here, there would be no such worries at The Sun even if reporters faced such perils. Because if you work on the tabloids, you're never going to say anything approaching the truth; and you can rest easy knowing that you're toeing the party line when it comes to the military and anti-terror squads, regardless of whether their line is accurate or not.

And of course the Sun would be loath to splash on its front page with those troublesome images of blood-splattered images from Gaza. Even bearing in mind that the press balk at the more graphic images of war for fear of upsetting us over the breakfast table with the reality of what's going on, and certainly wouldn't print the kind of photos you can find online, they need a better story than that, and one that puts the violence into a fresh (and palatable for Sun readers, so anti-Muslim) perspective. And so we have:

TERROR TARGET SUGAR

in the dead tree version, while

HATE HIT LIST

is the headline on the web.

There seems to be little doubt at first glance, then, that Sir Alan Sugar, as a Jew, is in the crosshairs of Islamic murderers. But there are a couple of problems with that. First, there is the common sense idea if you were going to assassinate/terrorise a public figure, the first thing to do would probably not be to mention that you were going to do so on a public internet forum; and secondly, well it's a load of shit, as the Sun rather delicately reveals itself.

FEARS grew last night that hate-filled Islamic extremists are drawing up a “hit list” of Britain’s leading Jews — bringing the Middle East conflict terrifyingly close to home.

Mm. 'Fears' then. Well we can all *fear* things - we can *fear* being murdered in our beds, or pushed down the stairs, or getting cancer, but that doesn't mean those fears are founded in reality. Are these fears that the Sun is talking about?

British anti-terror expert Glen Jenvey is convinced online forum Ummah is being used to prepare a deadly backlash against UK Jews.

Man who makes living from anti-terror intelligence and there being a big threat says that anti-terror intelligence is vital and there's a big threat. OK. Is that it? And do we know for sure this forum is definitely one for fanatics? I'm not saying it isn't; I'm just wondering whether it is or not.

His warning came as Europe was hit by anti-Semitic attacks over Israel’s push into the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds have died in the Jewish state’s response to rocket attacks by militant Palestinian group Hamas.

Just a gentle 'push' into Gaza.

On the Ummah site, “Saladin1970” asks for help compiling “a list of those who support Israel”.
“Abuislam” asks: “Have we got a list of top Jews we can target? Can someone post names and addresses?”

Mm. Is that definitely for murder then? Or possibly for letter-writing? No, it must be for murder because these people are Muslims, and therefore murderers. Maybe these individuals are potential killers; I'm not saying there aren't people who would think this way, and of course they would be despicable. But where's the evidence?

Mr Jenvey, 43, said: “The Ummah website has been used by extremists.

Has been? Not 'is'? So it's not an extremist website then?

“Those listed should treat it very seriously. Expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs.”

But is this a writing campaign or - as the Sun would have us join the dots and believe - a campaign of violence? Not that there's anything big or clever or righteous about writing abuse and/or threats to people, if indeed that's what is being planned, but I don't know what's being planned, because no-one does - or if the Sun does, it certainly doesn't want to prove it.

And of course, were those on the list to 'take it very seriously', as this terror expert implores them to do, they would probably require the services of a reasonably priced terror expert... ah if only they knew the name of... hang on a minute, that's handy!

Now of course there sadly are people who would target British Jews for violence, and they are appalling individuals if they do. It would be foolish to think there weren't. But on the other hand, how severe is the threat? We certainly won't find out through the Sun, which wants to make it seem as appalling and immediate as possible.

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