Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

1. 

   Fitzrovia
   May 27th, 2009 - 17:48

   I know that that the BBC said:

   “The town’s Muslim community recently staged a march against terrorism in a bid to demonstrate that their faith is based on peace and harmony.

   But look at the all!!!!!!!!!!!!

   They are Moooooselims!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!eleven!!!!!

   So full of hate with those beards.

   When will our brave boys in balaclavas STAND UP FOR OUT RIGHTS. !!!!!!11111

   It’s a fucking disgrace that the daily Mail gets away with shit like this.

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2. 

   bristle
   May 27th, 2009 - 18:09

   If you know anyone who works at the Evening Post, Western Daily Press, Venue or Metro, ask them. They should be able to access the Northcliffe picture management system onto which all Daily Mail & General Trust and associated companies' newspapers place their photographs.

   The PMS used includes information on when it was taken, who took it, syndication and other matters of usage, and a caption detailing who took it, who is in it, where it was taken, what it relates to etc. It should also give details of where else the same image has been used across the DM&GT empire.

   Essentially it would be difficult – very difficult – to just 'accidentally' reuse an old photograph. It would also be unlikely that the photograph is in the system without a caption.

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3. 

   mr bish
   May 28th, 2009 - 10:12

   Dunno if I’m stating the bleeding-obvious here, but the IPTC metadata contains this:

   Byline: MARK RICHARDS
   Caption/Abstract: 15.03.09-ISLAMIC MARCH THROUGH THE STREETS OF LUTON PASSES OFF WITHOUT ANY INCIDENTS THIS AFTERNOON

   So we have the date, the creator and the (rather telling) caption which makes explicitly clear that the march in the photo was peaceful. Unfortunately, none of that info has helped me find the original article the photo comes from, despite having a good google.

   The fact that there’s no attribution watermark at the bottom left (unlike the photos above it) would indicate the photo is owned by the Mail or one of its subsidiaries, but until there’s an effective search engine that allows you to specify IPTC strings, that doesn’t narrow things down much.

   I also tried searching the Mail website for all articles in the week following 15/3/09, but didn’t have any luck (I might have missed something though, there’s a hell of a lot of shit to sieve through – even/especially if you add the search terms muslim or islamic).

   It’s also possible that the image was never actually used to report the story it depicts – an ‘Islamic march’ going off without incident is hardly the Mail’s stock-in-trade, so they probably felt entitled to use it in an entirely different story, since it pictured people of the same religion in the same city (by which logic, a photo of some of my old school-chums, who are Catholic and live in Manchester, could be used to depict the IRA bombers of old… “They all look the same to me…” etc)

   What’s most amazing is that the Mail still haven’t removed the pic from the site. I so dearly hope every one of the people in it finds out and press for libel.

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4. 

   Anton Vowl
   May 28th, 2009 - 10:46

   Good work Mr Bish. I think the fact that the parade took place without any incident is precisely why there wasn’t a story about it…

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5. 

   Fitzrovia
   May 28th, 2009 - 11:05

   More importantly – it wasn’t an ANTI-WAR march as such.
   It was nothing to do the British soldiers marching or with insulting anyone.

   It was an “Muslims are not all terrorist” march.

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6. 

   Wireman
   May 28th, 2009 - 12:30

   Here’s some more info…

   The Sun, page 8, March 16, 2009:A MARCH by Muslims to mark prophet Mohammed’s birthday went peacefully yesterday – despite fears of disorder.

   There had been rumours that right-wing extremists would try to disrupt the event in Luton, Beds, because 15 Islamic fundamentalists ruined a Royal Anglian Regiment homecoming parade there last week.

   Some 500 men and boys, many chanting and waving flags, paraded for a mile through the town.

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7. 

   -
   May 28th, 2009 - 18:37

   The real question is why didn’t they want to use pictures of the actual protest that caused all the furore?

   Look, here’s one from the Mail’s own site: [url]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/12/article-0-03D1B0D0000005DC-922_468x314.jpg[/url]

   It’s got angry looking bearded brown people shouting, what more do they want?

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