You are currently browsing the daily archive for November 5th, 2006.
The Times (via my wife):
IN SUSSEX, they celebrated England throwing off Catholicism with traditional bonfire night gusto yesterday by blasting effigies of the Pope to smithereens…
And hey, whaddya know? In response Catholics aren’t even rioting, issuing fatwas, and/or demanding apologies for such as not “very helpful for community relationships“.
Why? Because Catholics know it is called “freedom of speech” — however ignorant and distasteful it might be.
The BBC’s John Simpson manages of course to slip it in:
…he never seemed to have a coherent defence strategy.
If he had persisted in attacking the questionable legal basis of the US-led invasion he would probably have had much more impact…
Presumably, given that second sentence is offered up by Mr Simpson as a universally understood given rather than as his narrow, personal opinion, it is perhaps understandable that he chooses not then to clarify for us just why he considers the US-led invasion to have been legally questionable.
The government has issued a smog warning ahead of bonfire night on Sunday, and a senior Labour politician called for the annual event to be scrapped as an environmentally unsound anachronism…
…Labour MP Barry Sheerman said it was time to abandon the annual festival of fireworks and bonfires to mark the anniversary of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up parliament.
“Here we are 401 years after the death of Guy Fawkes still having a bonfire in most people’s gardens, polluting the atmosphere with carbon and the worst contribution to dioxins in the whole year,” he told BBC radio…
Hold it, though. There has been a nearby “environmental trade-off” on carbon usage today. The BBC reports:
Power cuts have struck several countries in western Europe, leaving millions of people without electricity.
Power companies said the outage started in Germany with a surge in demand prompted by cold weather, and then spread to other parts of Europe…
Okay, maybe those millions are now very cold (despite “climate change”), and in the dark. But think of all the carbon they are not emitting? Isn’t it wonderful?
The Ministry of Defence lifted its ban on Britain’s Independent Television News being allowed access to frontline troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, resolving a spat, spokesmen for both sides said…
…The row blew up late last month and left the MoD saying it did not feel able to reassure service personnel “that they can deal with ITN with confidence”.
The news report in question focused on the medical treatment of wounded personnel flown back to a hospital in Britain.
Unnamed MoD sources told The Times newspaper that it raised concerns over images showing identifiable wounded soldiers arriving in Britain, without obtaining permission from the men, possibly causing their families distress…
Think about it. That short report encompasses no less than three news organizations: ITN (”the maker”), The Times (a “secondary reporter” on “the maker”), and AFP (a “tertiary reporter” on “the maker” and that “secondary reporter”). So, nowadays, newsgatherers not only gather but openly involve themselves in making news, and their competitors then enjoy the added bonus of getting more content themselves thanks to their of course “needing” to report on those competing newsgathers’ having openly made news.
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