"brakedwells post is very interesting, even if it is taken from the Guardian, which is somewhere below the Viz is terms of journalistic accuracy."
"Carnage Matey" (sic) then proceeds to acknowledge that the substance of the article is borne out by his (no doubt impressive) experience.
By now we should be used to seeing this sort of foaming-at-the-mouth blanket prejudice against journalism here. Given that the Guardian and Observer are still the only newspapers (as far as I'm aware) which aren't owned by robber barons whose primary interests are their own wallets, perhaps greater objectivity is to be obtained by reading the Daily Mail, or watching Fox Television.
I have previously tried to point out here that there's something that rings false about the general coverage of this story, and that there is evidence of this in reputable sources (such as saag.org). However my posts have been removed. I wonder how long this one will last?
No doubt there was/is a conspiracy of some kind. No doubt
some of the information released so far is accurate. However it pays to remember, to mention 5 recent examples only:
1) Tanks at Heathrow (pre Iraq invasion)
2) Brazilian electrician in bombjacket, leaping barriers.
3) Ricin "plot".
4) The "Jihadi Brothers" (one shot).
5) "WMD"
In each case the media, in the main (and initially including the above mentioned publications) faithfully reported the government/police early press briefings, which in each case proved to be almost completely fictitious! It's a general principle of propaganda (aka "spin") that people only remember the initial disinformation, and seldom the retractions or petering-out of the non-story. So deliberate exaggeration is a simple, reliable and useful strategy. We live in a time when this has reached epidemic proportions; let's be grateful that not all journalists are prepared to take government
PR, or public hysteria, at face value.
And just to make it clear: I have NO SYMPATHY with the kind of bigoted maniacs who try to kill innocent people by any means at all. Neither do I have any sympathy with governments who, whilst claiming to act in the national interest, actually implement policies and disinformation strategies which compound the very problems which they purport to address.