tim ireland : search engine optimisation : viral marketing : weblog marketing
to front page
to date archives
to category archives
national service
© Tim Ireland 2009
Design by Wibbler
RSS | RSD | Atom
« OMG! It's 4 o'clock in the morning! | Main | Rebekah Wade hijacks victims of terrorism »
November 10, 2005'TRAITORS!' screams the Sun
The Sun - Terror bill defeat: TREACHEROUS MPs betrayed the British people last night by rejecting new laws to combat terror. They IGNORED the wishes of the vast majority of Britons and HUMILIATED Tony Blair by inflicting his first Commons defeat. Gutless Tory MPs were joined by up to 47 Labour rebels as they wrecked the PM's bid to hold terror suspects for 90 days without charge.
'Vast majority of Britons'...? I though we'd settled that. And 'traitors'...? Them's *actionable* words, surely (as Scaryduck points out here).
Anorak: Hold on a moment, that's a bit strong. Can you really call the MPs who voted against the Government's new laws to combat terror, and the plan to hold terror suspects for 90 days without charge, enemies of the state? ... What happened to "We are not afraid" and all that post July 7 desire to carry on unchanged? Does giving the State more and more power help us? Or is it the behaviour of a country gripped by paranoia and fear? The Sun then does something pretty appalling. Under "LOSERS" it mentions six victims of that heinous attack on London who the paper says have lost again with Tony's defeat. We say appalling because only one of the six, who are all pictured, actually expresses an opinion on the matter. June Taylor, who lost her 24-year-old daughter in the outrage, calls for terror suspects to be held for 900 days if necessary.
Sadly, Rebekah Wade hasn't made full use of the Page 3 editorial space today *and* she does not call her readers to account for failing to call her 'yes to 90 days' hotline in greater numbers... so (as you've probably already noticed) I've taken care of that for her.
Also, for some strange reason, she has not published the final tally from her hotline adventure.
I'll add to links between power-naps today. As you've probably guessed, I was up a bit late last night this morning...
-
A great headline from Peter Gasston. The traitor.
Davblog: The Sun is at its most vitriolic this morning, labelling the MPs who defeated the government as "traitors" on its front page. It goes on to claim that they ignored the wishes of the vast majority of Britons and humiliated Tony Blair. In a bizarre piece of reporting, it also says the "the limit was slashed to just 28 days". Did you see that? "Slashed"! Since when was "slashed" a synonym for "doubled"?
Another good headline. From another traitor.
Posted by Manic on November 10, 2005 10:26 AM in the category Rupert 'The Evil One' Murdoch
Pings (Trackback)
For trackbacks, this is the URL:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/cgi-bin/mt-tbbh_20x07.pl/758
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 'TRAITORS!' screams the Sun:
» Wade In A Pool Of Deceit from BigDaddyBlog
Guardian -
‘They have given me somebody else’s voice - Blair’s voice’
Tuesday’s Sun featured one of the iconic images from 7/7 alongside the headline ‘Tell Tony He’s Right’, the implication was clear... [Read More]
Tracked on November 10, 2005 4:49 PM
» Traitor! from peteconnolly.co.uk
Manic is setting up a googlebomb. After seeing the headlines this morning, rightly so. If Wade wants to start throwing the 'T' word around, she'd better be ready to have a little googlejuice in return. Traitor... [Read More]
Tracked on November 10, 2005 8:52 PM
Comments
Right, who from that list is most likely to take legal action - if prodded - over being called a "TRAITOR"?
Hmmmmmm..... we have a winner - Gorgeous George Galloway.
Posted by: Scaryduck at November 10, 2005 10:56 AM
-
And also on that list of traitors is William Hague...so I assume that the News Of The World will be under pressure from the Sun to sack him?
Posted by: Nick Barlow at November 10, 2005 11:02 AM
-
I think someone should make a wind-up blog titled: "traitors_are_us".
Posted by: irritant at November 10, 2005 11:26 AM
-
Have you seen the article in the Guardian about the 7/7 victim pictured in the Sun under the words 'Tell Tony He's Right'?
It seems that he's not a supporter of Blair at all.. and is a professor of media studies and had no idea his picture was going to be used. Ooops.
Posted by: bookdrunk at November 10, 2005 1:07 PM
-
I'm guessing they're relying on the wrinkle to the libel laws that says you can't libel a class of people - for example, if I were to say that all tabloid newspaper editors are Hitler-worshipping, spouse-abusing crackheads, not only is that not libel, but no individual tabloid newspaper editor would be able to sue me for libel. It would only become libel if I said it about one, specific, identifiable tabloid newspaper editor.
Posted by: Wolf Solent at November 10, 2005 1:13 PM
-
Wolf Solent: Yes, there is that little wrinkle, and I think the limit is set around groups of over twenty people for legal purposes.
So, if the Sun had said "MPs who voted 'No' yesterday are traitors", they would have been fine because they are implying a large number of people.
However, they then totally piss on their fireworks by naming each and every one of them, individually. And thussly, the group defence is no longer valid.
Poor Rebakah Wade.
Posted by: Scaryduck at November 10, 2005 1:32 PM
-
bookdrunk: I have now. That's appalling:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2005/11/rebekah_wade_hi.asp
Posted by: Manic at November 10, 2005 2:14 PM
-
The Sun seem to have gone completely over the top today:
Posted by: Simon Maxwell at November 11, 2005 8:56 AM
-
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you're new to Bloggerheads, you may need to be approved by the moderator before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)