Tim Ireland on tabloids, media, blogs and politics
Rupert ‘The Evil One’ Murdoch
The Sun: taking Christmas on tour
13th Dec 2004
The Sun continued it’s Save Our Christmas campaign on Saturday with a FREE (if haughtily branded) nativity poster and news of an attack on the age-old tradition of celebrating Christmas via the conspicuous consumption of electricity.
Vic Moszczynski’s 8ft Father Christmas sits among thousands of decorations illuminated by hundreds of lights and sings Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas, while ten snowmen sing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Sadly, an environmental health officer and a policeman are tried to silence these voices of hope.
The Knapps of Gotherington, Gloucs, fared little better with their simple string of lights when an anonymous neighbour (obviously a leftist) dropped a letter through their door that said: “Your dull, ugly front garden fails to reflect our village image.”
Well, the problem there is obvious. They need more expensive lights. And some mirrors.
Today, coverage slips off the front page, but there’s news of another light display under attack and the wider campaign continues as they take the nativity on the road. Rock and roll!
The Sun – The Nativity on tour: The Sun has hit back at politically correct meanies – by defiantly taking the famous Christmas Story out on to the streets. Our mobile Nativity scene bought seasonal joy to hundreds of Christmas shoppers and tourists across London. It was the latest move in the Save Our Christmas campaign against meddling jobsworths who want to kill off festive traditions. The tableau recounting the story of the birth of Christ was mounted on the back of a lorry – which made its first stop yards from the Houses of Parliament. Onlookers burst into applause as The Sun’s Three Wise Men paid tribute to a newborn baby Jesus.
Such defiance! These days, you can get arrested for promoting the nativity.
Such resourcefulness! Who knew there were three wise men working for The Sun?
Such sensitivity! If you look carefully at the pictures, you’ll note that they’ve been careful not to grace Baby Jesus with a Sun name-badge.
Such a response! Hooray for spontaneous celebrations and demonstrations.
This tour ties in closely with the very origin of Christmas, when Mary was transported to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey, only to be turned away at the inn. Mary gave birth right there in reception as the three wise men arrived, and the decision was made to prepare their camels and her donkey by strapping a platform onto their backs, get on board, and take their joyous news from town to town. To enjoy the many spontaneous celebrations, obviously.
In doing so they developed world’s first flat-bed truck over 1,500 years before Leonardo da Vinci claimed to have ‘invented’ it. A glorious achievement, even if the whole set-up was – in every sense of the word – decidedly unstable.
UPDATE – Scotland has obviously been overrun by loony lefties….
Scotland on Sunday – So this is Christmas?:The signs of a new awakening to the spiritual meaning of Christmas are emerging. Last week, The Sun, Britain’s most popular red-top newspaper, launched its own campaign to save Christmas. It didn’t have to look too hard for the forces of politically-correct, joy-killing darkness.
Sunday Herald – Campaigns to put the Christ back into Christmas are misguided: what we need is a shorter, saner Yuletide: It is not only in America that cudgels have been taken up against those who would take Christ out of Christmas. Our own dear Sun newspaper has launched a campaign to save Christmas. We can rest easy, knowing that the baby Jesus is safe in the hands of Rupert Murdoch. We had vaguely imagined old redtop Rupe as something of a Herod figure, but he now stands revealed as the fourth wise man.
The Sun backs Santa Claus backing The Sun
10th Dec 2004
The Sun – Wanted: Satan Claus: DO-GOODERS are out to turn Santa into Satan – so today The Sun calls on readers to help save the old boy from the sack. Jovial Father Christmas is HATED by the politically correct brigade. He is demonised and treated like a wanted man. His crime? Bringing joy and wonder to millions of kiddies around the world. The Sun launched its Save Our Christmas campaign yesterday by exposing the Scrooges who ban lights, carols, cards and other traditional festive pleasures. Today we have the Santa sleighers in our sights. Killjoy bosses at the St Elli shopping centre in Llanelli, South Wales, have installed a webcam to spy on their Santa – in case he is accused of being a PAEDOPHILE.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I see this first bit of ‘evidence’ of a widespread ‘attack’ on Santa actually being more of a response to paedo-fear. Now if only I could think of who exactly has been whipping people into a frenzy about this.
And, of course, everybody except for us evil killjoy leftists sees the direct connection between Santa Claus and the start of this campaign, rooted in outrage over ‘attacks’ on the religious aspect of Christmas.
The Sun explains it thusly: Some critics of Santa Claus say he is a religious symbol. It is true that he is based on St Nicholas, a saint born in what is now Turkey some 1,700 years ago. But to the vast majority of us, Santa is a symbol of the good times and love we share with our families and friends at this time of year.
How true. How very true. The modern version of Santa Claus is the very (consume!) symbol (consume!) of (consume!) peace, love and goodwill to all men. And all of our attacks on him (I think of nothing but how to defeat Santa every day of the week) are based on a pathological hatred for all religions. Unless our unreasoned hatred is based on distaste for his role in introducing children to consumerism. In which case, that’s just us reverting to our main role as cynical killjoys.
Indeed, who would dare oppose the pro-Christmas (buy The Sun!) poster (buy The Sun!) campaign (buy The Sun!) that’s due to begin tomorrow? This would be an attack on Christmas itself (and can only help the terrorists).
Point out that this is a cynical marketing ploy from a newspaper with slipping readership, and you may as well tell your kids that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
Well, I’m here to tell you that yes (Virginia) there is a Santa Claus, and he is now the property of Rupert Murdoch.
Hands off.
UPDATE – Blood & Treasure: The Sun endorses human sacrifice
The Sun: All your Christmas are belong to us
9th Dec 2004
The Sun prepares you for a full red mist this morning with a kick-arse front page, letting you know that Christmas is under attack from “meddling politically correct jobsworths.” In case you’re not sure what this really means, today’s Page 3 girl spells it out for you…
Krystle (21, from Manchester) reckons political correctness ruins the Christmas spirit. She says: “Loony lefties who try to spoil Christmas should be banned. They all just seem to enjoy making other people miserable.”
There you are. Loony lefties. We hate Christmas, and anything else that brings you joy or comfort. We should be banned. Or perhaps shot.
This Sun story echoes concerns voiced in the Moonie Times, but – because the media is overrun with leftist scum, if you actually take the time to look into this story, you’ll see that most other news outlets focus on the celebrity nativity-scene stunt at Madame Tussauds.
Look, here’s more at MSNBC!
That’s 141 stories to 2, folks. Curse the liberal-media!
The Anti-Murdoch Network
5th Nov 2004
First off; why are we doing this?
Well, I said before the US election that – even if Bush lost – the main problem would remain… Murdoch. Even if we hound Blair out of office, this same problem remains here, too. We’re left with a choice of ‘leaders’ in league with Murdoch or leaders who are crippled by constant attacks from Murdoch.
I tried to explain the scale of this to my 9-year-old son last night. The guts of the exchange went as follows:
If someone wants more than 5 television stations, if they get satellite TV, what company do they use?
Sky
Murdoch owns it. How many different newspapers do you see down at the newsagent each day?
About eight.
Close enough. Murdoch owns two of them. And because of something known as the ‘echo effect’, what he pushes forward often reaches four or five others. What’s Dad’s favourite movie?
Star Wars
Guess what?
Murdoch owns it?
You got it. What’s my favourite TV show?
M*A*S*H…. or The Simpsons. Which one does he own?
Both.
(pause) Wow. And you’re going to fight this guy?
I’m going to do what I can.
(laugh) Good luck!
But:
Get Murdoch
3rd Nov 2004
Put it aside. Put it aside and focus on what needs to be done. We appear to have four years of hard work ahead of us, and we simply can’t afford to roll over.
It would appear that many Americans have difficulty telling the difference between someone who *is* a good president and someone who is (sometimes) very good at playing the role of president.
All issues of legality aside, the Iraq war not only served as a massive distraction from the fight against terrorism, it also aided existing terrorists and encouraged further terrorism.
Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib played a massive, massive role here.
Take a look this; it’s been on my mind lately and I’ve talked/emailed a few of you about it…
Abu Ghraib photos cause gasps in Congress: More
than 1,800 images, including video clips, were screened by members of the House and Senate in separate classified briefings under Pentagon supervision. The lawmakers disagreed over whether or not the images should be made public, but reaction to the content was vehement.
As DailyKos quite rightly asks; Where is the outrage?
Shop a Yob? Shop a Nob!
17th Oct 2003
I personally consider The Sun’s ‘Shop a Yob’ campaign to be obscene.
I also found it interesting that they’ve found the perfect poster child in Michael Carroll.
I bet I can name someone richer than Michael who does more damage to society. On a daily basis.
You should read up on Sun editor Rebekah Wade a bit, too. A dangerous woman in a very influential position.
‘Shop a Yob’ angered me so much that I simply had to make the following posters as therapy.
You can get yourself a large copy for your home or workplace by clicking on any sample below.
Download, display and enjoy.
UPDATE (30th Oct 2003) – The Sun’s Shop a Yob campaign is not only disgraceful, it’s a shameless rip-off.
Hmm. Hard to know who to root for on this one.
Andrew Parkes is the editor of News Shopper, which has been running its own Shop a Yob campaign for almost two years, and he had this to say: “If The Sun is serious about joining with us in our fight to identify and shame the scum of our society then I welcome them.”
Poster 1 – Rebekah Wade
Poster 2 – Rupert Murdoch

