Wednesday 12 September 2018

Tinfoil Times

Around these parts we do not tend to encourage tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories, but I'm putting down a marker here for future reference.

Having been in Paris myself on Sunday I couldn't fail to notice that a fairly prominent mass stabbing took place there - with two British tourists hurt - apparently perpetrated by an Afghan nutter run amok.  It promptly featured in UK news outlets, as you'd expect.

Then, radio silence on the Beeb and in the Grauniad.  No updates on Tues or this morning, notwithstanding the clear British interest, and even though more details became available elsewhere.

What price a *liberal meejah* resolution, post-Swedish-election, to minimise such stories? 

ND

19 comments:

Swiss Bob said...

Why report a stabbing in a foreign city when hundreds of incidents in London and Birmingham barely get a mention?

CityUnslicker said...

Swiss Bob, there are not hundreds of multiple stabbings in London and Birmingham on a daily basis. This is just bollocks, sorry.

A stabbing in London generally makes a small news story in London. If an non-gang member is attacked then it gets bumped higher up the list.

I am with Nick, it is odd this is being played down given the UK angle. However, I think the papers know they are selling more copies with pictures of the delectable Carrie Symons on the front covers.

andrew said...

As CU - no tinfoil req.

and would add this reminds me of that time I did a bit of philosophy at college.
Recommend Causing Death and Saving Lives by Jonathan Glover.

He called it the distance effect - to a UK person on the clapham omnibus

1 stabbing in the UK = 10 in France = 100 in Israel = 1000 in China

(not literally but you get the idea)


Anonymous said...

The French police said they didn't think it was terror-related, and we can trust the French police, surely? And if the BBC and Guardian don't cover it, it's surely not important?

Just another case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome I imagine, where a previously apolitical violent petty criminal with multiple convictions and a drug habit suddenly sees the light of Allah and realises his obligation to kill as many kuffr as possible.

This story in the Paper Of Record is only one day old, but isn't on the main news page.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6154397/Paris-stabbing-suspect-homeless-crack-addict-illegal-migrant-Afghanistan.html

Alas if you look into these things, you may be infected by tinfoil yourself. Just look at the differing amounts of BBC/media coverage given to the murders of a 21 year old black guy who was stabbed to death in wrong place wrong time chance meeting woth a gang of racist ethugs, and the abduction, torture and dreadful murder (by burning alive) of a 15 year old white child by a gang specifically hunting for a "white boy" to "take his eyes out and kill him".

Everyone's heard of Stephen Lawrence, no one's heard of Kriss Donald.

Anonymous said...

I forgot to add, at the time of the 2001 Bradford riots Blunkett (I think) got councils to set up "social cohesion panels" to "reduce tensions" - local newspaper editors were asked to attend regularky.

I imagine there's still something similar in place today.

Anonymous said...

You don't have to go to Paris to find a distinct lack of interest in some stories.

Lest week a woman "dressed in Muslim clothing" shouting "Kill, kill, kill" was arrested in Barnsley after stabbing a guy in a seemingly random attack before being disarmed. She's been named as Ayaan Ali from Isleworth.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/barnsley-stabbing-woman-shouted-kill-kill-kill-while-brandishing-footlong-kitchen-knife-in-busy-town-a3930831.html

I'll stop now.

Anonymous said...

Atrocity fatigue set in a while ago. Stabbings are the new normal.

Anonymous said...

could the lack of coverage also have something to do with the fact that news 24/7 is more a form of entertainment than meaningful journalism? I imagine the likes of sky news, bbc, et al use analytics to figure out that stories on "Sudden Jihad Syndrome" aren't selling very well these days?
J

Bill Quango MP said...

I'm always more concerned by the attempt to spin a story into a certain area.
So Jihadi John, is just some guy from Wapping called John.
The most ridiculous was the 'Norwegian' man in a terror attack. When it was quite plainly someone arrived from Afghanistan or Sudan, to Norway as a migrant.

I do think a lot of it is the incredible fall in journalistic standards. The 24 hour news stations that simply have to have something to say. So when the first report says the man was resident in Oslo, he becomes a Norwegian.

The backlash, against fake news, follows on from what is perceived as a deliberate attempt to spin.

dearieme said...

An old friend - an intelligent, educated chap - astonished me the other day by praising the Beeb's news coverage. Maybe it's the generation gap - he's even more ancient than I am. But still I reeled.

He pretty much believes whatever he's told by the MSM. I know that "MSM" is an internet sneer but it's one well earned.

We're doomed!

Anonymous said...

And now we see Trump's White House, on the 17th anniversary of 9/11, threatening to start another war if Syria/Russia attack the jihadis that the US/UK are ostensibly at war with (but are actually funding/supporting).

btw I had no idea that the famous "White Helmets" were set up in 2013 by a Brit, ex military intelligence. Calls himself James le Mesurier though I can't find a record of his birth.

Electro-Kevin said...

Simply reverse the scenario - even just the once.

White gang attacks dark skinned boy.

Well we know what happens. Inquiries, memorials, root and branch reform of institutions, end to end media attention...

Black on white murder is so frequent as to have been normalised - 8th page of the nationals if you're lucky. If you don't believe me we could check the body count - alas they've hidden it and because they've hidden it we know that the media are in on it too.

Where's the great, brave BBC expose' on ethnic on white assaults and killings ?

Electro-Kevin said...

Contrast the wall-to-wall MSM output when a group of England football fans refused a black man entry to a train on the Paris Metro.

They did not stop until all details were revealed.

Thud said...

Just the price we pay to live with vibrant people and eat interesting food, or so I'm led to believe.

Electro-Kevin said...

I'm more concerned that the white, liberal/left media is not so much involved in a conspiracy as having operated dual expectations of behaviour based on race.

How patronising of them. It is also making things worse.

By all means, track down racists on the Paris Metro but don't sweep other things under the carpet.

Anonymous said...

"Stabbings are the new normal."

They were normal in Shakespeare's day too.

Don Cox

Electro-Kevin said...

But not in the 1950s.

andrew said...

It must be v.v.v. painful to be stabbed in the 1950s.
Pinky brown told me so.

Electro-Kevin said...

But not normal.