Thursday, October 21, 2010

Media BS Masterclass #23 - Setting up a couple of frosty ones

For many years the UK Gold Standard for 'chilling' imagery was this picture of Myra Hindley...


Not being old enough to recollect the
Moors Murders the only thing I found immediately chilling about that photo was the choice of haircut and unflattering lighting

For the generations that did remember the murders, however, this was an extremely emotive photo and became legendary as a cheap, Pavlovian way to boost newspaper sales on a slow day, through the simple technique of fabricating the flimsiest of pretexts to stick the Hindley portrait somewhere on the front page

And, after I learned a little about the Moors Murders, I could concede that, yes, you could convince yourself that there was something intrinsically evil about Hindley's expression if you were so inclined

But, to be honest, the image itself really was no more intrinsically 'chilling' than any other crap portrait taken of a woman with a crap haircut in the mid 1960s


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Which is my roundabout way of introducing the much more contemporary issue of what is the State and its supportive media whores to do when there is fuck all in the way of video evidence that ties the alleged 7/7 bombers into the actual bombings?

Imagine that you've secured a mound of totally innocuous video of the alleged 7/7 bombers going about their daily business, no different to the mound of innocuous footage you could gather on any other citizen of these over-surveilled isles but, thanks to a series of incredibly unlikely mishaps, you have no actual, for want of a more respectful phrase, money shots

How do you attempt to convince Jane and Joe Public that the footage you are going to try and sell to them as being hard evidence of terroristic wrong-doing is not actually banal and irrelevant?


Various dodges have been tried - showing undated footage not taken on 7/7 at the same time as a voice-over talks about 7/7 is one, referring to 'iconic images' of ecstatic bombers hugging each other that don't actually exist has been another, but none have been so heavily used as the old classic...


Describe any old irrelevant toss as being 'chilling'


Don't quite get what I'm on about? Do a couple of Google searches for terms like '7/7 Bombers Chilling' or '7/7 Chilling Photographs', read a few of the results and see if any of the material described as 'chilling' is anything but irrelevant and/ or innocuous


Here's one of my personal favourites...



and a couple more chilling images...



and not forgetting this chilling footage here



as I'm sure you'll appreciate, there are plenty of other examples out there

Make no mistake, whenever you see or hear the word 'chilling' used in a news story, the person behind that story thinks that you, your mum, all your family, your friends, your neighbours, everyone you've ever cared for in this life, are all thick as pig shit and are stupid enough to be sold any old codswallop, given the right subliminal prompts

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edit: and in the context of BS news stories attempting to weave evidence of murderous intent out of the irrelevant and mundane, the first half of this Daily Mail article...



...is so ridiculous as to be surreal




I know we're talking the Daily Mail here but surely at least some of its regular readers have enough intelligence to comprehend that it is being insulted

Surely?

.

65 comments:

paul said...

Buying ice on a summer's day is literally chilling activity.
Looks like they bought enough for everyone.

paul said...

I was drawn to the chequerboard blouse in that photo.

Probably wouldn't have noticed without the internet.

Stef said...

I remember the heady days of 3 or 4 years ago when a post like this would have, within a few minutes, picked up an incensed anonymous comment berating me for my bloodthirsty insensitivity for pointing out that the latest release of chilling imagery showed nothing of any significance at all

Even the J7 Inquests blog has been trolled by only a solitary, lame-arsed comment about the grassy knoll so far

Meagre fare indeed

The Antagonist said...

I was going to say - the only thing that hasn't been described as chilling is the ice packs which are, by their very nature, chilling. Paul beat me to it.

Is there any point to having words that don't mean much any more?

As for the checkerboard, would that be the same checkerboard that turns up in several chilling murder cases, including Myra & Co. Baby P and Sarah Payne?

Stef said...

and elsewhere

Stef said...

"Is there any point to having words that don't mean much any more?"

but of course there is

The Antagonist said...

EVEN MORE CHILLING!!!

BBC licence fee on ice for 6 years

Stef said...

/ sheds bitter tears of Unfathomable Sadness

paul said...

BBC

I'm shocked at that, though having a much loved and thoroughly cowed institution to soothe the population at their own expense might be an asset in the destruction of the impoverished.

And you never know when you might need their tactful coverage

Stef said...

an asset yes

but it would be arguably more efficient if, like with other medications, people were charged for their State propaganda at the point of consumption, based on their ability to pay

The Antagonist said...

It would be nice to think that employees of the State Broadcasting Corporation, particularly in the face of the Dave and Gideon CUTS with a silent N assault on those less privileged than themselves, would begin to acknowledge their working and middle class interests and recognise that the State for whom they are doing the broadcasting is in fact the same affirmed class enemy that all other working and middle class people face.

Just like the MoD suggested they might.

Stef said...

I'm sure that. for example, millions of people would gladly subscribe to Mark Urban's fine work on a Pay to View basis

Stef said...

"I'm Mark Urban, and I'm Newsnight's diplomatic and defence editor. I deal with war and peace around the world, so with apologies to Leo Tolstoy, that's what this blog will be called. No literary pretensions, just an attempt to drill down to the key issues - people around the world struggling for peace and security."

Nope, nothing Orwellian about that

Stef said...

That's an uncharacteristic massive FAIL for you there Ant

Haven't you heard? The coalition is sticking it to the banksters really, really hard

So hard that they might even leave these shores once and for all

Where would we be then?

paul said...

One bullet - Frank or Mark?

Stef said...

definitely scope for a skill shot

Stef said...

regretting my last chilling comment

I'm f*cked now

The Antagonist said...

regretting my last chilling comment

I'm f*cked now


That's less untrue than you might first think:

AFP: US man pleads guilty in 'South Park' terror threat

Anonymous said...

The inquests were told that there were '15 operational/'conspiracy' phones in total and at least four personal phones' used by the alleged bombers.

Chilling, or what?

paul said...

South Park

Should read very unusual man threatens cartoonists

The Antagonist said...

^ That's two massive fails on my part. I mistakenly posted the Mark Urban-Myth version of the story.

Stef said...

Can you get Conspiracy Phones on contract?

The Antagonist said...

Well, as soon as you use any contract phone to discuss any plan at all with someone other than yourself that, technically, could be alleged to be a 'conspiracy phone'.

I ain't getting on no phone, fool!

Tube bombers posed as the A-Team in text messages just hours before 7/7 attacks

I am suitably chilled, but that's because of the open window and the inclement weather.

paul said...

Can you get Conspiracy Phones on contract?

No, strictly pay as you blow

Stef said...

that's you f*cked now

The Antagonist said...

We're all in this together!

Stef said...

Maybe we should all go on a chilling team building exercise

The Antagonist said...

Maybe not.

The Antagonist said...

Team-building: "a guerrilla warfare like activity."

Stef said...

FFS

thanks

I'd forgotten about that one

The Antagonist said...

Oh, I feel much safer now. Don't you?

The reemerging Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) means internet providers will be forced to install interception equipment in their networks to capture details of who contacts whom, when, where and how via services such as Facebook, Skype, webmail, and online games.

Green light for spooks' net snoop plan

Pretty fucking ridiculous seeing as most of the world is quite open and public about what they're up to. Even in conspiratorially secret corners of hate like this very blog and comment thread.

Oddly, the most secretive folks of the lot are the fuckers behind such domineering plans to monitor every packet of data that flies around the Interwebs.

Oh, and they're the ones with all the guns and ammo and bodies of armed men. And butter.

Anon said...

I thought they were already doing that snooping? Or at least the NSA\GCHQ were...

The Antagonist said...

^ Yes, but that's not nearly enough snooping, they have to do more.

Which means lots of hefty IT contracts and jobs for the boys.

Anything that falls under the 'security' super-sized golfing umbrella is very good for the fictional economy.

gyges said...

However, if a journalist attempts a bit of de-chilling she gets sacked.

"Jane Kelly was a journalist with the Daily Mail for fifteen years and became the main feature writer, well known for her interviews with international celebrities. She was dismissed from her job after her painting of Myra Hindley If We Could Undo Psychosis 2 (see above) was exhibited in The Stuckists Punk Victorian show at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool in September 2004."

stef said...

Undo Psychosis 1 is also pretty special

stef said...

...and the first half of that A-Team article, even in the context of a post about Media BS, is fucking surreal

more so if you read it out loud

The Antagonist said...

... especially if you're sitting in your bedroom in your underpants, like all non-official conspiracy theorists always do.

The Antagonist said...

I ain't putting on no pants, crazy fool.

Stef said...

In anticipation of 2012 I upgraded my underwear to tinfoil thongs ages ago

alluring, yet still offering an acceptable level of protection

Bridget said...

Cherry picking the witnesses:

BBC - Barling's London: 7/7: Quest for justice

Stef said...

It's worth remembering that the only reason why there was a proper investigation into the Bologna train bombing was because the victims and victims' families wouldn't swalllow the State fairy tale

You don't hear much about the Bologna Bombing in the UK largely, I suspect, because the facts of that atrocity directly contradict the assertion that only a mad person would suspect that elements of Western Government could set out to slaughter its own citizens under a false flag

PJW said...

From 'August 1980 Bologna bombing' article:

A long, troubled and controversial court case and political issue ensued. The relatives of the victims formed an association (Associazione dei familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) to raise and maintain civil awareness about the case.

Regarding investigation of the July 7 business, it seems to be only the J7 Truth group who are highlighting attention towards a necessary propoer investigation of the events.

gyg3s said...

"It's worth remembering that the only reason why there was a proper investigation into the Bologna train bombing was because the victims and victims' families wouldn't swalllow the State fairy tale"

Tragically, this isn't going to happen in the current inquest. One whiff of truth, using the expression apparent bombers, ruffled lots of feathers.

Everybody, stop what you're doing and look over there ... in the distance. D'you see that bloke? Yes? He's called Dr Swire. He's an example to you all.

I'll tell you something. Flora can be proud of him. No matter how painful, he didn't settle someone else's pseudo-truth.

The Antagonist said...

A lot of effort was put into corralling those affected into groups where members were mostly hidden away behind a single spokesperson.

Anonymous said...

You see, this great nation of ours simply isn't involved in things associated with the criminal class. Gadzooks, the suggestion is abhorrent. The 26,000 Boer women and children who died in HRH Queen Vic and HRH Edward VII's concentration camps deserved it and Kitchener's apparent plans to "flush out guerrillas in a series of systematic drives, organized like a sporting shoot, with success defined in a weekly 'bag' of killed, captured and wounded, and to sweep the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children...." is misunderstood. The snap here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LizzieVanZyl.jpg is obviously a Dutch fake. That's why there's only one Jim Swire. We are just so damn good!

Rule Brittania, Glory Be Her...

Stef said...

At this point I was just going to summarise the plot of It Can't Happen Here to illustrate the point that national dissonance is not a uniquely British trait, then I cam across this intriguing little snippet...

Inspired by the Sinclair Lewis novel about fascism in the United States, It Can't Happen Here (1935), director–producer Kenneth Johnson wrote an adaptation titled Storm Warnings, in 1982. The script was presented to NBC for production as a television mini-series, but the NBC executives rejected the initial version, claiming it was too "cerebral" for the average American viewer. To make the script more marketable, the American fascists were re-cast as man-eating extraterrestrials, taking the story into the realm of science fiction to capitalize on the popularity of science-fiction franchises such as Star Wars. The new, re-cast story was the mini-series V, which premiered on May 1, 1983.

Stef said...

...though, obviously, this is an example of Reptillian propagandists editing Wikipedia to convince us that our Reptillian overlords are reallly only fascists

Stef said...

I should also take this opportunity to declare that anyone who criticises the past and present foreign and domestic policies of the United Kingdom is really only doing do because they're anti-Anglitic hate mongers

The Antagonist said...

Glad you mentioned Anti-Anglitic, because aside from the newly coined Anti-Anglitic hate mongers and the obvious and oft-referred to Anti-American hate mongers, which other countries can lay claim to being the target of similar anti-sentiments?

Anti-Icelandic? Anti-Peruvian? Anti-Kiwi? Etc. Etc.

Media BS Masterclass indeed.

Anonymous said...

Vive la France. Vive la Résistance.
Thank God for France

By Mike Whitney
Thank God for France. While American liberals tremble at the idea of sending an angry e mail to congress for fear that their name will appear on the State Department's list of terrorists, French workers are on the front lines choking on tear gas and fending off billyclubs in hand-to-hand combat with Sarkozy's Gendarmerie. Continue

Stef said...

Of course, there is one crucual difference between the UK, Iceland, Chile, NZ and a certain little statelet in the Middle East and that is only that littel Statelet is explicitly race-based

Now if the UK, Iceland, Chile and NZ set about ethnically cleansing their territories they too would be immune from criticism, on the basis that any criticism of them would be racist

Stef said...

Why has my fucking brain just started hurting?

Anonymous said...

Arundathi Roy. On being called "anti-American"....

Anti-Americanism is in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. The term is usually used by the American establishment to discredit and, not falsely - but shall we say inaccurately - define its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride.

What does the term mean? That you're anti-jazz? Or that you're opposed to free speech? That you don't delight in Toni Morrison or John Updike? That you have a quarrel with giant sequoias? Does it mean you don't admire the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who marched against nuclear weapons, or the thousands of war resisters who forced their government to withdraw from Vietnam? Does it mean that you hate all Americans?

http://www.archive.org/download/resistcomauWehighquality/We_Arundhati_Roy__256k.wmv

or
http://tinyurl.com/nyhlz

Anonymous said...

Arundathi Roy being of the Arundhati Roy variety ;)

Stef said...

and a one, a one two three...

La Marseillaise

Conspiraloon friendly lyrics here...

♫ What do they want this horde of slaves
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery! ♫

Stef said...

..there do seem to be one or two minor philosophical differences between The Marseillaise and God Save The Queen

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, 23 October 2010 14:38, seems not to have heard of inflation {albeit an under-repoting of actual inflation}

Anonymous said...

If this were FB, I'd like that: 23 October 2010 16:12

Stef said...

It should go without saying that I selected the particular Marseillaise clip that I did because the singer is dressed like a typical conspiracy theorist

Stef said...

FB = Facebook?

Anonymous said...

What is it we're supposed to sing, in deference to the 'Crown'?

(Verse 2)
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all.



(In April 1990, the Church of England's Liturgical Commission suggested substituting a kindlier version, written by a London shoemaker in 1836, for use when the anthem is sung at Remembrance Day services for the dead of the two World Wars. Sample lines: "Lord, make the nations see/ That men should brothers be."

But the idea provoked heated objections....)

God save us all, indeed.

Stef said...

Back to La Marseillaise...

"Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Bear or hold back your blows
Spare these sad victims
That they regret taking up arms against us
But not these bloody despots"

...absolutely riddled with subversive Loonish ideology

gyges said...

"Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride.

What does the term mean? That you're anti-jazz? Or that you're opposed to free speech? That you
..."

Could so easily have read,

"Once someone is branded [a conspiracy theorist], the chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride.

What does the term mean? That you're anti-jazz? Or that you're opposed to free speech? That you
..."

But I'm sure we all knew that.

Dorothy L Sayers had a point when she wrote that essay about education. Or perhaps more precisely three points; ie, that we should have as the foundation of our education system the triumvirate curriculum. The triumvirate consisting of grammar (so we can understand how language is put together), logic (so that we can reason), and rhetoric (so that we can persuade through speech).

stef said...

This site keeps getting plugged by James Corbett...

http://www.triviumeducation.com/

though I haven't got round to checking through it for myself yet

though, even it at first glance, it's clear that 'persuading through accessible web page design' didn't make the final cut

gyges said...

Here's Dorothy's essay [pdf].