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July 11, 2005

Faster And Worse Than I Predicted: The BBC Edits Out Word "Terrorist" From Original Print Reports About Bombings!

A few days ago I precognitively bloviated:

Next week, when similar murderers blow up bombs in Iraq, Israel, Indonesia, or Indiana, [what the BBC termed "terrorists" after the bombings will] be "militants" or "bearded scimitar-wielding warrior-poets" again. Trust that.

But it's worse. They've actually edited the word "terrorist" from their website archives:

The BBC has re-edited some of its coverage of the London Underground and bus bombings to avoid labelling the perpetrators as "terrorists", it was disclosed yesterday. Early reporting of the attacks on the BBC's website spoke of terrorists but the same coverage was changed to describe the attackers simply as "bombers".
The BBC's guidelines state that its credibility is undermined by the "careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments".

Consequently, "the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding" and its use should be "avoided", the guidelines say.

Rod Liddle, a former editor of the Today programme, has accused the BBC of "institutionalised political correctness" in its coverage of British Muslims.

A BBC spokesman said last night: "The word terrorist is not banned from the BBC."

But of course not. It still applies to the Americans and Israelis.

posted by Ace at 11:09 PM

Comments

Ace,

Britain is lost.

Really.

For all of the stoicism and "We are not afraid" outrage, the ruling elite of their government, press, academies, and society appear hell-bent on surrender.

So be it.

I'll miss Newcastle Ale though.

Posted by: MeTooThen on July 11, 2005 11:19 PM

Sometimes, it's best to just go with your first impressions.

These. People. Have. No. Fucking. Clue.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset on July 11, 2005 11:22 PM

Someone should hack into their websites and substitute the word muslim for bombers.

Posted by: on July 11, 2005 11:37 PM

You know, one man's "terrorist" who kills and maims innocent people on their way to work with explosives is another man's "freedom fighter" who is fighting for the freedom to basically enslave women, kill Jews, and collapse stome walls (ironic, no?) on gays.

Let's not put up "a barrier rather than an aid to understanding."

Let's let the healing begin, people.

Posted by: Sean M. on July 11, 2005 11:38 PM

How come no one ever bombs these twats?

Posted by: Iblis on July 12, 2005 12:24 AM

They already seem to have a significant "barrier to understanding" that people want to freaking kill them. More barriers would be counterproductive donchaknow.

Posted by: Claire on July 12, 2005 12:31 AM

Consequently, "the word 'journalist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding" and its use should be "avoided", the guidelines say.

I thought the sentence read better this way.

Posted by: Steve L. on July 12, 2005 08:19 AM

A BBC spokesman said last night: "The word (redacted) is not banned from the BBC."

Posted by: Dave in Texas on July 12, 2005 08:47 AM

Hey Ace, I bet if you asked Allah real nicely he'd lend you that old pair of photos he always used to use in situations like this, where the guy standing next to Stalin is airbrushed out in the second photo. I really miss that.

Posted by: Paul Zrimsek on July 12, 2005 09:07 AM

Maybe I'm too cynical here, but would the BBC or the NY Times have a problem calling an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist? Someone should do a Lexis-Nexis search on that.

Posted by: JeffK on July 12, 2005 09:13 AM

George Orwell's famous phrases are proven true again and we are seeing them in action:

Doublethink - The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

Duckspeak - Can be either good or bad, depending on who is speaking, and if what they are saying is in following with the ideals of Big Brother. To be speaking rubbish and lies (bad), or to be speaking rubbish and lies for the good of "The Party" (good).

Newspeak - Is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suited the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim was to make subversive thought ("thoughtcrime") and speech impossible. And to to sever humanity from its language (that is, Oldspeak) and thus its history and past. From there the government, by way of Newspeak, could control how people think and act.

Liberalism is a mental disorder and must be totally defeated.

Posted by: 72 VIRGINS on July 12, 2005 10:45 AM

The idea that they sympathize with the terrorists to some extent doesn't really explain this kind of shit. Being Liberals, they are by definition cowards and are afraid of the consequences if they really take on the terrorists. So they've now begun to self censor the truth in their clumsy covert fashion. I wonder if the terrorists overtly try to silence? It wouldn't take much to flip them, they're three quarters of the way there already.

Posted by: COWARDLY LIBERALS on July 12, 2005 11:07 AM

The day the BBC has to report the use of their own planes against the Brits and there are thousands of dead bodies lying in the streets maybe that will be the day they start calling them what they really are.

Never forget.

Posted by: lometa on July 12, 2005 12:00 PM

Looks like JeffK is right:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=abortion+bombing+terror

Posted by: 12" Saturday Night on July 12, 2005 12:44 PM

OTOH, the AP today finally found an occasion where it's OK to call them "terrorists": when they escape from US detention in Afghanistan.

Posted by: quiggs on July 12, 2005 01:18 PM

Doubtless George Orwell is unhappy for his country while Liberals give new meaning to his ideas.

Posted by: s&m on July 12, 2005 05:51 PM

How come no one ever bombs these twats?

Iblis

Because they are far more useful to Islam where they are. It's the Rusty Shackleford's and the Robert Spencer's and guys like Allah in the House they'd like to stop.

Posted by: 72 VIRGINS on July 12, 2005 05:57 PM

I'll miss Guinness stout.

Posted by: Doomed and knew it... on July 12, 2005 07:17 PM

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