Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Links 15/1/10

A few things I've read and enjoyed recently. Read them and enjoy them. Or don't. See if I care.

Heresy Corner - Libel: Counting the costs

Jackson, it is clear, has a particular sort of claim in mind: that of an ordinary citizen who is libelled or has had their privacy invaded by a national newspaper, backed by an in-house legal staff and with the resources to hire the most fashionable QCs. He writes that "in the paradigm libel case the claimant is an individual of modest means and the defendant is a well resourced media organisation." For this reason, he argues that in most cases there are "strong policy reasons why the claimant should be protected against liability for adverse costs."

Sounds like a good thing, then? But it's not quite that simple, as you'll see.

Septicisle: How to destroy the BBC without menitioning Murdoch

It's been obvious for some time now that the BBC under a Conservative government is going to be facing a vastly different climate to the one that it currently enjoys under a somewhat supportive Labour party. Facing not just the accusations from the usual suspects of an innate liberal bias, but also now the outright fury of the Murdochs for daring to provide a free to use news website, with many certain that the deal between Cameron and Murdoch for his support must involve some kind of emasculation of the BBC once the new Tories gain power, there still hasn't been a set-out policy from how this is going to be achieved. Thankfully, Policy Exchange, the right-wing think-tank with notable links to the few within the Cameron set with an ideological bent has come up with a step-by-step guide on how destroy the BBC by a thousand cuts which doesn't so much as mention Murdoch.

Lenin's Tomb: Haiti - Opportunity Knocks

You want to hear about chutzpah? You want to hear about sheer gravity-defying audacity? Well, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, prepare to catch your lower jaw. Forget Limbaugh's racist anxieties. Forget about Pat Robertson drooling about Haiti's 'pact with the devil'. He's a senile old bigot, and his sick provocations are familiar by now. This is the Heritage Foundation on the Haiti earthquake, which is estimated to have killed 100,000 people...

Five Chinese Crackers: Shameless, unrepentant and still lying

'SHAMELESS, UNREPENTANT AND STILL LYING' shouted yesterday's front page headline in the Daily Mail. It was shouting about a man who had made sure information was misrepresented to the public to make things seem much more definite than they were, and far more threatening than reality.
You know what's coming now, right? You just need to guess what articles I'm going to use as examples. Seriously, I might as well just fling random pages up in the air and pick the ones that land face up.

Feminazery: I think I am going to be sick

Really? Gang rape is ok if a woman has entertained group sex fantasies? Would slitting my throat because I once had a dream that I talked about with a friend that I was being murdered be ok? Really? Would it be ok to burgle my house if I said I wondered what it would be like to be burgled?
Really.
Fuck you, Judge Robert Brown. Fuck you, Prosecutor Michael Leeming. You are worthless sacks of donkey gobbling pond scum and right now I am entertaining fantasies about smacking you round the head with a large bit of wood marked "clue-by-four".

Speak You're Branes: Where do yellow stains come from?

It looks like the idea is that, instead of actually thinking and giving useful information, you just make up a bunch of incoherent wank based on your own half-baked opinions and the very little you actually know about anything at all. I felt like helping so I’ve done the same with questions one to ten.

Daily Quail: The Mail - Like a drunk, leering step-uncle, only less tasteful

Speaking from his tree-top spy house, the sweaty Reporteur told us: 'Clearly they're just filming a movie in which they kiss and stuff and only a simpleton would consider that even remotely newsworthy but you have to suspend your disbelief with this sort of thing. I mean, she's 23 and he's 57. See what I mean? Yeah. I've got an eye for it.'

Chicken Yoghurt: Hobson's Choice 2010 - The patronising begins

You can just picture the warm little thrill she got when she said that, can’t you? I bet she did her best ‘aren’t I clever’ look. I sometimes think that some people are against all-women shortlists for parliamentary seats for no other reason other than the fear that such a system might turn up another Harman.

Angry Mob: The Daily Mail face of crime

And that's about it for now.

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