improvised theatre

April 14, 2005

Bloody media

Last night, Cathy S pointed out to me The Times' coverage of the alleged Al Qaeda plot to poison Britain. She wasn't particularly concerned about the plot itself, but more by the fact that the article failed to mention that Kamel Bourgass was arrested in 2003 - until the third page. The impression given by the article up until then was of a much more recent threat. Are there any newspapers left that aren't rubbish?

What interests me slightly more about this is that he was prosecuted and convicted of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance “by the use of poisons or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury”, which is a wonderful phrase in itself - but he was convicted. Go to jail, go directly to jail, don't bother with a restraining order, or monitored surveillance or anything that Charles Clarke has been insisting is so critical to thwarting major terrorist attacks on our country. So, excuse me for asking, was this arrest and prosecution a failure in some way (beyond the execution of the raid itself)? Or perhaps this wasn't a major threat? Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, doesn't seem to think so: he said that the public had been “spared from a real and deadly threat”. Or maybe Charles Clarke is just wrong?

While we're on the subject of The Times, could Ruth Gledhill, whose three year old child is suffering trauma as a result of Dr Who please stop letting her young, impressionable offspring watch television at that time of the day? The news is on earlier than Dr Who, and contains considerably more disturbing scenes. For that matter, Strictly Dance Fever is pretty terrifying in the first place.

My estimation of Alastair Campbell goes up, incidentally, after learning quite how much he hates The Daily Mail. Go, Alastair! (Oh, and look - Google's first hit for "Alastair Campbell" is a page at the BBC.)

Posted by James Aylett at April 14, 2005 02:19 PM
Comments

I personally am delighted that a poor child has been scared shitless by the show and that parents are complaining. It is yet another indication that we might possibly be seeing another golden age for the series.

What a pity Mary Whitehouse is no longer with us to poke her righteous nose into the issue. I expect she'd have a thing or two to say about Billie Piper's attitude problems, as well.

Posted by: James Lark at April 15, 2005 01:54 AM

Can we not get CAPalert to review it? That would be brilliant.

Of course, being scared by shop dummies is nothing compared to the complaints about the original Autons story, where a policeman turned out to be a plasticky monster, and a generation of children vowed never to trust a Bobby again.

Which perhaps explains the current Labour government.

Posted by: James Aylett at April 15, 2005 02:09 PM