15/05/2008

Propaganda frenzy!


OMFG!

Metro front page: Girl of 8 used as 'suicide' bomber
Telegraph: Girl, 8, 'kills Iraqi officer in suicide mission'
Daily Mail: Iraqi insurgents use eight-year-old girl as suicide bomber

An eight year old girl has been used as a suicide bomber in Iraq!

Except no.

Eagle eyed readers will spot this, halfway down the Metro article:
The Americans called it a 'suicide' attack and put the number of injured at seven. Later, they gave the age of the girl as between 16 and 18.

Not eight then. See that headline? That's rubbish, that is.

And a new story about how nasty and barbaric Muslims are enters the current mythology. Hurrah for crap newspapers.

More at The Anti Press.

*UPDATE* And it's gone!
The Metro site is now 'experiencing difficulties', so the link above probably won't work. Possibly because most of the comments on the story pointed out the lying headline and one urged readers to complain to the PCC.

Still there on the Mail and Telegraph websites, which strangely don't mention the actual age of the bomber.

*UPDATE* Nope, it's back
Readers shocked by the honesty shown by the Metro pulling the article will be relieved to know it's still there. The comments are excellent.

2 comments:

Akela said...

I forget where it was now but a while back there was an article in the mail about a "suicide bomber". Except the er... "suicide" bomber had neither been killed or intended themselves to be killed at the time. So no, this article simply does not surprise me!

Anton Vowl said...

Metro haven't bothered changing the headline, which is patently ridiculous. However, the Mail, part of the same group and with access to the same wire feeds, have simply decided not to update the story in the light of new information. That's 24-7 journalism for you. And if you do print a lie, just don't change it, so long as it's about some brown person and the story will scare the shit out of your middle-England readers.