Comment at end
26th July, 2009
The STERN Daily Mail – AGAIN
Yes, I know ... the black border's getting thicker still
NOTE: My aim in this series of ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts is to highlight any story which I believe is prejudicial to the seeking of TRUTH and to the acceptance of the outcome of the upcoming Iraq Inquiry.
A double whammy for The Mail again, as well as a mention of a foreign (German) publication – THE STERN Magazine.
First, in the RED corner, the STERN article and its interpretation on “Blair removing Mugabe”. As well as quick peep at their sparring partners in the BLUE corner, both contestants for the Misinformation Crown.
Secondly, in the BLUE corner,(jump to here) an article on David Kelly’s death at the Daily Tale … Mail.
MUGABE
The other day the left-wing German magazine STERN published an interview with Tony Blair. Published online with the heading that ‘Tony Blair would fall (remove) Mugabe’, it was also published in depth in a hard magazine copy.
The Daily Mail immediately grabbed the limited online version from STERN and ran with it. WHY? British national newspapers must be in possession of ALL such magazines. They will have known that THIS was only part of the story, and a very small part.
With the valued assistance of a regular commenter here, Julia, I have published the FULL English translation of Mr Blair’s interview in the offline article.
It is clear that although Mr Blair DID mention Mugabe in response to a question, his reply was no more than a few short sentences. And from this The Mail and the sprog blogs made a story.
WHAT’S THE STORY, MORNING GLORY? (was ist die Geschichte, Winde?)
The story is NOT what Mr Blair said on Mugabe or on anything else. The story is the political AGENDA. The agenda of STERN was probably to frighten the horses on the possible EU premiership of Tony Blair, if such a position becomes available.
That too is undoubtedly item 1 in the present agenda from the virulently anti-EU Mail. But it is only PART of their agenda.
Item 2 for this British paper is to add fuel to their general dissatisfaction over Blair. They find it increasingly hard to swallow this:
the world’s foremost ‘interventionist’ is NOT a Conservative.
And Item 3? To remind us that Blair cannot be trusted to have learned anything about foreign policy since Iraq.
This, with the Iraq Inquiry due to start in the near future, should not go unremarked.
But first, the source of the Mugabe palaver – The Stern.
THE STERN’S ONLINE VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW WAS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM ITS HARD COPY MAGAZINE
ONLINE Stern
Its online copy was written with a sensationalist headline for one purpose only: to remind people that Blair stood with Bush over another dictator (in Iraq); and to imply that since he does not regret that decision he would take it again if in a position to do so, this time to remove Mugabe.
This is an important reminder from STERN, a left-wing anti-war publication because Blair is a possible EU Council Presidency candidate. THEY would clearly NOT be delighted having an EU leader who might suggest the Germans get out of their bunkers and actually DO something to protect freedom, given their lacklustre behaviour in Iraq and Afghanistan.
OFFLINE Stern
Their full magazine article does NOT focus in this way on Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and Iraq. Though it reminds us of Mr Blair’s drop in popularity in Britain after his Iraq decision and it has a few lines on Mugabe.
Odd how they forget to remind us that Blair won his third general election TWO years AFTER the Iraq invasion. Ahhhh, but that would be to confuse us with facts over his “popularity”.
Their offline publication is several pages long and far wider than just this aspect of Blair.
And now, for a quick taster of the fighter in the BLUE corner on this issue …
THE MAIL on Stern
CHERRY PICKING SPINNERS
In its coverage of this story, did the Mail draw attention to the whole, lengthy article in the Left-wing magazine? To the discrepancies? To the fact that other publications did NOT translate Blair’s words as saying that HE would remove Mugabe but that ZIMBABWE should do so?
Of course not. That would have given away the cherry -picking tactics of the “truth-seekers”.
It is clear when one reads other reports of this interview such as here that the offline magazine DID not say that he, Blair would remove Mugabe, but that Mugabe “should be removed”.
The Stern’s online headline didn’t exactly help with clarity, intentional or otherwise. But The Daily Mail, the ‘truth-seeking’, truth-distorting British rag, immediately repeated the headline WITHOUT mention of the fuller contents of the magazine.
So here we have a British newspaper of the Right supporting the political spin of a continental European publication of the Left.
WHY? Because they have the same agenda: to keep Tony Blair out of politics.
SPINNING THE CHERRIES
The Mail is not fussy where it finds its spin. Simply because it will be read by their anti-Blair readers as damaging to Blair the ‘dictatorial warmonger’.
The very thought! Might he, if ever EU president, suggest that the EU invades Zimbabwe?
And, ooooh, what a cheek to talk about “war crimes” – ‘pot … black!’
You may say, “so what?” All of this is to be expected in today’s race to create sensationalist eye-catching headlines.
But I see it as lazy and misleading journalism, and thus manipulative of the disinterested and semi-informed reader.
What is even worse is when such papers as THE MAIL don’t actually reveal their sources until readers’ brains have been washed and addled with the belief that such papers as THE MAIL are the founts of all knowledge.
For instance here below:
DAVID KELLY
Here on 16th July, 2009, The Mail’s Sue Reid uses journalistic licence to mislead, to deceive and to smear. Her original headline:
Why do I say she is misleading, deceiving and smearing?
[This for a start. The title was later updated to read like this:
"Did MI5 kill Dr David Kelly? Just another crazy conspiracy theory? But, amid claims he wrote tell-all book that vanished after his death, it's one that refuses to go away"]
- 1. It has a misleading and deceptive title, in BOTH versions, since the “conspiracy theory” possibility is NEVER even mentioned in the body of the article.
- 2. Right from the first word the article is mostly lifted from another’s book, flavoured with a little … very little … of the Mail writer’s own input.
- 3. Ms Reid only mentions the book’s author more than half-way through the article.
- 4. She pretends by the title that the paper is NOT taken in by “mad conspiracy theories”
- 5. Her ‘get out of jail’ card on authorship of the aticle is by attributing the story to the REAL writer, late, very late in the article.
- 6. Oh, yes, but to get her paper “out of jail”, the author’s name is at the end. (‘Sorry we forgot to mention to all conspiracy nuts that this article was mostly a book extract. But you can buy it here …’)
If you came across this title you would have at least expected to find the words “conspiracy theories” mentioned elsewhere in the article.
Bloggers, it is true, often start with a story title, tap away, go off at a tangent and find that they’ve failed to mention the title of the post within the post itself. That can then be corrected before or even after publishing it to the web.
But when a national newspaper has the headline below, we might be forgiven for expecting that it is going to contain SOME reference to it.
“Did MI5 kill Dr David Kelly? Another crazy conspiracy theory amid claims he wrote tell-all book that vanished after his death”
Istead, readers are presented right from the start ONLY with crazy conspiracy theories over Kelly’s death, except that they are undisputed and unmentioned as such throughout the entire article.
This deceptive technique is the latest tactic in the ‘Get Blair into Court’ strategy.
Back to The STERN article on Mugabe
Claim: Tony Blair used the 'sexed up dossier' to justify the Iraq war.
RELATED
Online sites reporting the “Blair would remove Mugabe” mis-story.
- Telegraph, 22nd July, 2009 – Blair – “Mugabe should be toppled”
- Talk Zimbabwe, 24th July, 2009 – Is Tony Blair seeing clearly?
- The Times, South Africa. 22nd July, 2009 – “Get rid of Mugabe”: Tony Blair
BLOGGERS
Digital Spy, 23rd July 2009 - a ‘ Sprog Blog’ repeating the LIES of The Daily Mail as though they are facts
ZIMBABWE INFLATION HISTORY ETCETERA
- 22nd February 2008, Guardian: Zimbabwe inflation passes 100,000%, officials say
- 9th October 2008, Telegraph: Zimbabwe’s inflation has rocketed to an astronomical 231 million per cent, Harare has admitted – an advance of more than 200 million per cent on the previous figure.
- 13th November, 2008, Telegraph: Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation is now the second worst in history, according to a US study.
- 14th March, 2009: In defence of Mugabe “through the lens of western propaganda.”
- 27th July, 2009: Spiegel Online – Blair facing resistance for EU presidency
The online introduction to STERN’S hard copy offline magazine article is translated here
Compare this with the FULL English translation of Mr Blair’s interview in the offline Stern magazine article.
Tags: Daily Mail, David Kelly, Mugabe, Stern magazine, Sue Reid, the trial of tony blair, Tony Blair, Zimbabwe
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