Friday 31 August 2018

Comparing/Contrasting (again) - and a Quiz


As per earlier comments I 'grabbed' the respective reports on the BBC, Sky and ITV news websites tonight at around 6 o'clock for one of the day's main stories.

The BBC report began:

Theresa May plot: Man jailed for life for Downing Street murder plan
A man who plotted to kill the prime minister in a suicide attack has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years.

Sky's report began: 

Man jailed for at least 30 years for plot to kill Theresa May and bomb Downing Street
An Islamic State terrorist has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years after plotting to kill Theresa May.

And ITV's report began:

Islamic State terrorist who planned to kill Theresa May jailed for at least 30 years
An Islamic State terrorist who plotted to kill Prime Minister Theresa May by taking "her head off" has been jailed for at least 30 years.

Strikingly, you had to go to the tenth paragraph of the BBC report to find the first mention of Islamic State.

Interestingly also, the BBC was the only one of the three broadcasters to quote the judge, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, asserting that Islam was "a religion of peace".

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Update

In light of the above, here's a Friday night terrorism-based quiz...

(What Friday night would ever be complete without one?)

Here's how the BBC, Sky and ITV reported this story (in summary) on their main early evening TV news bulletins tonight.

Knowing what you know of the BBC's use of language, which of the following do you think was the BBC?:

(a) Police have released footage of the arrest of an Islamic State terrorist, who has been jailed for life for plotting to kill Theresa May. 21-year-old Naa'imur Zakariya Rahman, who is from North London, will serve a minimum term of 30 years. He planned to bomb the gates of Downing Street, kill the guards and then attack the Prime Minister with a knife.  
(b) A terrorist who plotted to kill Prime Minister Theresa May and attack Downing Street is starting a minimum 30 year jail sentence tonight. 21-year-old Naa'imur Rahman, who'd pledged allegiance to so called Islamic State, was arrested in a sting operation in Westminster last November. 
(c) A man who plotted to kill Theresa May in a suicide attack on Downing Street has been jailed for life, with a minimum term of 30 years. Naa'imur Rahman, who's 21, was convicted last month of preparing acts of terrorism. Rahman had planned to detonate a bomb at the gates of Downing Street and then kill Theresa May with a knife or gun.

(Answer in the comments field below).

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad the BBC let us have Mr Justic Haddon-Cave's views on "the religion of peace"...otherwise we would have been deprived of one of the best laughs since the last judge offered a similar opinion.

    I don't have any problem with the prosecution or the sentence but it is all v. sad when you see the guy sitting in KFC in the surveillance footage, looking like any other young man in a grim environment with not much positive going on in their lives. If instead of dodgy judges, craven politicians, PC police, mealy mouthed schools, misdirecting academics and a lying media led by the BBC, we had truth-telling equivalents, maybe this young man would have understood what Sharia is and why it's ethically wrong...and might never have been entrapped in this way...and might not be spending the next 30 years in prison.

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    1. Is there something related to 'class' here? I was in a museum once when a women with a very 'RP' accent, (surely accent-free!), asked a Japanese tourist where she came from. On receiving an answer the 'RP' women thought for a moment and then proceeded to tell the tourist how to pronounce the name of her home city. Our ruling class is so sure of itself that it is quite convinced that it knows what true Islam is, unlike the under class that actually live it.

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  2. Answer to the quiz: (c) was the BBC.

    The clues were that they didn't use the word 'terrorist' and they didn't use the word 'Islamic'.

    (a) was Sky and (b) was ITV.

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    Replies
    1. I think the official BBC line must be that if we could only get rid of "men" we could get rid of "terrorism". They are certainly working on getting rid of men and I suppose in fairness they have statistics on their side as regards the links between "men" and "terrorism". OK - cue Kirsty: "What price testosterone? Are men really at the root of terrorism? Would removing men bring about world peace? Tonight we address a radical new idea: a man-free planet finally at peace."

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