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16 February 2006

The Independent: The Subtle Art of Juxtaposition

'Truth only reveals itself when one gives up all preconceived ideas.'

- Shoseki

Full credit must go to those brave souls at The Independent who were responsible for a very important lesson in journalism and the subtle art of juxtaposition.

The Independent's front page of 15th February was emblazoned with the words The Great Deception followed by The politics of fear (or how Tony Blair misled us over the war on terror) across pages 2 and 3, which featured an edited extract taken from The Use and Abuse of Terror - The Construction of a False Narrative on the Domestic Terror Threat, published Wednesday by the Centre for Policy Studies. The paper dedicated its first three pages to the lying liars and their incessant lies in recent history including fake terror ricin, fake terror in Manchester and the ongoing politicisation of terror on the basis of lies.

Three whole pages about the politics of fear, fake terror and lies, with only fleeting reference to the devastating events in London on July 7th and yet the largest photo in the article - the one taking up half of page three in an article about fake terror - is a full-colour photograph of the back of the number 30 bus that exploded in Tavistock Square on July 7th 2005.

Subtle, but very clever indeed.

More on the Alex Cox forum and Peter Oborne presents 'Spinning Terror' on Channel 4, Monday 20th February.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a complete copy of the pamphlet here (rather than the first chapter sample offered by the Centre For Policy Studies)

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/S/spinning_terror/downloads/oborne_terror.pdf

The Antagonist said...

Thanks for the link. Table of contents as follows:

- Foreword
- A Recommendation by Anthony Barnett
1. Introduction
2. The politicisation of terror
3. How the Prime Minister misled the nation
4. Ricin
5. Old Trafford
6. Conclusion

Appendix 1: what has happened to the 12 Point Plan
Appendix 2: the Police statement of 6 January 2003
Appendix 3: chronology


Click here for the PDF.