I was wondering how long it would be before 'the hard left' or liberals would be blamed.
Let's bust a few myths:
Kate Allen@KateAllen
This is an interesting thread which should make news media stop and have a bit of a think about what they're doing.
twitter.com/mrjammyjamjar3/status/871829837262061568
This is a thread written by a Muslim about Anjem Choudary. One of the London Bridge attackers is being reported as a follower of his.
Kate Allen@KateAllen
As I said at the weekend, we need terrorism reporting guidelines akin to the existing suicide reporting guidelines:
www.samaritans.org/media-centre/media-guidelines-reporting-suicide/advice-journalists-suicide-reporting-dos-and-donts
Very abbreviated version of the Samaritans guidelines:
1. Think about the impact of the coverage on your audience
- Your story might have an effect on vulnerable individuals or people connected to the person who has died.
2. Exercise caution when referring to the methods and context of a suicide
- Details of suicide methods have been shown to prompt vulnerable individuals to imitate suicidal behaviour.
3. Avoid over-simplification
4. Steer away from melodramatic depictions of suicide or its aftermath
- Be wary of over-emphasising community expressions of grief.
- Doing so may suggest that people are honouring the suicidal behaviour rather than mourning a death.
- Reporting suicide as a tragic waste and an avoidable loss is more beneficial in preventing further deaths.
- A sensitive piece that explores the emotional devastation of a suicide on family and friends may prompt people with suicidal thoughts to reconsider or to seek help.
5. Aim for sensitive, nonsensationalising coverage
- Don’t label locations as ‘hot spots’ or refer to a possible rise in suicides in a particular place or among a specific group as an ‘epidemic’.
- Be careful not to promote the idea that suicide achieves results.
- When writing headlines think carefully about content and potential impact.
- Check that inappropriate language has not been used, such as referring to a death as someone having ‘committed suicide’.
- Try an alternative such as ‘died by suicide’.
6. Consider carefully the placement and illustration of reports
- Some suicides attract intense media scrutiny. However, where possible, refrain from positioning a story too prominently, for example on a front page or as a lead bulletin, as this may unduly influence vulnerable people.
- Try to avoid repeated use of images of a deceased person, for example in online galleries.
- Avoid dramatic or emotional images and footage, such as a person standing on a ledge.
7. Educate and inform
- Whenever possible, try to refer to the wider issues associated with suicide, such as risk factors like alcohol misuse, mental health problems and deprivation.
- If possible, include references to suicide being preventable, and to sources of support such as Samaritans.
Anjem Choudary has been given a platform on FoxNews, Nicky Campbell's "The Big Questions", Paxman's NewsNight and Andrew Neil's "This Week". Amongst others. All of these have helped normalised him and presented him as being representative.
Yet who gets the blame for tolerating extremism too much? Its human rights activists and liberals.
Hello whats this:
In 2013 the British pressure group Hope not Hate presented a report which identified Choudary as "a serious player on the international Islamist scene", saying that although there was no evidence that he was directly responsible for instigating any terrorist plots, "he helped shape the mindset of many of those behind them" and "through his networks linked them up to terror groups and supporters across the world." Choudary dismissed the claims as "fanciful", that if they were true, UK security services would have arrested him.
That certainly does not fit with the narrative that is spewed out and continues to be repeated by politicians. And note on the thread above about the Muslim responses to Choudary and how he was on the 'outside'. He was thrown out of mosques and confronted by members of the community.
Time and time again we see it: the right wing are the best friends of these groups, because they sensationalise them. Yet those who have been critical are framed as being too tolerant and not speaking out.
Why? Because what sells newspapers and gets ratings.
I notice that Buzzfeed have been particularly careful in their reporting for Manchester and London Bridge. The same can not be said for the BBC who have had coverage which has been far more sensationalist than in the past, in an effort to compete with other news agencies.
We need to tackle the Katie Hopkins every bit as much as the Anjem Choundarys to stop extremism.
If we are to have an honest conversations about this, in this country, we need to make sure this is reflected. But yeah. The internet are promoting hate groups. We must crack down on the internet and Muslim communities must do more to report. We must attack and strip away human rights. Bollocks.
This is the Big Lie. A propaganda technique.
Somehow, I'm not sure May's government is going to really support that much needed honest conversation about why terrorism is rising.
Most of her party deny that foreign policy is to blame (ironically Boris Johnson said exactly the same thing after 7/7 but woo Corbyn said it. That's the horrendous left) Yet the majority of the British public do believe it's foreign policy. This is crucial to acknowledge especially when you consider the terrorists attacking us are part of that British public.
It's a big con.