Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 09:58:25 +0100
From: Dave Coull <coull-AT-onetel.net.uk>
Subject: Re: Why did the chicken...




Carp forwarded

 > Why Did the Chicken cross the Road?
 >
 > Al Jazeera: The chicken was forced to cross the road multiple times
 > at gunpoint by a large group of occupation soldiers, according to
 > eye-witnesses. The chicken was then fired upon intentionally,
 > in yet another example of the abuse of innocent Iraqi chickens.

Look, I realise it's a joke, but sometimes you just got to pick
an argument with a joke. Al Jazeera is the result of the BBC
deciding to cut back on its Arabic Service. A group of redundant
BBC Arabic Service employees decided the best thing they
could do would be to have a go at starting their own TV station.
Their bosses at the British Broadcasting Corporation had taught
them that news reporters had a responsibility to try to be objective,
so that is what they try to be. In fact, since the whole Iraq
business started, they have been doing a better job of this
than the BBC. The main propaganda where Al Jazeera is
concerned is the propaganda being spread by USA government
agents that they are some sort of mouthpiece for al qaeda.
It is a well established fact that, during the Iraq War, Al Jazeera's
offices in Baghdad were deliberately targeted by the US military.
In order to justify such actions, US government agents have
to pretend that this group of former BBC employees are
fanatical Islamists in league with both Bin Laden and Saddam.
They have been so successfull at spreading this idea,
now even anti-government jokers are repeating it.

If Al Jazeera says that eye-witnesses saw a large group of
occupation soldiers forcing the chicken, at gunpoint, to cross
the road multiple times, then, so far as I'm concerned, that
is the most reliable report of the chicken-crossing-road incident
that we have.

Dave C