The face of Britain
Jul. 23rd, 2010 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnIt's somewhat ironic that at about the time I was handling lead-firing projectile weapons for the first time, getting a feel for their responsible use and causing a great deal of distress to leftover food packaging somewhere in the woods in Virginia, a new rampage was flaring up in sleepy old Britain and bringing the debate about owning guns (which we don't really have) up once again.
To quickly summarize the situation, Raoul Moat, who apparently had 200% more head than face, was released from prison and shot three people (then may or may not have robbed a fish and chip shop). After a week-long search involving what would seem to be the majority of the British police force, he finally did himself in during a standoff after hearing that Paul Gascoigne was on his way to the scene. Despite the fairly obvious conclusion that this person was fairly undesirable, a Facebook page was set up after his death under the title "RIP Raoul Moat You Legend!", and a man from the radio got in contact with its creator to find out... why.
Witness the stupidity here
If you can stand to get through more than a couple of minutes of that, then I think you'll agree that even if you're normally perfectly liberal, it's enough to get you to instantly want to drop all government benefit and make it illegal to be from Burnsley.
To quickly summarize the situation, Raoul Moat, who apparently had 200% more head than face, was released from prison and shot three people (then may or may not have robbed a fish and chip shop). After a week-long search involving what would seem to be the majority of the British police force, he finally did himself in during a standoff after hearing that Paul Gascoigne was on his way to the scene. Despite the fairly obvious conclusion that this person was fairly undesirable, a Facebook page was set up after his death under the title "RIP Raoul Moat You Legend!", and a man from the radio got in contact with its creator to find out... why.
Witness the stupidity here
If you can stand to get through more than a couple of minutes of that, then I think you'll agree that even if you're normally perfectly liberal, it's enough to get you to instantly want to drop all government benefit and make it illegal to be from Burnsley.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-24 09:54 pm (UTC)You missed out the bit where a Daily Star worker found a GTA Rothbury photoshop, decided Rockstar were making a game of it, wrote an article slagging off gamers for how appalling taste this was (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/21/daily-star-outs-gta-rothbury/). Of course, his asking a victim's grandmother what she thought of the upcoming videogame, film and book to be based on RM, which seem to have largely based on the Star's employee's opinion was in excellent taste. He then proceeded to insult gamers for being offended, online (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.217131-Journalist-Who-Wrote-Fake-GTA-Story-Ridicules-Gamers).
The Star have been forced to produce the following (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/24/star-wars-daily-star-apologises-to-rock-star/), some highlights from the apology:
“We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.”
“It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.”
which is somewhat staggering.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-25 02:43 am (UTC)The apology would seem to indicate it was the first - why stop there? Just say "We're idiots. So are you for buying our paper. Go and do something useful with your life instead."