BLOGS COMO FORMA DE COMUNICAÇÃO
Espreitem este artigo da Online Journalism Review sobre a importância dos Blogs como forma de comunicação nos tempos que correm. Excerto:Are Weblogs a passing fad or a revolutionary new form of communication and publishing? That's still an open question, but the presence of blogs in the academic environment makes it more likely that they'll survive and thrive in the long term.
Educational types aren't just using blogs to teach or spread their research. They are turning their research lens on Weblogs themselves, whether the context is within schools of law, journalism, communication or library science. Alex Halavais studied the group dynamic at Slashdot and the way bloggers followed the news. Kaye Trammell studied the political content of celebrity blogs. Jill Walker is studying timestamps on blogs and our modern obsession with time. And Cori Dauber both studies blogs and writes a feisty one.
Though these academic researchers and many others work within different departments at different universities, they are all what I call "blogologists" -- people who are studying the dynamic of blogs and trying to understand how they fit into our society. Not all of their research is related to journalism, because they see blogs as a much larger phenomenon that is changing our modes of communication and group thought. In fact, many of them downplay the effects bloggers have had on the media and discount the idea that bloggers are creating a new New Journalism.
O que vou escrevendo, entre o Weekend do Jornal de Negócios e os Pensamentos Ociosos no SAPO. E mais umas coisas avulsas...
maio 13, 2004
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BLOGS COMO FORMA DE COMUNICAÇÃO
Espreitem este artigo da Online Journalism Review sobre a importância dos Blogs como forma de comunicação nos tempos que correm. Excerto:Are Weblogs a passing fad or a revolutionary new form of communication and publishing? That's still an open question, but the presence of blogs in the academic environment makes it more likely that they'll survive and thrive in the long term.
Educational types aren't just using blogs to teach or spread their research. They are turning their research lens on Weblogs themselves, whether the context is within schools of law, journalism, communication or library science. Alex Halavais studied the group dynamic at Slashdot and the way bloggers followed the news. Kaye Trammell studied the political content of celebrity blogs. Jill Walker is studying timestamps on blogs and our modern obsession with time. And Cori Dauber both studies blogs and writes a feisty one.
Though these academic researchers and many others work within different departments at different universities, they are all what I call "blogologists" -- people who are studying the dynamic of blogs and trying to understand how they fit into our society. Not all of their research is related to journalism, because they see blogs as a much larger phenomenon that is changing our modes of communication and group thought. In fact, many of them downplay the effects bloggers have had on the media and discount the idea that bloggers are creating a new New Journalism.
Espreitem este artigo da Online Journalism Review sobre a importância dos Blogs como forma de comunicação nos tempos que correm. Excerto:Are Weblogs a passing fad or a revolutionary new form of communication and publishing? That's still an open question, but the presence of blogs in the academic environment makes it more likely that they'll survive and thrive in the long term.
Educational types aren't just using blogs to teach or spread their research. They are turning their research lens on Weblogs themselves, whether the context is within schools of law, journalism, communication or library science. Alex Halavais studied the group dynamic at Slashdot and the way bloggers followed the news. Kaye Trammell studied the political content of celebrity blogs. Jill Walker is studying timestamps on blogs and our modern obsession with time. And Cori Dauber both studies blogs and writes a feisty one.
Though these academic researchers and many others work within different departments at different universities, they are all what I call "blogologists" -- people who are studying the dynamic of blogs and trying to understand how they fit into our society. Not all of their research is related to journalism, because they see blogs as a much larger phenomenon that is changing our modes of communication and group thought. In fact, many of them downplay the effects bloggers have had on the media and discount the idea that bloggers are creating a new New Journalism.
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A VOZ
A voz não é sempre igual. Há uma voz ao vivo, de circunstãncia. Há uma voz ao vivo, mais pessoal, mais próxima. Há uma voz ao telefone. Há uma voz ao acordar. Há uma voz ao fim do dia. Adoro ouvir a evolução da voz. E adoro ser surpreendido por uma voz.
A voz não é sempre igual. Há uma voz ao vivo, de circunstãncia. Há uma voz ao vivo, mais pessoal, mais próxima. Há uma voz ao telefone. Há uma voz ao acordar. Há uma voz ao fim do dia. Adoro ouvir a evolução da voz. E adoro ser surpreendido por uma voz.
COISAS QUE IRRITAM
A falta de indicações claras de direcções um pouco por todo o país, dentro das vilas e cidades. E, sobretudo, a dificuldae em descobrir, na generalidade das cidades e vilas (a começar por Lisboa) o nome das ruas. Aquelas placas nas esquinas dos prédios, em lugar incerto nas mais das vezes, são um desespero total.
A falta de indicações claras de direcções um pouco por todo o país, dentro das vilas e cidades. E, sobretudo, a dificuldae em descobrir, na generalidade das cidades e vilas (a começar por Lisboa) o nome das ruas. Aquelas placas nas esquinas dos prédios, em lugar incerto nas mais das vezes, são um desespero total.
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COISAS QUE IRRITAM
A falta de indicações claras de direcções um pouco por todo o país, dentro das vilas e cidades. E, sobretudo, a dificuldae em descobrir, na generalidade das cidades e vilas (a começar por Lisboa) o nome das ruas. Aquelas placas nas esquinas dos prédios, em lugar incerto nas mais das vezes, são um desespero total.
A falta de indicações claras de direcções um pouco por todo o país, dentro das vilas e cidades. E, sobretudo, a dificuldae em descobrir, na generalidade das cidades e vilas (a começar por Lisboa) o nome das ruas. Aquelas placas nas esquinas dos prédios, em lugar incerto nas mais das vezes, são um desespero total.
maio 12, 2004
POIS É
Não perder a inteligente nota do Homem A Dias, do Alberto Gonçalves, sobre o infeliz e recente disco de Caetano Veloso: Bonitinho mas ordinário
É chato acontecer numa altura em que ele elogia o fatito novo do Homem a Dias, mas uma vez na vida eu haveria de discordar do Ricardo Gross. O Foreign Sound do Caetano é, reconheço, bonitinho. Aliás, é a coisa mais bonitinha, indigente e inócua produzida por um sujeito de talento nos últimos anos.
Arriscando a que me partam um violoncelo na cabeça, aproveito ainda para culpar o sr. Jacques Morelbaum. A colaboração deste senhor com Caetano Veloso, que já vai longa, produziu, por junto, um grande disco (Livro), e bocados de outros dois (O Quatrilho e Noites do Norte). No mais, tornou-se fórmula, cansativa e aconselhável a átrio de hotel.
Tenho, é claro, saudades do Caetano da Tropicália, o melhor de todos. Mas por este andar começo a lembrar com nostalgia as fases (só) aparentemente desorientadas de Cores, Nomes ou Velô: é preferível o falhanço heróico ao aborrecimento de ciência certa.
Não perder a inteligente nota do Homem A Dias, do Alberto Gonçalves, sobre o infeliz e recente disco de Caetano Veloso: Bonitinho mas ordinário
É chato acontecer numa altura em que ele elogia o fatito novo do Homem a Dias, mas uma vez na vida eu haveria de discordar do Ricardo Gross. O Foreign Sound do Caetano é, reconheço, bonitinho. Aliás, é a coisa mais bonitinha, indigente e inócua produzida por um sujeito de talento nos últimos anos.
Arriscando a que me partam um violoncelo na cabeça, aproveito ainda para culpar o sr. Jacques Morelbaum. A colaboração deste senhor com Caetano Veloso, que já vai longa, produziu, por junto, um grande disco (Livro), e bocados de outros dois (O Quatrilho e Noites do Norte). No mais, tornou-se fórmula, cansativa e aconselhável a átrio de hotel.
Tenho, é claro, saudades do Caetano da Tropicália, o melhor de todos. Mas por este andar começo a lembrar com nostalgia as fases (só) aparentemente desorientadas de Cores, Nomes ou Velô: é preferível o falhanço heróico ao aborrecimento de ciência certa.
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POIS É
Não perder a inteligente nota do Homem A Dias, do Alberto Gonçalves, sobre o infeliz e recente disco de Caetano Veloso: Bonitinho mas ordinário
É chato acontecer numa altura em que ele elogia o fatito novo do Homem a Dias, mas uma vez na vida eu haveria de discordar do Ricardo Gross. O Foreign Sound do Caetano é, reconheço, bonitinho. Aliás, é a coisa mais bonitinha, indigente e inócua produzida por um sujeito de talento nos últimos anos.
Arriscando a que me partam um violoncelo na cabeça, aproveito ainda para culpar o sr. Jacques Morelbaum. A colaboração deste senhor com Caetano Veloso, que já vai longa, produziu, por junto, um grande disco (Livro), e bocados de outros dois (O Quatrilho e Noites do Norte). No mais, tornou-se fórmula, cansativa e aconselhável a átrio de hotel.
Tenho, é claro, saudades do Caetano da Tropicália, o melhor de todos. Mas por este andar começo a lembrar com nostalgia as fases (só) aparentemente desorientadas de Cores, Nomes ou Velô: é preferível o falhanço heróico ao aborrecimento de ciência certa.
Não perder a inteligente nota do Homem A Dias, do Alberto Gonçalves, sobre o infeliz e recente disco de Caetano Veloso: Bonitinho mas ordinário
É chato acontecer numa altura em que ele elogia o fatito novo do Homem a Dias, mas uma vez na vida eu haveria de discordar do Ricardo Gross. O Foreign Sound do Caetano é, reconheço, bonitinho. Aliás, é a coisa mais bonitinha, indigente e inócua produzida por um sujeito de talento nos últimos anos.
Arriscando a que me partam um violoncelo na cabeça, aproveito ainda para culpar o sr. Jacques Morelbaum. A colaboração deste senhor com Caetano Veloso, que já vai longa, produziu, por junto, um grande disco (Livro), e bocados de outros dois (O Quatrilho e Noites do Norte). No mais, tornou-se fórmula, cansativa e aconselhável a átrio de hotel.
Tenho, é claro, saudades do Caetano da Tropicália, o melhor de todos. Mas por este andar começo a lembrar com nostalgia as fases (só) aparentemente desorientadas de Cores, Nomes ou Velô: é preferível o falhanço heróico ao aborrecimento de ciência certa.
JOGO E ESTUDO
Sérá que os jogos electrónicos têm efeitos positivos no estudo? Um artigo da Wired diz que sim. Excertos:LOS ANGELES -- The conventional wisdom about the video-game industry is that it's all about entertainment. But a group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education.
To Henry Jenkins, host of the Education Arcade symposium held here before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the connection is clear. He said he remembers that during the 1996 presidential campaign, he gave his son a Doonesbury election game to play.
"My son, predictably enough, disappeared into his room, never to be seen from again," said Jenkins. "When he came out, my wife and I were watching election coverage on CNN. And he said, 'Oh, I get it, Dole is in New York, Kemp is in Illinois ... they're all in high electoral-value states. And he was suddenly explaining to us something that most Americans didn't figure out until after Florida 2000."
Sérá que os jogos electrónicos têm efeitos positivos no estudo? Um artigo da Wired diz que sim. Excertos:LOS ANGELES -- The conventional wisdom about the video-game industry is that it's all about entertainment. But a group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education.
To Henry Jenkins, host of the Education Arcade symposium held here before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the connection is clear. He said he remembers that during the 1996 presidential campaign, he gave his son a Doonesbury election game to play.
"My son, predictably enough, disappeared into his room, never to be seen from again," said Jenkins. "When he came out, my wife and I were watching election coverage on CNN. And he said, 'Oh, I get it, Dole is in New York, Kemp is in Illinois ... they're all in high electoral-value states. And he was suddenly explaining to us something that most Americans didn't figure out until after Florida 2000."
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JOGO E ESTUDO
Sérá que os jogos electrónicos têm efeitos positivos no estudo? Um artigo da Wired diz que sim. Excertos:LOS ANGELES -- The conventional wisdom about the video-game industry is that it's all about entertainment. But a group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education.
To Henry Jenkins, host of the Education Arcade symposium held here before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the connection is clear. He said he remembers that during the 1996 presidential campaign, he gave his son a Doonesbury election game to play.
"My son, predictably enough, disappeared into his room, never to be seen from again," said Jenkins. "When he came out, my wife and I were watching election coverage on CNN. And he said, 'Oh, I get it, Dole is in New York, Kemp is in Illinois ... they're all in high electoral-value states. And he was suddenly explaining to us something that most Americans didn't figure out until after Florida 2000."
Sérá que os jogos electrónicos têm efeitos positivos no estudo? Um artigo da Wired diz que sim. Excertos:LOS ANGELES -- The conventional wisdom about the video-game industry is that it's all about entertainment. But a group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education.
To Henry Jenkins, host of the Education Arcade symposium held here before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the connection is clear. He said he remembers that during the 1996 presidential campaign, he gave his son a Doonesbury election game to play.
"My son, predictably enough, disappeared into his room, never to be seen from again," said Jenkins. "When he came out, my wife and I were watching election coverage on CNN. And he said, 'Oh, I get it, Dole is in New York, Kemp is in Illinois ... they're all in high electoral-value states. And he was suddenly explaining to us something that most Americans didn't figure out until after Florida 2000."
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PERGUNTAS INOCENTES - 1
Qual deve ser o objectivo estratégico de uma empresa de comunicação?
Qual deve ser o objectivo estratégico de uma empresa de comunicação?
PORQUÊ?
Porque é que os Iraquianos estão a reagir como reagem? Ora eleiam lá este artigo da New Yorker, que vale bem a pena conhecer. Excerto:Before the American invasion of Iraq, Dr. Shaker said, only one murder victim arrived at the city morgue each month. This statistic underscores two conditions of Iraqi life under Saddam Hussein: the state had a near-monopoly on killing, and most of the victims of the state disappeared into unmarked mass graves. One unintended effect of Iraq’s liberation from Baathist tyranny has been the widespread dispersal of violence. In occupied Iraq, between fifteen and twenty-five murder victims arrive at the Baghdad morgue daily, most of them with gunshot wounds. Shaker estimated that five cases a week involve Baathists executed in reprisal killings; their families typically retrieve the bodies without informing the police. With barely functioning courts, a weak, ill-trained, and often corrupt new police force, a foreign occupier that has failed to provide security, and a pervasive atmosphere of lawlessness, Iraqis don’t expect the justice that was denied them during the reign of Saddam Hussein to materialize anytime soon.
Porque é que os Iraquianos estão a reagir como reagem? Ora eleiam lá este artigo da New Yorker, que vale bem a pena conhecer. Excerto:Before the American invasion of Iraq, Dr. Shaker said, only one murder victim arrived at the city morgue each month. This statistic underscores two conditions of Iraqi life under Saddam Hussein: the state had a near-monopoly on killing, and most of the victims of the state disappeared into unmarked mass graves. One unintended effect of Iraq’s liberation from Baathist tyranny has been the widespread dispersal of violence. In occupied Iraq, between fifteen and twenty-five murder victims arrive at the Baghdad morgue daily, most of them with gunshot wounds. Shaker estimated that five cases a week involve Baathists executed in reprisal killings; their families typically retrieve the bodies without informing the police. With barely functioning courts, a weak, ill-trained, and often corrupt new police force, a foreign occupier that has failed to provide security, and a pervasive atmosphere of lawlessness, Iraqis don’t expect the justice that was denied them during the reign of Saddam Hussein to materialize anytime soon.
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PORQUÊ?
Porque é que os Iraquianos estão a reagir como reagem? Ora eleiam lá este artigo da New Yorker, que vale bem a pena conhecer. Excerto:Before the American invasion of Iraq, Dr. Shaker said, only one murder victim arrived at the city morgue each month. This statistic underscores two conditions of Iraqi life under Saddam Hussein: the state had a near-monopoly on killing, and most of the victims of the state disappeared into unmarked mass graves. One unintended effect of Iraq’s liberation from Baathist tyranny has been the widespread dispersal of violence. In occupied Iraq, between fifteen and twenty-five murder victims arrive at the Baghdad morgue daily, most of them with gunshot wounds. Shaker estimated that five cases a week involve Baathists executed in reprisal killings; their families typically retrieve the bodies without informing the police. With barely functioning courts, a weak, ill-trained, and often corrupt new police force, a foreign occupier that has failed to provide security, and a pervasive atmosphere of lawlessness, Iraqis don’t expect the justice that was denied them during the reign of Saddam Hussein to materialize anytime soon.
Porque é que os Iraquianos estão a reagir como reagem? Ora eleiam lá este artigo da New Yorker, que vale bem a pena conhecer. Excerto:Before the American invasion of Iraq, Dr. Shaker said, only one murder victim arrived at the city morgue each month. This statistic underscores two conditions of Iraqi life under Saddam Hussein: the state had a near-monopoly on killing, and most of the victims of the state disappeared into unmarked mass graves. One unintended effect of Iraq’s liberation from Baathist tyranny has been the widespread dispersal of violence. In occupied Iraq, between fifteen and twenty-five murder victims arrive at the Baghdad morgue daily, most of them with gunshot wounds. Shaker estimated that five cases a week involve Baathists executed in reprisal killings; their families typically retrieve the bodies without informing the police. With barely functioning courts, a weak, ill-trained, and often corrupt new police force, a foreign occupier that has failed to provide security, and a pervasive atmosphere of lawlessness, Iraqis don’t expect the justice that was denied them during the reign of Saddam Hussein to materialize anytime soon.
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POESIA ENÉRGICA
Impetuoso, o teu corpo é como um rio
Onde o meu se perde.
Se escuto só oiço o teu rumor.
De mim, nem o sinal mais breve.
Imagem dos gestos que tracei,
Irrompe puro e completo.
Por isso, rio foi o nome que lhe dei
E nele o céu fica mais perto.
(Eugénio de Andrade)
Impetuoso, o teu corpo é como um rio
Onde o meu se perde.
Se escuto só oiço o teu rumor.
De mim, nem o sinal mais breve.
Imagem dos gestos que tracei,
Irrompe puro e completo.
Por isso, rio foi o nome que lhe dei
E nele o céu fica mais perto.
(Eugénio de Andrade)
maio 11, 2004
E AS FOTOS?
E se as fotografias que o «Daily Mirror» publicou sobre o Iraque fossem falsas? Quem faz a pergunta é o Spectator.
Excerto:Are the Daily Mirror’s torture pictures fakes? Most of my friends, whether anti-war or pro-war, think that they probably are. Such is my own inclination. But let us for a moment try to see things from the point of view of Piers Morgan, the Mirror’s editor. Whatever fine words Nicholas Soames may declaim in the House of Commons, the British army has, in fact, used torture in other civil emergencies. Look at what the Black and Tans did in Ireland before partition. Or the torture and murder of Mau Mau detainees, more strictly by the British prison authorities, at Hola Camp in Kenya. These things have happened. Nor is the depiction of the British squaddie as a public-spirited, gentle-hearted chap necessarily always correct. I have come across quite a few members of Her Majesty’s forces in my travels and, although I yield to no one in my admiration of our army, it cannot be denied that some of them are hard nuts, often recruited in the bleak streets of our northern cities. You would not want to get on the wrong side of these men, though it does not follow, of course, that they would resort to torture.
....
Why had he not previously published these pictures? Perhaps because he was not absolutely sure that they were genuine. And also because he realised that making them public could provoke angry Iraqis into attacking British soldiers. Do not assume that Mr Morgan is a wicked man. Then, last Friday, several British newspapers carried the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. (Interestingly, the fanatically pro-war Sun did not use any of them, while the pro-war Times and Daily Telegraph tucked them away inside. American newspapers, including even the Washington Post, were initially similarly restrained). When Mr Morgan saw the Abu Ghraib pictures, he evidently persuaded himself that he should run the British ones, for which he had paid an as yet undisclosed sum of money. In the heat of the moment, any lingering doubts about their authenticity were removed. So too were concerns about a possible backlash against British soldiers in Iraq. The Daily Mirror, after all, has been consistently anti-war. And Mr Morgan is in the business of selling newspapers.
Some people may say that even if these photographs are genuine they should not have been published. That is a very difficult argument to sustain. If British soldiers are employing torture, most us would want to be told about it, even if as a consequence other British soldiers were put at risk from retaliation. But are they genuine? As has been pointed out, they have a stagy, contrived feel. The rifle being used to prod the Iraqi prisoner is implausibly clean, and he looks well fed and generally unbattered. What is supposed to be a stream of urine being directed at him resembles the last droplets of water being squeezed from a rather ineffective water pistol. The Daily Mirror has rebutted the suggestion that the soldier’s boots are laced in a way proscribed by the British army, and it has also knocked down the claim that British soldiers in Iraq do not wear floppy hats such as the one in the picture. Nevertheless, many of the anomalies in the photographs have not been satisfactorily explained.
It seems likely they are fakes. If this turns out to be the case, Mr Morgan will obviously have to resign. The trouble is that the damage will have been done, and most Iraqis will not believe the judgment of the British authorities that the pictures are not genuine. It is possible that the Royal Military Police will never establish the truth. One can also imagine Mr Morgan falling back on the defence that the British soldiers were re-enacting an earlier incident which they knew to have happened, and that these pictures, though not recording an exact event, were dramatically correct. This would be a threadbare argument which would convince no one. Either these photographs capture what actually happened, or they do not. There is no intellectually respectable middle way. If they are genuine, Mr Morgan will be celebrated for his decision to publish them. My feeling is that they are probably false, and my guess is that they will be shown to be so. Mr Morgan is a talented journalist who has contributed to the gaiety of Fleet Street. But the lack of judgment that has stalked him throughout his career may have finally caught up with him.
E se as fotografias que o «Daily Mirror» publicou sobre o Iraque fossem falsas? Quem faz a pergunta é o Spectator.
Excerto:Are the Daily Mirror’s torture pictures fakes? Most of my friends, whether anti-war or pro-war, think that they probably are. Such is my own inclination. But let us for a moment try to see things from the point of view of Piers Morgan, the Mirror’s editor. Whatever fine words Nicholas Soames may declaim in the House of Commons, the British army has, in fact, used torture in other civil emergencies. Look at what the Black and Tans did in Ireland before partition. Or the torture and murder of Mau Mau detainees, more strictly by the British prison authorities, at Hola Camp in Kenya. These things have happened. Nor is the depiction of the British squaddie as a public-spirited, gentle-hearted chap necessarily always correct. I have come across quite a few members of Her Majesty’s forces in my travels and, although I yield to no one in my admiration of our army, it cannot be denied that some of them are hard nuts, often recruited in the bleak streets of our northern cities. You would not want to get on the wrong side of these men, though it does not follow, of course, that they would resort to torture.
....
Why had he not previously published these pictures? Perhaps because he was not absolutely sure that they were genuine. And also because he realised that making them public could provoke angry Iraqis into attacking British soldiers. Do not assume that Mr Morgan is a wicked man. Then, last Friday, several British newspapers carried the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. (Interestingly, the fanatically pro-war Sun did not use any of them, while the pro-war Times and Daily Telegraph tucked them away inside. American newspapers, including even the Washington Post, were initially similarly restrained). When Mr Morgan saw the Abu Ghraib pictures, he evidently persuaded himself that he should run the British ones, for which he had paid an as yet undisclosed sum of money. In the heat of the moment, any lingering doubts about their authenticity were removed. So too were concerns about a possible backlash against British soldiers in Iraq. The Daily Mirror, after all, has been consistently anti-war. And Mr Morgan is in the business of selling newspapers.
Some people may say that even if these photographs are genuine they should not have been published. That is a very difficult argument to sustain. If British soldiers are employing torture, most us would want to be told about it, even if as a consequence other British soldiers were put at risk from retaliation. But are they genuine? As has been pointed out, they have a stagy, contrived feel. The rifle being used to prod the Iraqi prisoner is implausibly clean, and he looks well fed and generally unbattered. What is supposed to be a stream of urine being directed at him resembles the last droplets of water being squeezed from a rather ineffective water pistol. The Daily Mirror has rebutted the suggestion that the soldier’s boots are laced in a way proscribed by the British army, and it has also knocked down the claim that British soldiers in Iraq do not wear floppy hats such as the one in the picture. Nevertheless, many of the anomalies in the photographs have not been satisfactorily explained.
It seems likely they are fakes. If this turns out to be the case, Mr Morgan will obviously have to resign. The trouble is that the damage will have been done, and most Iraqis will not believe the judgment of the British authorities that the pictures are not genuine. It is possible that the Royal Military Police will never establish the truth. One can also imagine Mr Morgan falling back on the defence that the British soldiers were re-enacting an earlier incident which they knew to have happened, and that these pictures, though not recording an exact event, were dramatically correct. This would be a threadbare argument which would convince no one. Either these photographs capture what actually happened, or they do not. There is no intellectually respectable middle way. If they are genuine, Mr Morgan will be celebrated for his decision to publish them. My feeling is that they are probably false, and my guess is that they will be shown to be so. Mr Morgan is a talented journalist who has contributed to the gaiety of Fleet Street. But the lack of judgment that has stalked him throughout his career may have finally caught up with him.
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E AS FOTOS?
E se as fotografias que o «Daily Mirror» publicou sobre o Iraque fossem falsas? Quem faz a pergunta é o Spectator.
Excerto:Are the Daily Mirror’s torture pictures fakes? Most of my friends, whether anti-war or pro-war, think that they probably are. Such is my own inclination. But let us for a moment try to see things from the point of view of Piers Morgan, the Mirror’s editor. Whatever fine words Nicholas Soames may declaim in the House of Commons, the British army has, in fact, used torture in other civil emergencies. Look at what the Black and Tans did in Ireland before partition. Or the torture and murder of Mau Mau detainees, more strictly by the British prison authorities, at Hola Camp in Kenya. These things have happened. Nor is the depiction of the British squaddie as a public-spirited, gentle-hearted chap necessarily always correct. I have come across quite a few members of Her Majesty’s forces in my travels and, although I yield to no one in my admiration of our army, it cannot be denied that some of them are hard nuts, often recruited in the bleak streets of our northern cities. You would not want to get on the wrong side of these men, though it does not follow, of course, that they would resort to torture.
....
Why had he not previously published these pictures? Perhaps because he was not absolutely sure that they were genuine. And also because he realised that making them public could provoke angry Iraqis into attacking British soldiers. Do not assume that Mr Morgan is a wicked man. Then, last Friday, several British newspapers carried the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. (Interestingly, the fanatically pro-war Sun did not use any of them, while the pro-war Times and Daily Telegraph tucked them away inside. American newspapers, including even the Washington Post, were initially similarly restrained). When Mr Morgan saw the Abu Ghraib pictures, he evidently persuaded himself that he should run the British ones, for which he had paid an as yet undisclosed sum of money. In the heat of the moment, any lingering doubts about their authenticity were removed. So too were concerns about a possible backlash against British soldiers in Iraq. The Daily Mirror, after all, has been consistently anti-war. And Mr Morgan is in the business of selling newspapers.
Some people may say that even if these photographs are genuine they should not have been published. That is a very difficult argument to sustain. If British soldiers are employing torture, most us would want to be told about it, even if as a consequence other British soldiers were put at risk from retaliation. But are they genuine? As has been pointed out, they have a stagy, contrived feel. The rifle being used to prod the Iraqi prisoner is implausibly clean, and he looks well fed and generally unbattered. What is supposed to be a stream of urine being directed at him resembles the last droplets of water being squeezed from a rather ineffective water pistol. The Daily Mirror has rebutted the suggestion that the soldier’s boots are laced in a way proscribed by the British army, and it has also knocked down the claim that British soldiers in Iraq do not wear floppy hats such as the one in the picture. Nevertheless, many of the anomalies in the photographs have not been satisfactorily explained.
It seems likely they are fakes. If this turns out to be the case, Mr Morgan will obviously have to resign. The trouble is that the damage will have been done, and most Iraqis will not believe the judgment of the British authorities that the pictures are not genuine. It is possible that the Royal Military Police will never establish the truth. One can also imagine Mr Morgan falling back on the defence that the British soldiers were re-enacting an earlier incident which they knew to have happened, and that these pictures, though not recording an exact event, were dramatically correct. This would be a threadbare argument which would convince no one. Either these photographs capture what actually happened, or they do not. There is no intellectually respectable middle way. If they are genuine, Mr Morgan will be celebrated for his decision to publish them. My feeling is that they are probably false, and my guess is that they will be shown to be so. Mr Morgan is a talented journalist who has contributed to the gaiety of Fleet Street. But the lack of judgment that has stalked him throughout his career may have finally caught up with him.
E se as fotografias que o «Daily Mirror» publicou sobre o Iraque fossem falsas? Quem faz a pergunta é o Spectator.
Excerto:Are the Daily Mirror’s torture pictures fakes? Most of my friends, whether anti-war or pro-war, think that they probably are. Such is my own inclination. But let us for a moment try to see things from the point of view of Piers Morgan, the Mirror’s editor. Whatever fine words Nicholas Soames may declaim in the House of Commons, the British army has, in fact, used torture in other civil emergencies. Look at what the Black and Tans did in Ireland before partition. Or the torture and murder of Mau Mau detainees, more strictly by the British prison authorities, at Hola Camp in Kenya. These things have happened. Nor is the depiction of the British squaddie as a public-spirited, gentle-hearted chap necessarily always correct. I have come across quite a few members of Her Majesty’s forces in my travels and, although I yield to no one in my admiration of our army, it cannot be denied that some of them are hard nuts, often recruited in the bleak streets of our northern cities. You would not want to get on the wrong side of these men, though it does not follow, of course, that they would resort to torture.
....
Why had he not previously published these pictures? Perhaps because he was not absolutely sure that they were genuine. And also because he realised that making them public could provoke angry Iraqis into attacking British soldiers. Do not assume that Mr Morgan is a wicked man. Then, last Friday, several British newspapers carried the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. (Interestingly, the fanatically pro-war Sun did not use any of them, while the pro-war Times and Daily Telegraph tucked them away inside. American newspapers, including even the Washington Post, were initially similarly restrained). When Mr Morgan saw the Abu Ghraib pictures, he evidently persuaded himself that he should run the British ones, for which he had paid an as yet undisclosed sum of money. In the heat of the moment, any lingering doubts about their authenticity were removed. So too were concerns about a possible backlash against British soldiers in Iraq. The Daily Mirror, after all, has been consistently anti-war. And Mr Morgan is in the business of selling newspapers.
Some people may say that even if these photographs are genuine they should not have been published. That is a very difficult argument to sustain. If British soldiers are employing torture, most us would want to be told about it, even if as a consequence other British soldiers were put at risk from retaliation. But are they genuine? As has been pointed out, they have a stagy, contrived feel. The rifle being used to prod the Iraqi prisoner is implausibly clean, and he looks well fed and generally unbattered. What is supposed to be a stream of urine being directed at him resembles the last droplets of water being squeezed from a rather ineffective water pistol. The Daily Mirror has rebutted the suggestion that the soldier’s boots are laced in a way proscribed by the British army, and it has also knocked down the claim that British soldiers in Iraq do not wear floppy hats such as the one in the picture. Nevertheless, many of the anomalies in the photographs have not been satisfactorily explained.
It seems likely they are fakes. If this turns out to be the case, Mr Morgan will obviously have to resign. The trouble is that the damage will have been done, and most Iraqis will not believe the judgment of the British authorities that the pictures are not genuine. It is possible that the Royal Military Police will never establish the truth. One can also imagine Mr Morgan falling back on the defence that the British soldiers were re-enacting an earlier incident which they knew to have happened, and that these pictures, though not recording an exact event, were dramatically correct. This would be a threadbare argument which would convince no one. Either these photographs capture what actually happened, or they do not. There is no intellectually respectable middle way. If they are genuine, Mr Morgan will be celebrated for his decision to publish them. My feeling is that they are probably false, and my guess is that they will be shown to be so. Mr Morgan is a talented journalist who has contributed to the gaiety of Fleet Street. But the lack of judgment that has stalked him throughout his career may have finally caught up with him.
maio 10, 2004
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