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| Britain | |
| Guardian says sorry, call for assassins was just a tasteless joke | |
| 2004-10-25 | |
He wrote: Throughout the debate, John Kerry, for his part, looks and sounds a bit like a haunted tree. But at least he's not a lying, sniggering, drink-driving, selfish, reckless, ignorant, dangerous, backward, drooling, twitching, blinking, mouse-faced little cheat. And besides, in a fight between a tree and a bush, I know who I'd favour.It was the closing paragraph, howver, that got global attention. In that passage, Mr Brooker wrote: On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?Today, the Guardian withdrew the column from its website, replacing it with this: The final sentence of a column in The Guide on Saturday caused offence to some readers. The Guardian associates itself with the following statement from the writer.All of which leads one to wonder whether the Guardian doesn't have a special, private dictionary in which "irony" has a definition not readily available to the rest of the world. Welcome as the apology was, it fell short. Ironically, the Guardian seems unaware of the full import of the original column. But the well known Powerline Blog perhaps summed it up best: "This is, of course, where the liberal campaign of hatred and violence has been going for some time. I do think it is likely that someone will get killed; I hope it isn't President Bush. One can only wonder: if such a tragedy occurs, will the liberals come to their senses?" | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #16 Hey Charlie Booker, I hope your children die of AIDS. Please take that in the ironically humorous way it was intended, because I'd hate to have to make a grudging, back-handed apology explaining how my words were taken out of context. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-10-25 10:59:50 PM |
| #15 Ok, I guess we can take Charlie's picture out of the cruise-missile targeting database. Oh, wait, there's still Clark County, Charlotte "Moab vagina-bomb" Raven's post 9-11 taunting, and, worst of all, the recent desecration of the Bard's memory. AlG's address stays in the database. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-10-25 3:22:32 PM |
| #14 This sort of thing never happened back when the House of Lords was hereditary. I blame the upsurge in violence on Prince Willie's behaviour. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-10-25 12:57:30 PM |
| #13 "Charlie Brooker apologises for any offence caused by his comments relating to President Bush in his TV column, Screen Burn. The views expressed in this column are not those of the Guardian. Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action - an intention he believed regular readers of his humorous column would understand. He deplores violence of any kind." Or How about the truth... Charlie Brooker apologises because he was contacted by Scotland Yard, after they were contacted by the US Homeland Security Department, who was inundated by complaints about threats against President Bush by Mr. Brooker. Mr. Brooker was reminded of the fact that in Britian, unlike the US, people can be arrested for terrorist threats. And, they can disappear in the prison system indefinitely. Ask certain members of the IRA -- if you can find them. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-10-25 12:15:58 PM |
| #12 It's only ironic if Mr. Brooker is shot by an assasin in the mistaken idea that he is the President. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-10-25 11:20:18 AM |
| #11 Shouldn't the headline read: "Guardian |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-10-25 11:17:53 AM |
| #10 Ya know, the newspapers serving Clark County, OH should publish an editorial/"humor" piece wishing for the assassination of idiot British newspapermen who try to muddle in the affairs of supposedly allied nations. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-10-25 8:05:09 AM |
| #9 I think it's only fair that we call for the CIA to farm out contracts to assassinate the entrire editorial staff of AlG. What's the unemployment rate in Bulgaria for ex-Sov hit men? Might fill this order on the cheap. No worries, AlG, it's just tasteless irony. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-10-25 6:48:25 AM |
| #8 my corner of the civilised world will be praying that Bush wins . So much for Guardian providing class reporting (not that they ever had) . Oohh on a side note , wish they would make the crossword in the newspaper harder . Simple things for simple minds i s'pose |
| Posted by: MacNails 2004-10-25 6:25:01 AM |
| #7 What it actually shows is how casual Bush-contempt and US-hatred is in the UK amongst a certain class of "intelligentsia". They probably honestly thought most people would just laugh knowingly. Actually, I normally like Charlie Brooker's columns. He's a very funny writer when he's skewering his usual target, British "chav" culture. He also has a history of controversiality. He used to write for a UK PC games magazine and nearly got chucked off that for hosting a regular column that was deemed in bad taste. |
| Posted by: Guru George 2004-10-25 4:09:58 AM |
| #6 Since the UK has no constutition No written constitution. But it's still there, somewhere. Some of our British fellow Rantburgers might shed some light on that. Nonetheless, I thought insulting a head of state was illegal in Europe and the UK. OK, so he was calling for his death, not precisely an insult, but hey...close enough. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-10-25 2:49:51 AM |
| #5 They admit and concede it was tasteless and ironic? OK, let's go with the ironic part. Off with their effen 'eds. |
| Posted by: Asedwich 2004-10-25 1:30:02 AM |
| #4 I am certain such comments made against a certain prime minister in Mr. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-25 1:15:37 AM |
| #3 Charlie Brooker did not make an ironic joke. He alludes to wishing that our President be assasinated. We do not find this a joke, and I am sure that the Secret Service will have his name on the list of persona non grata in the US. Jokes like this are like jokes uttered about bombs in airports. They will get one into trouble, jug, or worse. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-25 1:01:30 AM |
| #2 You should hear his Holocaust routine ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-10-25 12:58:16 AM |
| #1 Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke Bet he'd be hilarious with a piece about mass graves. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-10-25 12:55:20 AM |