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THE BURGESS EFFECT

Doubt the power of blogging? Consider:

October 2004: Dilpazier Aslam is hired by The Guardian under its “diversity scheme”.

July 13, 2005: The Guardian publishes an opinion piece by Aslam in the wake of the London bombings; Aslam asserts that younger Muslims are “much sassier with our opinions” and don’t much care “if the boat rocks or not”.

July 13: Scott Burgess—an indoor-based blogger—uncovers Aslam’s support for a global Islamic state.

July 15: Burgess exposes Aslam’s membership of extremist Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir.

July 16: The Melbourne Age publishes Aslam’s comment piece.

July 17: The Independent reports: “The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain’s most extreme Islamist groups.”

July 19: The Guardian fires Aslam, considering his membership of Hizb ut Tahrir to be “not compatible with being a Guardian trainee”.

July 22: An insanely bitchy and cowardly piece (“by a staff reporter”) in The Guardian claims Sassygate is “a demonstration of the way the ‘blogosphere’ can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed”.

July 29: Albert Scardino, Guardian executive editor for news, resigns.

August 3: Mockery of The Guardian spreads.

August 5: Prime Minister Tony Blair bans Hizb ut Tahrir.

Posted by Tim B. on 08/06/2005 at 03:30 AM
  1. Pyjamahadeen rule!

    Posted by Young and Free on 2005 08 06 at 04:40 AM • permalink

  2. Bow before the power of the catfood-eaters!

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 08 06 at 04:54 AM • permalink

  3. All your pyjamas are belong to us.

    Posted by Kaboom on 2005 08 06 at 05:11 AM • permalink

  4. Did the Age ever inform it’s readers about its “sassy” columnist?

    Posted by Quentin George on 2005 08 06 at 05:12 AM • permalink

  5. I bet Tony Blair spends his time indoors as well.

    Posted by Ross on 2005 08 06 at 05:21 AM • permalink

  6. carna bloggers.o/t this a.m. Doogueueue and Alan Saunders discuss experiences of the Blitz. Turns out neither was alive at that stage but saunders remembers war comics with racist phrases like “take that Fritz”.
    After throwing a bucket of cold water on a swooning doogue,saunders continued"there’s a lot of anti German feeling in Britain but that’s not the case in Germany.
    Highly trained,experienced,senior journalist doogue should immediately have pointed out the obvious"well after all it WAS Germany who attacked Europe and the rest of the northern hemisphere, following up by subjecting Britain to bombs,rocket attacks,firebombing Coventry etc.”
    Ah but this is an ABC JOURNALISTA, no such concerns as a fair picture for the precalent historically challenged.
    This sounds like a job for MEDIATWATS.

    Posted by crash on 2005 08 06 at 05:27 AM • permalink

  7. On the TV show “Malcolm in the Middle” there is an episode that I really enjoy.  It involves the father (Hal) playing basketball against his sons Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey.

    Hal is a lot bigger than his 3 sons, and just cheats blatantly against them – charging, hacking, etc.

    His 3 sons get sick of the abuse on the basketball court and come up with a plan.

    The last of the episode has Hal going up for a dunk.  His sons get on each others shoulders, with Reese (the oldest) on the bottom, then Malcolm, then Dewey.  As Hal rises up, his groin is directly in front of Reese’s face.  Reece hauls off and slugs Hal in the nads.  As Hal’s face, looking directly at Dewey, goes from triumphant to absolute agony, Dewey says to Hal, “the future is now old man”.

    The final shot is of Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey, arm in arm, walking off of the court.

    And to the left-wing MSM (aka Hal), yes, the future is now old man (and woman).  And yes, the blogoshpere will gladly slug you in the nads.  Hard, repeatedly, and happily. Either you clean up your game now, or you will end up writhing on the court, in pain, holding your nads, knowing that the future has come.

    Posted by David Crawford on 2005 08 06 at 05:27 AM • permalink

  8. Um “prevalent”.

    Posted by crash on 2005 08 06 at 05:29 AM • permalink

  9. Well all the Blair goverment would have had to do is really Harry’s Place, my blog and a few others to realise how nasty some of these groups are. There are quite a few bloggers that do a very good job in researching their “pet subject”. All credit to Scott but Harry & Co can lay claim to some of this as well.

    Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2005 08 06 at 05:55 AM • permalink

  10. yesterday abc interviews guy who insists Atom bomb did not convince Japanese to surrender.whacko insisted on saying good morning in Japanese.
    Tonight u.n. calls on “the world” to donate funds for Niger.Why don’t they just be honest and say the West…

    Posted by crash on 2005 08 06 at 06:17 AM • permalink

  11. All you catfood-eating pyjama-clad sunshine-allergic journalism-guild-underminers are all right.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2005 08 06 at 06:25 AM • permalink

  12. Prediction for the next scalp to be claimed by the Pyjamahadeen: scandal about funding of liberal US radio network Air America, which is being studiously ignored by MSM outlets such as New York Times, (which ecstatically fellated AA on its inception).  US blogosphere is on fire about this one.  Catch the fire!  Why can’t we claim some scalps like this here in Australia?

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 08 06 at 07:15 AM • permalink

  13. Personally, my favourite brand is ‘Snappy Tom’, chicken chunks.  Please get that sunshine offa me, get it offa me!

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 08 06 at 07:29 AM • permalink

  14. My cat gets whiskas bikkies and dead roo.

    I think I’ll stick with the chicken makhani and mongolian beef.

    As for which scalps. How about Abu Bakr for starters?

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 08 06 at 07:46 AM • permalink

  15. Mockery of the Guardian only commenced spreading from Aug 3 this year ?

    Gee, sorry fellow RWDBs, I jumped the gun somewhat—I have been spreading mockery at them ever since I first read some of their articles over a decade ago.

    Posted by Carl in N.H. on 2005 08 06 at 08:24 AM • permalink

  16. Conan, what is best in life?
    Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!

    Posted by Blue on 2005 08 06 at 08:30 AM • permalink

  17. Blue:

    Or Chocolate.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2005 08 06 at 10:42 AM • permalink

  18. Yeah, I’ve gotta go with chocolate on that.  Though you could combine the two, by crushing your enemies and taking their chocolate.

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 08 06 at 10:48 AM • permalink

  19. Is there a link between the Guardian’s screw up and Blair banning them though? Even if the Guardian never hired Dily the group would still exist anyway.

    Note I can’t read the NY Times article.

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 08 06 at 11:34 AM • permalink

  20. The High Priests are getting nervous in their sacred temples, ain’t they? The Wizard don’t like people pulling back the curtain, do he?

    One person really can make a difference, now, and at the speed of light.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 08 06 at 11:47 AM • permalink

  21. Achillea, you could always dip your enemies in chocolate, and then crush them.  A sort of candied cherry confection.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 06 at 11:56 AM • permalink

  22. But that would be a waste of perfectly good chocolate, wouldn’t it.

    Posted by PW on 2005 08 06 at 01:39 PM • permalink

  23. Not if you hear the lamentation of their women, PW!  And it’s a modern touch to an old philosophy.  Conan was a barbarian, after all.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 06 at 01:56 PM • permalink

  24. I bet Tony Blair spends his time indoors as well.

    He certainly sounds like he’s not much for sports.  Sorta like having Churchill’s speeches read by Frankie Howerd…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 06 at 02:36 PM • permalink

  25. “a demonstration of the way the ‘blogosphere’ can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed”.

    And the faster the better.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 08 06 at 02:55 PM • permalink

  26. The Guardian bitching about Scott Burgess’s “attack” and then firing Aslam is stupid, of course. Best summed up here:

    “Aslam was victim of rightwing bloggers, so we sacked him”

    That’s an instant classic.

    Posted by Brian O'Connell on 2005 08 06 at 04:07 PM • permalink

  27. Has anybody looked into who else the Eeeeevil Burgess got fired?

    Didn’t he run the Smothers Brothers off the air?

    Didn’t he get Suzanne Sommers thrown off Three’s Company?

    Wasn’t he responsible for showing Howard Stern the door?

    Come on, people, I think a People’s Inquiry to unearth his many many sins… let’s get cracking…!

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 06 at 04:30 PM • permalink

  28. You mean Dilbert worked there nine long months before his connection to Islamic extremism was exposed? But for his inappropriate use of that “s” word, he’d probably be working there still.

    Posted by scaramouche on 2005 08 06 at 05:01 PM • permalink

  29. If you take the chocolate, I guarantee the women will be lamenting up a storm.

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 08 06 at 06:24 PM • permalink

  30. Has anybody looked into who else the Eeeeevil Burgess got fired?

    The Beatles were doing just fine, thank you, until he got involved.

    Posted by guinsPen on 2005 08 06 at 06:42 PM • permalink

  31. I wonder if dipping Islamists in chocolate is considered halal…

    Posted by PW on 2005 08 06 at 10:10 PM • permalink

  32. Halal, my baby, halal, my darlin’, halal, my raghead pal…

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 08 06 at 11:31 PM • permalink

  33. OK, OK, we can crush our enemies, and dip the women in chocolate while we listen to their lamentations.  Is that better?

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 07 at 08:02 AM • permalink

  34. Just the skinny ones, JeffS.  Don’t want to lose a lot of chocolate.

    On the actual thread topic, not to be a wet blanket, but while bloggers definitely got the ball rolling, it wasn’t until the Independent came in that pins really started falling.

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 08 07 at 01:02 PM • permalink

  35. Guardian and their cronies are a tad peeved at Scott aren’t they? Aw what a pity.

    Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2005 08 07 at 01:57 PM • permalink

  36. spends his time indoors

    What they really meant is,

    Makes copious use of the mastubatorium in his parlour.

    Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2005 08 08 at 03:42 PM • permalink

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