Wednesday, October 18, 2006
DEFEAT STREET
Journalists at British tabloid the Daily Star allow themselves to be censored by scary Muslims:
The Daily Star last night pulled a page that mocked Muslim law by turning the tabloid into the “Daily Fatwa” following a newsroom revolt.
Management acted after the Daily Star’s National Union of Journalists’ chapel held a stop work meeting that produced a resolution condemning the page.
The page included a “Page 3 burqa babes special” showing a woman in a niqab, as part of a feature billed as “How your favourite paper would look under Muslim law”.
The page also contained a blank editorial stamped with the words “censored” and “Allah is great” while across the top of the page were the words “no news no goss no fun”.
A competition told readers to “Burn a flag and win a Corsa”, while a picture of the US president, George Bush, was accompanied by a caption “death to infidels”.
At a hastily arranged stop work NUJ chapel meeting, staff voiced fears of violent reprisals and carried a motion that condemned the feature.
"This National Union of Journalists chapel expresses its deep concern at the content of page 6 in tomorrow’s Daily Star which we consider to be deliberately offensive to Muslims,” the motion read.
"The chapel fears that this editorial content poses a very serious risk of violent and dangerous reprisals from religious fanatics who may take offence at these articles. This may place the staff in great jeopardy. This chapel urges the management to remove the content immediately."
Question to Daily Star staff: who’s your daddy?
UPDATE. Just a guess, but I’d pick Daily Star journalists to be among those evolving into the lesser of two future human categories, if they’re not already there.