One story has dominated this week, and that is the rampage of a lone gunman in a killing spree across southern France. The first victims were French soldiers .... A soldier was shot and killed while waiting to see a man about selling his motorcycle, and a few days later, two soldiers were shot and killed, and a third was wounded while waiting at a cash machine. Then finally this week, three children and an adult were shot and killed outside a Jewish school.
Now to most people this would point to just one likely group i.e. a Muslim gunman or gunmen, but then more facts came out. Whilst the three children and adult were Jewish, the soldiers were actually Muslims of north African descent. Cue the left wing media, in France and the UK suddenly saying, then it must be another right wing killer like that Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik (when oddly, everyone initially thought that killer must be Muslim) ..... the BBC radio programme 'Today' ran a discussion piece on the killings, with the premise that the killer of the Muslim soldiers and the Jewish school-children was most likely to be a group of right-wing extremists .... three ex French paratroopers expelled for 'racism' were the chief suspects.
A few voices pointed out in vain that the killer couldn't have possibly known that the French soldiers were Muslim, and therefore that the 'Right wing killer' hypothesis, was just one possible one, with the terrorist attack theory probably more likely, but they were silenced by the relieved clamouring of the left wing press, for a hunt to root out the 'far right' in Europe.
Then the French authorities announced that, rather than the right wing group that the press had been running with, they had in fact surrounded a Toulouse house, where a self confessed Al-Queda follower, Mohammed Merah was under siege, and that he was the suspected killer.
Now to most people this would point to just one likely group i.e. a Muslim gunman or gunmen, but then more facts came out. Whilst the three children and adult were Jewish, the soldiers were actually Muslims of north African descent. Cue the left wing media, in France and the UK suddenly saying, then it must be another right wing killer like that Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik (when oddly, everyone initially thought that killer must be Muslim) ..... the BBC radio programme 'Today' ran a discussion piece on the killings, with the premise that the killer of the Muslim soldiers and the Jewish school-children was most likely to be a group of right-wing extremists .... three ex French paratroopers expelled for 'racism' were the chief suspects.
A few voices pointed out in vain that the killer couldn't have possibly known that the French soldiers were Muslim, and therefore that the 'Right wing killer' hypothesis, was just one possible one, with the terrorist attack theory probably more likely, but they were silenced by the relieved clamouring of the left wing press, for a hunt to root out the 'far right' in Europe.
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| Toulouse Siege Outside Mohammed Merah's Apartment |
Then the French authorities announced that, rather than the right wing group that the press had been running with, they had in fact surrounded a Toulouse house, where a self confessed Al-Queda follower, Mohammed Merah was under siege, and that he was the suspected killer.
He had apparently told police he wanted to avenge Palestinian children, and attack the French army because of its foreign interventions. He has also apparently expressed no regrets other than "not having claimed more victims" and is proud of having "brought France to its knees".
Suddenly the stories about the right wing threat disappeared (as if they had never happened), to be replaced with stories about the killer, with his criminal background as a juvenile delinquent highlighted, as well as his radicalisation in Toulouse, and training in Pakistan (our friend and ally). The police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of the gunman's family.
To misquote Keynes, 'When the facts change, the reporting changes'.
Suddenly the stories about the right wing threat disappeared (as if they had never happened), to be replaced with stories about the killer, with his criminal background as a juvenile delinquent highlighted, as well as his radicalisation in Toulouse, and training in Pakistan (our friend and ally). The police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of the gunman's family.
To misquote Keynes, 'When the facts change, the reporting changes'.
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