Heinrich Böll's book, 'Die Verlorene Ehre der Katherina Blum' ('The lost honour of Katherina Blum'), published in 1974, is a marvelous little expose of the gutter press in general and of 'Die Bild Zeitung' in particular; England has its 'Sun' and Germany has its 'Bild Zeitung' and, while the mainstream media is generally full of shit, those two rags are almost representative for the drivel that is consumed by "Joe Soap" and "Otto Normalverbraucher". The headline in today's 'Bild' is "Israel schlägt zurück" ("Israel hits back") and in the sub-heading we learn that a ground offensive against the "terrorists" is being prepared and on reading the text we learn that the barrage of rockets from Hamas has killed, "at least" one Israeli".(1) One Israeli, not "at least" one, has, in fact, been killed and he was killed after Israel started to bomb Gaza. In the meantime, the death toll in Gaza is over three hundred and our 'Bild' informs us of war in the Holy Land. Is this nonsense really taken seriously? There is no war, this is a massacre! Still, the real news getting out of Gaza can be accessed and my little analogy below is for those who are accessing it and for those who are, at least, capable of selectively and objectively reading the daily drivel that they are fed by the mainstream press. Anyway, onto my little analogy.
Alright, we are all going to play a game called, 'Doctor Who' and get into our tardis and go back in time and we are going back to the early eighties and the Royal Air Force is bombing West Belfast in response to an IRA bombing and the tanks are preparing for a ground offensive down the Falls Road ........ Of course, it all sounds more than trifle far-fetched because that is what it is, "more than" a trifle far fetched, it is ridiculous. Of course, as far fetched and ridiculous as it is, had it happened, the 'Sun' would have, I am sure been able to come up with a suitable headline.
http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/politik/2008/12/29/israel-/schlaegt-gegen-hamas-zurueck-schwere-luftangriffe-auf-gaza.html
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