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Saturday, March 18, 2006

A Letter The Independent Would Not Publish

Dear Sir/Madam,
‘His biggest advantage was the ability to lie straight into your face’ says Paddy Ashown of the late Slobodan Milosevic (Independent, 13th March 2006). But if readers would care to read the transcript of Ashdown’s testimony to the Hague Tribunal, (url: hague.bard.edu/past_video?09-2005.html) they can come to their own conclusions as to who was doing the lying. Not long before his death, Milosevic showed a video in court in which Ashdown could be seen inspecting a Kosovan Liberation Army weapons cache. Ashdown could be heard promising he would 'do his best' to get the terrorist group assistance. 'The kind of closure’ which Milosevic’s death provides is extremely convenient for many people- not least Ashdown himself.

Yours faithfully,
Neil Clark,

7 comments:

Miguel said...

I believe they have what's known as a "comment moderation policy".

That said, I sympathise with your frustration, since I fully understand how tooth-grindingly annoying it is to spend time researching and writing something, only to find it summarily rejected without so much as a by-your-leave.

Neil Clark said...

No, it's not called 'quality control' -its called political censorship.
And there is no banning of comments that make me 'look stupid'- as I'm sure Mr Llap Goch Master, who is no great fan of mine will confirm. All there is is banning of defamatory comments, the repeating of defamatory comments- and comments which are personally abusive and which use bad language.
If anyone sends me a document/transcript- and details of a video which contradict what I've been saying- it will be posted- unlike The Independent.
Anyway, why don't you read Ashown's testimony yourself- and make your own mind up?

daggi said...

I was just wondering, when you state that you have written for The Guardian, The Australian, The Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, The First Post, R.F.O. and The Fleet Street Letter, the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The American Conservative, Pravda, The Morning Star and The Racing Post.,

do you actually mean you have writtento these publications? Time to add the Indy to the list in any case.

And by "pravda" do do actually mean pravda.ru?

Neil Clark said...

Daggi,
Don't try and go into comedy.
No, I don't mean the Russian Pravda- I mean the Uruguyan Pravda. What do you think?

Miguel said...

And there is no banning of comments that make me 'look stupid'- as I'm sure Mr Llap Goch Master, who is no great fan of mine will confirm.

Er... no. Sorry, Neil, but you know full well that you've banned plenty of comments that don't remotely qualify as defamatory or personally abusive, unless your definition of the latter stretches to encompass "mildly but politely critical".

Mind you, the fact that you've twice banned a comment including the phrase "you can dish it out but you can't take it" proves that particular point to perfection!

SiberianLight said...

I don't know that I agree with your comment l-g-m.

I don't agree with much (probably with anything) Neil writes. And I've posted a few comments to tell him so.

None, so far as I recall, have failed to make it past Neil's pit bull of a comment moderator.

So, from my own personal experience, I've had no problems.

And, to be honest, Neil can ban whatever he wants. If you have a problem with what he says, and don't feel it will be taken seriously here, post it on your own blog.

Miguel said...

And, to be honest, Neil can ban whatever he wants.

Of course he can, but at the risk of making himself look like an outrageous hypocrite.

Consider: at the start of this year he was aggressively promoting himself as some kind of champion of freedom of speech, a subject he was so enthusiastic about that he didn't mind whether his interlocutor was human or spambot.

Which is why it was so amusing when, barely a month later, he decided that speech had become a little too free for his liking and he introduced compulsory comment pre-vetting. Or, if you prefer, "quality control".