Forgot to include that in the OP:
No apology for being sick of apologies
The culture of mob rule via social media is starting to irk Birmingham Post columnist Jon Griffin
BY JON GRIFFIN
Birmingham (UK) Post, Jaun. 15, 2015
It was a week of craven apologies - and a sobering reminder at a bleak time of year just how apologetic we have become as a society.
It was down to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News over in America to provide a touch of genuine slapstick to enliven the desolate January gloom. A self-proclaimed expert on terrorism called Steven Emerson became famous for at least 15 minutes or so here in the UK with an outlandish claim that Birmingham was a Muslim-only city where non-Muslims "don't go in".
It wasn't quite up there with the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times' allegations back in the 1980s that Hitler's diaries had been found in an East German hayloft. They were quickly exposed as fake and Rupe brushed it off as simply being part of the "entertainment" business. Makes a change from having a few phone-hackers on the payroll, I suppose.
I don't suppose the world's most powerful media tycoon will have lost too much sleep over Mr Emerson's Muslim claims either. In an apology which would have made Uriah Heep blush, Fox's terrorism guru said he had made an "egregious" error.
"I have clearly made a terrible error for which I am deeply sorry," he said. "My comments about Birmingham were totally in error, and I am issuing an apology and correction on my website immediately for having made this comment about the beautiful city of Birmingham... (steady on Steve, I was walking along the streets of Small Heath only last week, and there were beggars on the pavement).
The Emerson affair had clearly warranted an apology, especially for those viewers who rely on Fox News for their daily enlightenment. And it at least provided a good local talking point to take our minds off the weather, the merits of undertaking "Dry January", the hideous roadworks currently plaguing that "beautiful" Birmingham landscape and other such diverting matters.
CONTINUED...
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/business-opinion/no-apology-being-sick-apologies-8452806
Glad to see the spin de-spun as Corporate McPravda have hailed the the guy as an "expert on terrorism" since the mid-90s. Unlike telling the truth, drumming up fear and hatred is quite lucrative.
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