Tim Blair

ONE OF Margo's loyal margoons

ONE OF Margo's loyal margoons takes me to task for guessing wrong on the alleged Basra death warehouse. He should read my post again. Slowly. Perhaps with an adult present.

The issue isn't whether or not the place was a torture zone (I noted that subsequent CNN and NYT reports cast doubt on earlier claims) but whether the Daily Telegraph's coverage - derisively described as a scoop by Margo, although similar reports had appeared in the NYT, BBC, the Independent, MSNBC, Sunday Times, all the wires, etc - represented a Murdoch conspiracy, as Margo had alleged.

One (of only two) pieces cited by Margo as evidence of this wily Murdoch plan turned out to be written by Guardian reporters who filed from Basra. Is the Guardian also running a "relentless pro-war propaganda war"? Comments from British soldiers supported the death house theory. Margo supposed that the Telegraph was wrong in isolation, when in fact all early accounts were apparently (and, I'd argue, with reason) mistaken. As mistaken as Margo "the Americans nuked Vietnam" Kingston usually is.

Still, her Elite Margolian Guardsman deserves credit for boldness. He's sent Margo - who once warned that "there could be a cell in Sydney planning a terriers act in Italy" - a photograph of a pro-war demonstrator who can't spell "moron"; this, he claims, displays the ignorance of the pro-war crowd.

Immediately below this assertion is an e-mail from a Margo fan who thinks we're about to start World War "111" and doesn't capitalise the word "Muslim".

Posted by Tim Blair at April 9, 2003 10:13 AM