Scoop Feedback & Response On Conspiracy Theories

Thursday, 28 February 2002, 12:54 am
Opinion: Scoop Feedback

In this edition: Those Damned Conspiracy Theory Articles - Re: articles of WTC Attack. 9-11 - As Always Your Criticism Is Welcome At Scoop

Scoop readers are invited to send their feedback to editor@scoop.co.nz.

Those Damned Conspiracy Theory Articles

Dear editor (I assume it is Alistair (sp))

I am writing this a week or 2 after reading a series of postings on your website that seriously offended me. The subject was the war on Taliban/Al Quaeda. I have to say your coverage of the events around that has been to give e wave space to some of the most cretinous ill informed and biased writing I have ever suffered myself to read. The most recent one blamed the events on the Bush administration.

I am a New Zealand political junkie now based in London and I used to be a strong supporter of Scoop. But what I have read since September 11 has made me seriously consider starting a campaign to have the more reputable hard news distributors in New Zealand withdraw their postings. Do they really want their serious political posts to be associated with the worst most ill thought out conspiracy theories. I understand your desire for a free press but some of your stories are not honest opinion. They are simply rantings of lunatics.

I have just re read your aims and nowhere does it mention that you consider yourself a platform for any conspiracy theory. I fail to see why you publish a theory that suggests Bush et al deliberately withheld fighters that could have shot down the plane that hit the pentagon 1 hour after the first plane hit and 45 minutes after the second hit the WTC. The theory suggests this could thereby have saved the lives of all the people in the WTC.

Your aims refer to New Zealand news but I note that has been relegated to the bottom of the page as "Other news". Have your priorities changed?

I conclude with the comment that I would expect a higher standard from your website unless you have been seduced by the international attention you seem to have gained. None of it positive, but people think you represent mainstream New Zealand views. I am still pissed off but will continue to read your website and hope that you pay some more attention to posting more rational opinion.

I would be interested in your comments.

Regards

Phil Sage

Re: articles of WTC Attack. 9-11

dear Editors

I have found your investigative articles about the WTC attack/9-11 incredibly insightful and provocative. There is too much about this horrific act that does not add up. Especially the date itself evokes suspicion. The ONLY country in the entire world that writes the MONTH before the Day, as in 9-11 for September 11, is the United States. All other Nations would read 9-11 to represent 9th November; since all countries in the word write a date Day, Month, Year.

What is rather incredible about 9-11, as the United States refers to the WTC attack is the "coincidence" that 9-11 in other Countries represents 9th of November , which was and is to this very day a Celebrated Holiday by Fascists, Nazis/Neo Nazis.

9-11, as in 9th November 1923 was the day of the Hitler/Ludendorff Putsch in Munich. [ a date which later in 1933 was made into a National Holiday by Hitler] 9-11, as in 9th November 1925 was the day of the founding of the SS [Schutzstaffel]. 9-11, as in 9th November 1938 was the day of the Kristallnacht. And finally, 9-11 as in 9th November 1989 was the day the Berlin wall fell.

That for some reason or another the United States remains the ONLY country in the entire world that writes its date reversed , Month, Day, year- as opposed to all other countries in the world who write Day, Month, year. is it only coincidence that the Military Coup of Chile fell on 9-11 as well , though it is the September 11, date ?

best regards,
Anasiri

As Always Your Criticism Is Welcome At Scoop

Editor’s Response:

Dear Phil,

As always your criticism is welcome at Scoop.

As the above letter so clearly illustrates, Scoop publishes this sort of material about 911 because (like all Scoop material) people keep writing it and sending it to us because they think it is worthy of being republished.

Meanwhile we find this material…(See… INVESTIGATION: Sept 11th - Unanswered Questions )… a good read.

It also rates well, makes fantastic conversation material, and all the time raises legitimate questions that are largely being self-censored from the mainstream media.

Such self-censorship sometimes stems from a mistaken view that readers are not mature enough to think for themselves. But sometimes self-censorship also comes also from fear of offending people who will too quickly jump to conclusions that the media’s role is not to challenge authority and conformity. When it is.

It is only by raising questions in public that officials are brought to account. That is the media's role. And unfortunately most would be censors tend to also be the same people who have the power, the money and something to hide.

Scoop readers are free to ignore or disregard any articles or opinions they disagree with. And at least on Scoop readers are given an opportunity to know what other people are thinking. We think this is where Scoop's value lies.

I am delighted to hear you conclude your letter that you will continue to read Scoop, and presume you will do so because you feel better informed having done so.

Regarding the complaint that these theories are loony tune however, I beg to disagree.

As I am sure you would acknowledge, Scoop would most certainly have the courage to publish any official critiques of these theories, even if they came direct from the CIA (or Rumsfeld's OSI). That is what we do.

But at a time when issues of inconsistency in the official account of what happened on the morning of 911 are being widely discussed in the alternate media, there is conspicuously no official response.

Instead we learn that Donald Rumsfeld has only reluctantly resiled from setting up an Office of Strategic Influence, an office which the Bush Administration admits would have been given a mandate to spend large amounts of the public’s money deliberately seeking to misinform the people of the world about 911 and its aftermath.

So when the official response finally is proffered by a Bush aide, you should bare that in mind.

Finally, in relation to your comments on New Zealand news content, New Zealand news makes up by far the majority of the material in Scoop and around half of Scoop’s audience.

Moreover we try to keep a balance of material on the front page and sometimes we have more international news than other times. Mostly we do have NZ perspectives on these things however, and today’s front page is illustrative of this.

This afternoon for example we will, as usual, feature live coverage of the NZ Parliament.

Alastair Thompson
Scoop Editor

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