Blog exposes the truth
Stuff ran this Reuters story about a 16 year old girl in the UK who is going to go to court to overturn a school ban on her wearing the ring at school.
Now there is only an obscure reference to the fact that:
Lydia Playfoot’s parents help run the British arm of the American campaign group the Silver Ring Thing, which promotes abstinence among young people.
The Ministry of Truth blog explores this in great detail and highlights the commercial involvement and motivation of her parents. One goes away with an entirely different picture to that which you would get from the news story alone.
It would be nice if someone in the media did the same amount of research as the blogger did.
Hat Tip; Iain Dale
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Tags: Blogosphere
June 26th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I like the “V for Vendetta” theme of the Ministry of truth blog, that was a film to make people think.
I agree 100% that the media is way too lazy when it comes to investigating controvercial issues but I’m not sure that this attempt to portray this SRT as rampant capitalism is justified, my daughter goes to Girl Guides and they to have a fair bit of merchandise for sale.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
“it could injure someone if she fell and used her hand to steady herself.”
What utter crap. This is just more Marxist based Christian bashing by the commies who control education. I’ll bet if it was a ring with the hammer and sickle emblem on it, they wouldn’t give a red damn.
As for their sneering criticism of the promotion of chastity, for Chrissakes, such a policy could hardly be more of a failure than the clapped out commie indoctrination programs favoured by the left (such as that run by the lezzie who controls NZ’s Family Planning Association that is the subject of a later post)
June 26th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Mass-D-Baiter. Hell, is there anything in this world that you don’t bitch on about?
June 26th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
“is there anything in this world that you don’t bitch on about?”
Yeah, John Howard.
‘bater would LOVE to have Howard’s baby, but there’s the little problem of compromising his chastity.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
shit if she dosnt want to bonk, and her parents run a group stopping young girls bonking? david whats the problem ,the school lets islamist scarfs through, one step away from burkas, bombs are all right,HONOUR KILLINGS ARE ON THE INCREASE,but virginity is taboo, shit the labour nuts are running riot, friends of helen,, all hairy lesbians,agree natual sex is unnatual.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
This fisking simply links the possibility that the parents business can make some money about an issue they feel strongly about. The capitalist way, and there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that.
What the report does not go into was the schools defence of clamping down on the “Chastity Ring” movement. Apparently, they said Islamic head scarves and bracelets were fine, but rings were not.
They used their authority to clamp down on one set of jewelry, but excused another. It may have taken the complainant some time to sort out why she should be annoyed at that, and decide to fight it, but that is still her right. The school could have resolved the problem by not fighting it, given their capitulation to the Islamic dress code.
It seems the blogger has done a good job of presenting one side of the case, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we have the full picture.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I think the “Blog blowing the whistle” angle might be being overplayed a bit. I’m living in the UK at the moment, and the connection between the parents and the company which distributes the rings was well ventilated in the MSM when the story originally broke – see, for e.g. the Guardian article:
“Her father Phil Playfoot, a pastor at King’s Church in Horsham, and his wife are part of the team which run the UK branch of the Silver Ring Thing from their church; his wife is the secretary of the company. He insisted that his daughter was pursuing the legal action on her own initiative.”
June 26th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
DPF, this girl has been wearing the ring at school from 2004 until April. Three years. Why wait three years to raise it as an issue? Its because others started wearing these rings, thats why, and she is the poster girl for the ring thing due to her parents involvement.
But this case is silly – particularly when she is going to another school next term. If she wants to wear the ring why not? It’s better on her finger than through her nose.
Perhaps she should have tattooed it to her wedding finger and hid it with same wedding ring once she got hitched.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
DPF, you’re entirely off the mark on this one. The British MSM have covered this story in great depth and from every angle.
I doubt whether that blogger did any research himself – He could have plagarised his “findings” from any number of Timesonline or Telegraph articles.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
DPF -
Its not that journalists are lazy (and I know you’re not saying htere are), its that their numbers keep getting cut for squeeze more profits out of the businesses – its a real shame because it undermines the media’s role as the prime informer of public opinion.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
This isn’t a case of persecution. It is an orchestrated PR campaign. The girl wasn’t acting on her own. The media relations was handled by people involved with her parents’ company – which was incorporated within 3 days of the interviews. Worse, there’s even more on this later post:
http://www.ministryoftruth.org.uk/2007/06/26/asexual-nazis-for-god/
Ghastly people. Any surprise the school didn’t want to play their game?
Beware of people who tell you they speak for God. They’re usually selling something else.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
checked out your link icareAlot,it was like reading the labour election campain. Again whats the problem with virginaty ,cartoon and all,is a ring on a young girl enouth to send the average blogger into a lather, shit lets worry when the chinese navy docks in Fiji.