Bell Pottinger accused of orchestrating 'fake news'

BBC... Wow... just WOW!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41319683

In the survey of 18 countries, 79% of respondents said they worried about what was fake and what was real on the internet.
But in only two countries, China and the UK, did a majority want their governments to regulate the internet.

Unbelievable.

I can remember, way back in 2007 when I first started my Abuse of Power blog, the pro's (especially Rosiepops) would leave comments saying:

1. the McCanns are looking for any libellous posts

2. the internet would eventually be regulated

At the time I thought they were but now it seems not.

"China and the UK, did a majority want their governments to regulate the internet."


Who the hell did they ask?


Stupid people?


Or did they just make that up?

Superficially it might sound a good idea;. No more terrorist sites, bomb instructions, child pornography and a whole range of other things we personally heartily disagree with.

But Quis Custodiet Ipsos interrete ?

If the internet is to be regulated by people who would ultimately be subservient to, or under the thumb of the likes of Bell Pottinger and Carter-Ruck
or worse, of Ministers of the Crown with all their hideous apparatus of D Notices and superinjunctions
then, sadly, it may be better for it to be free, however dangerous, unpleasant and unacceptable some may find this.

PeterMac

They monitor everything on the internet.

They already know who downloads bomb instructions and child porn.

They want to shut down free speech.

That's the real issue.

I read today online that the government have ordered UK banks to look thoroughly at every bank account in the hope of catching illegal immigrants.   Err why would the banks need to take a close look at every bank account to weed out illegal immigrants?  Another excuse to spy on us all.

I have been reading up over the past year or so about cryptocurrencies and how governments and banks the world over do not like them.  China has banned them outright recently and other countries are looking to do the same.
The reason given is that crooks and drug dealers could be using them.   No doubt some are, but crooks and drug dealers have also used the "normal" banking systems for years and far from banning the banks, public funds have been used to prop them up when bankers have got the country and the world into one heck of a mess.

Oh my have we never heard of crooked bankers?

It is an excuse to stop people taking control of their own lives.

This is why they want to control the internet, it's all about controlling the cannon fodder.   Too late imo- the genie is out of the bottle and they can't put it back in.   These whizz kids will find a way and from what I have been reading they are serious about it.

I followed a link the other day about the banks closing accounts of anyone who  buys bitcoins, in one case it said that one account holder had only made one transaction and had been put on a "black list" as to possible fraudulent activity.

How can that be right?    It is not illegal to buy and sell cryptocurrencies so why should someone be put on such a list?

Where are the human rights activists? 

Uber has been banned in London.  I do not know the ins and outs of it all but all  we are hearing is about banning things.

So much for us being free citizens with free speech.

I ask again, where are the human rights activists?  Not a peep from them.

The Daily Mirror published a figure of 6 million people without bank accounts in UK (for one reason or another) many can't get jobs because of it and their lives have been ruined.  How can it be allowed?  The banks do not even have to give a reason apparenty.

Daily Mail have published an article that Noel Edmunds is suing Lloyds for 300 million pounds as he reckons that the bankers are responsible for deliberately making his business empire bankrupt.   Not a fan of Edmunds but if that is the case then I hope he wins and a film is made of it.

Bankers have caused mayhem around the world and are richly paid and given stupendous bonuses for doing so and yet none of us are allowed to chose how we spend what little money we have left after we have been taxed to the hilt to keep the 1% in luxury.

Things will change, slowly but surely but they will because people the World over have had enough and not all World Governments are against these currencies.

As someone wrote in an article today the British Government need to wake up and realise the World has moved on and the rest of the World, through the internet, will set UK citizens free (at some point).  Can't come soon enough for me.

ARRRRGGGGHHH.

Where are the human rights activists?  

The two legs became better than four legs.

BlueBag wrote:

Where are the human rights activists?  

The two legs became better than four legs.

Joking apart,but I don't think a human being can out run a Four legged Animal?
Remember the banks want to abolish Cash Transactions,as a means to paying for goods or services required,would that be so your transactions become traceable?
The UK Government still as quiet as a"Church mouse" over Bell-Pottinger,do they still carry out work for the Conservatives?

Bumping this thread since there seems to be a bit going on at the moment as far as fakenews is concerned.

We have the recent Bell Pottinger scandal.

38 Degrees say that there is to be a full investigation into the Murdoch empire and that he has been spreading fake news.

In 2007, The Murdoch empire was in financial difficulty and we have had fake news ever since.  The McCanns paid Bell Pottinger £500,000 of Madeleines' search fund to keep their stories in the press.  

Recently we that Bell Pottinger & Murdoch are under investigation. 

Even Trump refused to go to the whitehouse Party because he said that the journalists were fakenews. 

What's happening? Or, more to the point, what was happing in 2006/7 ?

Oh, And Clarence - We haven't forgotten about you and your part in this fake news scam.

Private Eye online courtesy of PeterMac http://www.private-eye.co.uk/media-news

Hell’s Bell Pottinger
Public Relations, Issue 1453
 

Co-founder of Bell Pottinger Tim Bell, who resigned from the company last year, said the scandal over its work for the Gupta family in South Africa was likely to be “curtains” for the firm

THE demise of Bell Pottinger over its launch of a secret campaign stirring up racial tensions in South Africa rather confirms the reputation of PRs as people willing to take dreadful events, polish them up and set them on the mantelpiece.

After the Public Relations and Communications Association finally judged Bell Pottinger to have behaved unpleasantly enough to be kicked out, its director general Francis Ingham followed up next day with an email to PR consultants nationwide. “In taking this action, I believe we have shown that our industry subscribes to the highest ethical standards,” oozed the PR supremo. “At this important moment for the reputation of our industry, I would like to invite you to join the PRCA… The key [benefit] is this: demonstrating to colleagues, the client community, and the broader industry, that practitioners are ethical, and are willing to subject themselves to a regulatory process that is rigorous and meaningful… Now surely is the time to join the PRCA.”

Ingham then celebrated his own heightened media profile at the end of the story’s first week with the following tweet: “My week in numbers. Members expelled: 1. TV interviews: 5. Radio 4 ones: 2. Other interviews: 50+.

Publications quoted: 1k plus.” Which is presumably a comfort to the hundreds of staff made redundant as a result of Bell Pottinger’s failure, who might have expected the head of their trade body to care rather more about them than his ability to get his name in the papers. Still, that’s PR!

Great British Brexit Calendar
With administrators for Bell Pottinger unlikely to honour the outstanding £300,000 of a multimillion-pound deal Lord Bell demanded when he jumped ship last August, he will have to fall back on other business interests to keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed.

These include the Great British Brexit Company, which he set up in May this year to offer a “range of high-quality products” with which “you can celebrate ‘taking back control’ in suitable fashion”. So far, this range is limited to just the one item: the “Great British Brexit Calendar”, available for £9.99. Bell’s calendar does not feature anything so prosaic as dates. Instead, buyers are invited to display its “caricatures of Brexit champions” such as Boris Johnson, Sir James Goldsmith and Nigel Farage as and when they see fit, though Bell does suggest they save the very last picture – revealed by scratching away the last gold star from the European flag – on what he calls “Brexit-Eve”, 28 March 2019.

It is, essentially, not a calendar but a £10 scratchcard, only without prizes. To add insult to injury, Bell suggests “avoiding using the new pound coin as the ridges on the edge may damage the calendar illustrations underneath”. Perhaps a euro instead?

Waitrose had taken an ethical stance
Waitrose founder Wallace Wyndham Waite stated his intention was to “lift the food trade to a higher plane”. So why, customers asked the supermarket, did it choose Bell Pottinger to look after its PR?

When journalists asked a Waitrose spokeswoman earlier this month whether the supermarket would part ways with Bell Pottinger, she replied: “We don’t comment on specific supplier relationships.” This left Waitrose’s position unclear while other Bell Pottinger clients, including Clydesdale Bank, HSBC, TalkTalk and the construction company Carillion, were very publicly cutting their ties.

One outraged customer contacted Waitrose to say he would no longer be gracing its aisles unless the PR company was fired. The customer services team proved more willing to elaborate, telling the concerned customer: “I can confirm that we gave notice to Bell Pottinger in late August. We always aim to update our partners (employees) on company news first.”

So finally the news was out: Waitrose had taken an ethical stance, and earlier than many of the other Bell Pottinger clients. Why hadn’t it told the world? Perhaps it needs to hire a decent PR firm…

Courtesy of PeterMac

More on the McCann's favourite PR agency - Private Eye, 1453, p. 16