Tag Archives: News Media

Victoria, Canada: Times Colonist quotes BFP’s own Auntie Moses

The line between “real” news organisations and folks like us publishing blogs from our bedrooms and kitchen tables continues to blur as an increasingly understaffed “real” news media once again quotes from Barbados Free Press in a desperate attempt to make deadline. We’re not complaining or bragging – it’s just an observation…

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also visited the island last year, with Canadian media in tow.

As one Bajan, “Auntie Moses,” said at the time on the Barbados Free Press website: “Keep smiling and get them cold tourists down here!”

…from the Victoria & Vancouver Island Times Colonist article Barbados: Take in an authentic Caribbean experience

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Filed under Barbados, Barbados Tourism, Blogging

Forbes picks up Adrian Loveridge article at BFP

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we have no idea why articles from Barbados Free Press are being regularly picked up and republished or linked to by major news outlets like CNN, Sky News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Sunday Telegraph, Seventeen Magazine and others.

Lately the news outlets are interested in our CLICO and Arch Cot stories.

We’re pleased but mystified.

The latest pickup is by Forbes.com, who are pointing their readers to our recent article: Adrian Loveridge comments on Barbados Tourism Ministry website dysfunction.

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Filed under Barbados, Barbados Tourism, Blogging, Freedom Of The Press

Georgia Popplewell sends invoice to Newsday for unauthorized use of blogger’s Thomas Glave photo!

Will Trinidad & Tobago Newsday do the right thing?

Georgia Popplewell

The crew at Barbados Free Press try to be good boys and girls when it comes to attribution of photos and quotes. I’m not saying we’re perfect (and now someone will post a gazillion times when we’ve failed) – but we try to credit sources and photos at least with a link to the website or a mention in the story.

We’ve had some folks go bananas on us because we used their photo, credited them and linked to the photo, but never sent them money. Well, okay, we took the photo down when they complained. Ya have to know that WordPress where we host the blog would take the photo down if we didn’t and that’s okay because they know the law and such better than we.

But then there is the professional news media and you’d expect that they would know the exact laws and standards and that they would – or will – provide attribution and payment for photos when they use them.

Our friend Georgia Popplewell has sent an invoice to T&T Newsday for the unauthorised use of one of her photos and we hope she receives a fair cheque in the mail from the honourable folks at Newsday.

We’d show you the photo here but Georgia is on an understandable rant about this so we don’t dare!

So you’ll have to head over to Caribbean Free Radio (link above) to see her excellent photo of writer Thomas Glave. Georgia’s portrait of Glave really is something special and you should have a look and read her story.

But another reason I’m not going to display the photo is that Georgia is a fine looking, talented woman and I’d hate to violate her creative rights and ruin my chances to buy her lunch if I run into her later!*

*Disclaimer: Nothing untoward is meant by this statement. I admire Georgia’s work and would enjoy talking with her late one afternoon over some salad, little fisheggs on toast and some fine champagne!

Cliverton 😉

FOR THE RECORD: The photo of Georgia Popplewell shown here is one we’ve been using since 2006. I can’t remember where we stole it from, but we did. Forgive us Georgia!

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Filed under Barbados, Blogging, News Media

Idiocy at The Barbados Advocate: Murderous 25 year old career criminal described as “Youth”

Headline: “Youth jailed for 10 years for killing visitor”

When Curtis Joel Foster chased down Canadian tourist Teresa “Terry” Schwarzfeld at Long Beach last year and beat her to death he was 24 years old and in the middle of a one man violent crime wave that had been going on at Long Beach for over a year. Foster committed multiple robberies, thefts, assaults and is or was charged with at least one rape of a tourist.

Foster is not a “youth” by any stretch of imagination, but that’s how the Barbados Advocate described him in their headline.

Was the paper trying to mitigate the public disgust at the light 10 year sentence by indicating that Foster is a “youth” and therefore somehow less responsible for his actions?

This is not the first time we’ve seen the term “youth” misapplied by the Barbados Advocate to describe adult men in their mid-20’s who commit violent crimes. We’ve noticed that the paper habitually refers to adult criminals as “youths” even if they are talking about a gang of not-quite 30-year-old thugs hanging out at the T.

Is it that “youths” are somehow less threatening to our image?

Words matter, so we’re calling the Barbados Advocate out for their idiocy… or their propaganda.

What do you think folks? Have you noticed this trend by the paper? Why do the people at the Barbados Advocate continue to describe 24 year old adult males as “youths”?

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Filed under Barbados, Crime & Law, Culture & Race Issues, News Media, Police

BBC Traitors assist Muslim terrorists

BBC advises Muslim suicide bombers on optimum bomb placement, size & altitude for detonation

Thanks to an extensive study and actual field tests by the publicly-funded BBC, Muslim terrorists and their bomb makers now know that they haven’t been using enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747. They also now know where to better place the bomb and what altitude it should be set off at for maximum effect.

No doubt the Muslim homicide bombers and their evil leaders will shout “Praise Allah” after watching the BBC video that explains where they’ve been going wrong.

Read the BBC story Boeing 747 survives simulated ‘Flight 253’ bomb blast and watch the video. Like the terrorists, you’ll learn that “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wouldn’t have brought down Flight 253 on Christmas because even if he managed to set off the bomb, it simply wasn’t large enough or placed close enough to the outside skin of the airliner.

Al-Qaeda is undoubtedly saying “Praise Allah and the BBC for this information that will help us to succeed next time!”

When some BBC viewers questioned whether the experiment was valid given that the test aircraft wasn’t pressurized, the BBC even revised the article and provided additional information on bomb placement for greatest effectiveness and selecting the correct altitude for detonation to cause maximum damage.

PRAISE ALLAH for the assistance from the BBC!

The so-called journalists who wrote the article and organised the bomb test haven’t put their names on their work, but here are the photos and names of the two irresponsible and traitorous bastards who assisted the BBC in providing specific technical information to the Muslim terrorists…

Aiding Muslim terrorists: Dr. John Wyatt (left) & Captain J. Joseph

The BBC says Captain J Joseph is air accident investigator and Dr John Wyatt is an international terrorism and explosives expert who consults for the UN – United Nations. Traitorous bastards, both of them.

This irresponsible and traitorous BBC story and video is reminiscent of two episodes that happened during World War II…

Hedgehog Anti-submarine weapon

During the development of the “hedgehog” anti-submarine bomb, the British inventors didn’t know how much explosive to use. They knew how much it would take to sink a British submarine, but how much would it take to sink a German U-Boat? The problem was the British engineers didn’t know the distance from the deck of a German submarine to the pressure hull. The hedgehog would explode on contact with the deck of the German submarine, but had to have enough power to then rupture the pressure hull that could be between 2 feet and 4 feet under the deck. British sub specifications they knew, but what about the German U-Boats? How to find out?

Easy…. the Brits flipped through a bunch of German newspaper and magazines and found a photo of a German seaman loading torpedoes into a U-Boat. The seaman’s upper body was visible above the deck as he stood on the pressure hull. The Brits estimated his height and the distance of his body not visible and in this way accurately estimated the distance between the outer deck and the pressure hull. This was much less than the Brit subs and the designers were therefore able to use a smaller charge for the Hedgehog and throw it further.

They designed the hedgehog accordingly and it went on to be a major sub-killer – in no small part because the German propaganda photo allowed the Brits to select the proper size of explosive charge.

Congressman Andrew May - Revealed military secrets, killed 800 U.S. sailors

Japanese destroyers fail to set their depth charges deep enough when attacking American submarines

Congressman Andrew May (House Military Affairs Committee) was on a junket to Pearl Harbor and got a briefing on how the US subs were taking the fight to the Japanese and really starting to kick some tail by 1943. He was briefed on the following subjects:

•    That the Japanese destroyers were not following up attacks.
•    That the Japanese were setting their depth charges too shallow.
•    That the Japanese depth charges were not packing enough “wallop” to breach the 1″ steel plating on US subs unless it was a direct hit.

Congressman May then held a press conference when he got home, relating the TOP SECRET information to the radio and newspapers, assuring the mother’s of submariners that their boys were safe. (Sounds like the BBC assuring travelers that they are safe on the 747!)

Of course, Japanese spies ALSO listen to the radio and read the papers, and they reported the issues to their bosses. Corrective action was soon applied, with a super depth charge of 600 lbs of TNT hitting their arsenal. Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, commander of the U.S. submarine fleet in the Pacific, later estimated that May’s revelation cost the navy as many as ten submarines and 800 crewmen.”

I view the BBC’s article and video as no less stupid than Congressman May – to the point of treason.

Every person who worked on the BBC story should be charged with aiding terrorists.

… thanks to one of our readers who forwarded major portions of this story to BFP

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Filed under Aviation, Barbados, Crime & Law, Disaster, Freedom Of The Press, History, Military