I came across this example of classic CT "investigation" whilst doing some other research. It's an old (2005) piece of speculation on the Jean Charles De Menezes police shooting, and picks up on what the author claims to be discrepancies, yet offers no real evidence. Despite clearly lacking the firearms or force knowledge to interpret what he's seeing, he uses this non-evidence in an attempt to tie the shooting to special forces posing as armed police. It sounds convincing, because he refers to specific models of firearm. Just like the CTists, he lack the knowledge and experience (or reference to experts) to interpret what he's seen. In fact, the firearms he refers to are all distinctively UK police issue, NOT military or special forces. It may not have been visible from the photos/footage he saw, but these would have been marked as semi-automatic only, making the SAS idea even less likely. But of course it's possible that the super-secret-squirrel SAS would pose as regular armed police, and the author relies on the element of doubt for a superficially convincing argument (though if that were the case, why pick up on the weapons used?!). Where have we seen that before?
A final parallel is the assumption of nefarious super-competence when incompetence explains the incident quite adequately.
I know there are lots of other mainstream media examples of CT-like thought and "journalism" - there was a piece not so long ago by a UK journalist who asserted that despite the recent report saying otherwise, something still didn't add up and that she would continue to believe it was a conspiracy.
Anyone have more recent examples of the mainstream media sneakily donning a tin-foil hat to write their column/articles?
A final parallel is the assumption of nefarious super-competence when incompetence explains the incident quite adequately.
I know there are lots of other mainstream media examples of CT-like thought and "journalism" - there was a piece not so long ago by a UK journalist who asserted that despite the recent report saying otherwise, something still didn't add up and that she would continue to believe it was a conspiracy.
Anyone have more recent examples of the mainstream media sneakily donning a tin-foil hat to write their column/articles?
