Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

HOPKINS CALLER A SET UP? @dubdanu #ANTIFA @misscheeky666 @tellmamauk @bikeyjezmo

ANONYMOUS | 04.01.2016 11:55 | Anti-racism | Indymedia | Repression | London | World

Coming at a time when hatred and suspicion of Muslims worldwide is at all-time high, Katie Hopkins of all people has surprisingly received a call which "blows her away" by justifying her opinions in one fell swoop. A supposedly honest, supposedly devout Muslim caller rang up Katie's controversial LBC phone-in, and claimed that he had to keep his children away from mosques as they were teaching kids to be terrorists. Alarming yet easily dismissable by the (un-Murdochified) facts that the vast majority of British Muslims abhor terror, this controversial caller has been automatically believed by many sections of the media, without being verified as authentic. Few if any radio talk-show callers are verifiable, but few if any callers are believed to be genuine sources of true information. The caller might or might not have been real. He could have been a genuine person with worries on his mind albeit groundless ones. Some people are afraid of bogeymen in the night, and shield their kids from the dark. Whatever his status, the caller's anti-Islamic fears given credence, is yet another setback for those of us striving for peace, justice and equality.

From botox to bollocks - Richard Desmond's OK Magazine goes political
From botox to bollocks - Richard Desmond's OK Magazine goes political

Katie Hopkins Wants Refugees To Be Murdered
Katie Hopkins Wants Refugees To Be Murdered

Katie Hitlerkins
Katie Hitlerkins




Although alarming, nothing in the caller's conversation was verifiable. It doesn't mean he was in-fact anything but genuine, but one has to be sceptical whenever supposed "whistleblowers" fail to provide investigable fact. Anybody who uses social media including Twitter and Facebook will have come across trolls, some more sophisticated than others, some of whom will spin fanciful tales with a deliberate political twist to influence impressionable minds. Far right political organisations such as Britain First and the EDL have been shown to concoct anti-Muslim stories that thousands of their followers lap-up and believe as fact. Not much thought and sophistication goes into a Britain First hoax, however there are plenty of cleverer rightwing organisations which one could not put it beyond them to falsify a radio phone call to maximise Islamophobic fears surrounding terror.

Callers sometimes ring such phone-ins with false identities, accents, biographies, deliberately to stir-up alarm and deceive the listeners. There is absolutely no reason for a radio host to take a surprise caller at face value, regardless of any "whistleblowing" content they reveal during their conversation. The most intelligent radio host will be unpolitical (or keep their views to themselves)l allowing cold, calm questioning to assess data, and help catch out imposters. Katie Hopkins neither falls into the category of intelligent or unpolitical, her views about minorities including refugees and people with disabilities, beyond the pale. Most of all, she is an outspoken anti-Muslim bigot. The fact a supposed "mosque-terror whistleblower" materialised on his programme, should be a cause of suspicion.

If an extreme anti-Jihadist think tank were to set up a hoax caller with a certain degree of listenability and community / faith knowledge to smear an entire religion, this could be so easily done. Long before the days of the internet and trolls, "shock jocks" became the staple diet of propaganda media stateside, broadcasting lumpen opinions to their listeners, scapegoating minorities in the belief the majority would do "the Full Niemoller" and steer clear of either sympathy or solidarity for the stigmatised "Demon Of The Day". In America, since the dark days of Senator McCarthy and his "Reds Under The Bed" anti-communistic witch-hunts, political opinion has been subtly interwoven into entertainment broadcasting. Opinions have been concreted into news, into chat, into sports, and of course, into celebrity hero worship, to directly affect the way puzzled listeners and viewers react to the world. The Hollywood actors and performers blacklist was the result of governmental bullying of one of America's most liberal institutions.

Social conservatives baulk at opposition to bigotry, arguing blindly that free speech and freedom of thought are all that matters, however history tells us there is no such thing as the concept of "freedom of thought" when Joe Public is persuaded to think in a divisive, nationalistic manner. The Nuremberg rallies are a deadly reminder of the ultimate political brainwashing, as millions of ordinary Germans were brainwashed into hating a religious minority to and beyond the point of indifference when the genocide began at Auschwitz. Americans haven't been acclimatised to a comparative level of inhumanity, the African American Civil Rights movement popularly embraced by all communities to a certain extent, however racial injustice never quite went away, as didn't the desire for global warfare. Throughout the Vietnam era, when black Americans lost their lives for flag and country, those who returned home experienced homelessness, unemployment, and relentless scapegoating that bloodied the celebratory optimism of Martin Luther King.

Long before Muslims were the main course on the menu of hatred, Jewish people, black and Hispanic Americans have been the target of derision, stereotyping and hatred across all the main US media networks, as "politically-incorrect" conservative political opinions continued to be infused into radio and televisual entertainment. Loathed by some, but loved by many, shock jocks built careers around strengthening racial divides, divides still alarmingly apparent in modern day America.

 http://www.gallup.com/poll/184484/americans-views-black-white-relations-deteriorate.aspx

People are not born racist. Bigotry is learnt, not just from parents and peer pressure but what everyday people see and hear through the media - newspapers, radio, television, and now the internet. New media can open minds, the Anonymous movement testament to younger generations starting to think for themselves, however ageing global media barons continue to wield significant influence over logical thought. in France, the fascist FN have become alarmingly popular with young people, thanks to rampant Islamophobic and anti-Roma political discourse via the media, especially in cementing public attitudes surrounding muslim headdress.

The United Kingdom has largely resisted Shock Jock media culture. Up to recent years, our talk show hosts have courted controversy, sometimes airing unpleasant opinions, but our most "shocking" conservative radio presenter James Whale was never in the same league as American network hatemongers. Katie Hopkins changed all that. Rightwing radio and newspapers have given her the licence to champion eugenics, and enthuse about aborting disabled foetuses, along with calling for refugees to be killed by the sinking of boats, along with her blatantly anti-Muslim tweets. Up until now. British celebrities have always erred on the side of caution, reluctant to be viewed by the British public as bigots, but in the ear of reality television soundbites, that has all sadly changed. In Nazi Germany, many famous people including actors, newsreaders and musicians openly supported anti-Semitism and national socialist politics. By giving celebrity haters like Katie Hopkins a voice, we are as a society risking legitimising abhorrent hatred which seriously threatens our renowned sense of compassion and fair play. How many Katie phone-ins, tweets and photo opportunities before the majority of white British people think like her??????

There is nothing to suggest LBC or Katie were trying to deceive the public with this caller. Katie was reported as being "taken aback" by what the supposed Muslim caller had said, however there are a considerable number of professional far-right Islamophobic organisations who could have been behind the call, if it was not as genuine as first believed. Arising amidst in a climate of fear and suspicion perpetuated by warmongering politicians and scapegoating rightwing newspapers, engineered troll calls are not beyond the realms of opportunity. One thing is for sure - regardless of the authenticity of the caller, the media attention given to the man's unsubstantiated fears of mosques "breeding terrorism" give credence to yet more negative perceptions of Islam in the public realm. If a caller had rung in, claiming he had met space aliens, he would have been roundly ridiculed as talking absolute nonsense based on the widely-held assumption that UFOs and little green men don't exist, and yet an equally unprovable caller making claims which go against all understandable evidence, is taken as truth.

Against a backdrop of the most powerful influence-makers in the world Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump openly vilifying Muslims, the actual truth of the vast majority of British Muslims rejecting ISIS, marching against them, and helping rescue Northerners in the floods, falls on deaf ears and goes unreported, whilst Islamophobic myth starts to become widely believed. The moment unproven radio caller stories becomes fact, is the moment rationality permanently gives away to prejudice, is the moment the people of Nazi Germany take notice of the words of Adolf Hitler.

NO PASARAN!

ANONYMOUS

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech