blonde poker forum

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006160117,00.html

Pathetic if you ask me...

Thats crazy

Might be a little more to it than that.

I wouldn't care to comment except to say that more anti-Islamic journalism is not really what this country needs right now.

If there is nothing more to the story than man plays poker - social services take child then there is something seriously wrong.

I doubt it has anything to do with poker...

Parts of the media are Xenophobic? I don't believe it...  ::) ::) ::)

What I mean is that this is a fine example of irresponsible tabloid journalism. Half a story which only has one pupose. To get bloke A to turn to bloke B in a pub and say "Bloody Muslims, this is our country" or "Bloody social services, don't know what they're doing"

Lets continue feeding the bigotry, show a picture of the parents looking distraught. God forbid we just report the facts and give the reader the chance to make their own mind up.

Nothing in the article about respecting the religious beliefs of others. Sometimes I wonder if the national media has a more sinister agenda than just shifting a larger volume of newspapers.

I don't see it as being anti-islamic, more a straightforward this is what happened story in my eyes, though there probably is a lot more to it i agree.

EDIT, i see what you mean though it could be seen the other way around.

Eh?

There's plenty bias in the language used, designed to get the casual reader firmly on the side of the foster parents and against the social services and Islam natural mother.

The "distraught" child was "whisked" away while the "heartbroken" foster parents "watched helplessly"

The evil social workers "swooped" because the natural mother "claimed" that gambling was against her "new" beliefs.


"What an outrage" says Joe down the pub "Lets neck these Lagers and go beat up an Arab."

Not quite, but reporting like this doesn't help us all get along living together in a multi-cultural community.

Nope - it's purely economics. The Sun's target audience is the white, working classes. This is the sort of story that appeals to that demographic.

Interestingly enough, I had a search on Google News for anything else about this story - and there was nothing. Obviously it was a story brought straight to the newspaper by the foster parents (hence the photo). As a result, the story is obviously biased from their point of view. There is no quote from the natural mother.

The quote from the Foster Care Association is illuminating if you read between the lines. They 'asked the foster father to stop playing poker at home but he refused'. Now, I seriously doubt that this was internet poker - obviously the dad was having poker nights at his house. The article states the foster association knew he played poker professionally - I doubt they knew he had poker nights at home, rather they thought he went out and won money in casinos.

If he's playing poker to earn a living at his home, these don't sound like 'get a few mates round for an evening of fun' type affairs, but proper, serious money, home games, which may well go on all night. Are they one-offs, or more regular occurances?

Now, I obviously don't know the full details of this story, but I bet it's not as cut and dried as the article makes out.

if the natural mother had objected because she was a born again christian who was strongly against gambling would it have been reported in the same way, or at all?

is the focus of the story social services, poker as an acceptable way to make a living or islamic interferance in the englishmans business?

Tank :respect: for standing up

To be honest i didn't read it with your viewpoint, i actually thought:-

"too right, if it's against religious beliefs then fine",
then i thought:-

"though if the child has been fostered out then does the natural mother have that much of a say?"
Then:-

"well there could be any number of reasons why the child is with foster parents and therefore it was the right thing to do"

I guess i just don't read between the lines as you do Tank or maybe i have been conditioned by subliminal subtexts :D
At no point did i want to go out and beat up an Arab though.
I actually read this earlier and i'm pretty sure there was no reference to the foster "dad" being asked to stop playing poker and refusing, there may be something in that.

I think you're giving it a lot more thought than your average sun reader Ifm. good for you

I admit I don't know very much about fostering but if the child had to be placed with foster parents in the first place, why is the natural mother having any say in what happens? Surely children are only put up for fostering if the mother is somehow incapable of looking after the child herself.

BTW, be careful of placing such a high emphasis on 'respecting people's religious beliefs' when there are children concerned. It's all well and good people being able to worship freely, but using that religious belief as the basis for making decisions concerning a child leads down some very dangerous paths...

That aren't in Liverpool. ;)

Of course newspapers have agendas! Heck, the Daily Mail was complaining there were too many Jews in Britain in the 1930's...

Newspapers like to think of themselves as 'setting agendas' but that's just not the case any more. Name me one recent major newspaper campaign/agenda which went against what the newspaper would have perceived to be the prevailing public opinion of the day.

Newspapers are all bandwagon jumpers - more so now than ever given they are all haemorrhaging readers.

Or anywhere in the north-west.

I'm not a Sun reader as such, more a whatever paper is closest to me in the cafe sort of reader :D
A lad i work with fosters kids and the 2 that he has had so far have both gone back to their parent(s), i have absolutely no idea what the circumstances of either were but their parents couldn't have been that bad.

If it's the cafe down IMEX then it's most likely the Sun.  :D

I don't recall a copy of the Financial Times sitting around anywhere.

Coz they get snapped up quick  :D

in many ways true Andrew, but the press underlines and adds weight to different sections of societys prejudices. the mail doesn t make you more middle class and uptight but it offers support for the beliefs of the readers. "It's true, I read it in the paper" with respect to our resident man from the current bun I have to say I feel the Sun is guilty of propergating a lot of rather unpleasant characteristics of 'Britishness'

In no particular order  ::) i look for:-

The Sport
The Star
The Sun
erm, i don't think i've ever seen anything else in there either Snoppy

'The Sun'

I must admit I read the Sun, only the problem page though!

METRO

lol

And even then you only go for The Star if The Sport has someone's brekkie down it.

That's not someones brekkie ::)

There are 6 people in our house, Leons parents, Leons sister, Leon, me and a foster child. 4 out of the 6 people that live here play poker... but the foster child hasn't been taken away! If only...


OK, I know i'm evil but i'm his back-up foster carer whilst Leons mum and dad are on holiday and he has been naughty today - grrrr, lil sh*t! lol

Kids are fostered for all sorts of different reasons and fostering is rarely a permanent solution. To deny the natural parents any say in how the child is brought up, when in most cases the child will be returning home, is ridiculous.

Making uninformed judgements about the natural parents of fostered children is far more dangerous than respecting peoples basic human rights.

I think this guy played professionally.

This sums up why I can't read the Sun (and plenty of other papers) - the bias of the 'reporting' just winds me up!

Wonder where he plays, you gotta believe he is on tilt right now!

The War in Iraq, (actually can't really call it a war, a war is when there are two sides fighting. Copyright Bill Hicks 1991.)

Tank certainly makes an excellent point about the loaded language used in this article. Upon analysis the inclusion of the natural mother's religous belief seems entirely irrelevant. However, I feel that any argument that newspapers have some hidden agenda frankly gives mainstream journalists far too much credit. The reason many newspapers publish bigoted unbalanced articles is, in my opinion, because a great many tabloid journalists are bigoted and unbalanced. Ever read any coverage of national journalism awards from Private Eye? These awards seem to include a large number of drunks (not that I have any prejudice against drunks) engaging in banal fistfights.

Rebekkah (her mad spelling, no mine) Wade, Richard "Dirty" Desmond, the prosecution rests......