Continuing our expedition into the world of tabloid journalism we soon came upon the Daily Express, that once-great newspaper that is nowadays read only by those who collect china with pictures of the Royal family on it, which carries a story on Sacha Baron Cohen (pictured right) - the creator of Ali G, Borat and Bruno - and how he has apparently received death threats from a terrorist organisation called the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.
The Express got the story via the Daily Star who, they report, say that the AAMB "has claimed responsibility for recent terrorist attacks." Interesting - and why on Earth would a man of Baron Cohen's undoubted intelligence choose to satirise a real terrorist group, since doing so would be tantamount to suicide? Maybe the Express were thinking along the same lines, because they contacted Baron Cohen's spokesperson who told them: "I don't know anything about this."
Hmm. Over to the Star's website for more information it is, then. Using the page's search function, we soon found the following:
That looks like the one we're after, doesn't it? So we clicked and were rewarded with:
That page had a picture of a very pretty lady without very many clothes on, so that bit was alright; but we do wonder if just maybe the Daily Star is using the time-honoured red-top journalistic technique known as "making stuff up" and had to take the story down a bit sharpish because Baron Cohen's lawyers got in touch? If so, they may well be forced to print an apology - however, we shall never know because one look at the filthy little rag every couple of months is about all we can handle.
Sacha Baron Cohen image from Wikipedia, used in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
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This is sooo rare.... as many stories in MSM these days!!!
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