# DISGUSTING! Guardian online has a pic of Saddam hanging from a rope on its main page **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2007, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283 "2007-01-01T09:38:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/61 "2007-01-02T11:25:18Z")
[QUOTE=Aquila Be] So you’re happy with the Guardian’s MXist approach? Then you’re probably even more happy that non MXists who are forced to pay the BBC that TV licence fee are not so pleased. Hell, I don’t even live in your country, but I consider the principle that people who do not support your political views should be forced to subsidise a paper like the Guardian, stalinist and abhorrent. [/QUOTE] The Guardian is not Marxist. Wooly liberal, even quasi-socialist, possibly. But not Marxist. The Morning Star is Marxist. As for “forced” subsidy - that’s requiring a significant stretch of the imagination. Are you saying that by paying for some recruitment ads, the BBC is subsidising the paper? Or what? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/62 "2007-01-02T11:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] I’m missing something here. [/quote] The first page of the thread? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108785&postcount=42](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108785&postcount=42) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108872&postcount=45](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108872&postcount=45) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108874&postcount=46](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8108874&postcount=46) [/QUOTE] Nope, funnily I did read those posts. Did you read mine? “Why is the OP wrong to suggest that photos of a corpse (and the Guardian were showing this for at least some period of time) are a tad inappropriate for direct display on the front page of an online newspaper, and it would be more reasonable to post a link instead?” What’s wrong with saying that a newspaper should put a link up of a photo to a corpse, rather than just display the image on the first page that loads on their site? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/63 "2007-01-02T11:35:11Z")
Oops, excuse the borked tags. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/64 "2007-01-02T11:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=Aquila Be] So you’re happy with the Guardian’s MXist approach? Then you’re probably even more happy that non MXists who are forced to pay the BBC that TV licence fee are not so pleased. [/QUOTE] Assuming that mxist is some strange abbreviation of marxist rather than motocross, even as someone who loathes the Guardian I’d have to say you’re talking nonsense. Up its own arse, middle class handwringing crap - absoluty. Marxist, no. The Beeb advertises in the Guardian for the same reason that business advertise in the Times, uni’s advertise in the TES (and the Guardian) and makers of limited edition collectible plates advertise in the Daily Express. They look at the circulation figures and work out which is the most cost effective way of reaching their target audience. I’ve got a media position I want to fill, and the Guardian’s the paper most popular in that section, with a dedicated segment for the market. I want to flog some tack to idiots with sod all sense and even less taste, I go to the Express. Claiming that the beeb is subsidizing the guardian by doing that is just daft - I’d be more upset if they wasted my license fee on job adverts in the wrong paper when they could use a bit of commonsense and chuck the ad where it’ll be read by someone who’s interested. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/65 "2007-01-02T14:44:41Z")
[QUOTE=Gary Kumquat] The Beeb advertises in the Guardian for the same reason that business advertise in the Times, uni’s advertise in the TES (and the Guardian) and makers of limited edition collectible plates advertise in the Daily Express… (snip) I’d be more upset if they wasted my license fee on job adverts in the wrong paper when they could use a bit of commonsense and chuck the ad where it’ll be read by someone who’s interested. [/QUOTE] Quite, it’s about getting value for money. Why waste tax payers’/licence fee payers’ money on setting up a new recruitment publication when you can simply use an existing system of classifieds in a well established paper at a fraction of the cost? However the irony isn’t lost on me (given everything I’ve posted about the Guardian and it’s relationship with the truth when it comes to government) that the senior civil service members who are recruited from outside the civil service are often from exercises advertised in the Graun. 😃 Also a quick thank you to **Gary Kumquat** for correctly understanding my OP (which lots of others haven’t seemed to do). ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/66 "2007-01-02T18:02:22Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] Also a quick thank you to **Gary Kumquat** for correctly understanding my OP (which lots of others haven’t seemed to do). [/QUOTE] Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they don’t understand you. It is quite possible for two reasonable people to look at the same facts and come to different conclusions on matters of opinion. “But, but, but, you just don’t understaaaaaaaaaaand…” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/67 "2007-01-02T19:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus **Bryan Ekers** - is it a regular strategy of yours to dimiss anyone you don’t agree with as a child? Or have you just done it to me?[/QUOTE] Your writings in this thread remind me of a little girl in a white dress terrified lest something “icky” come close to her, with a reaction all out of proportion to the alleged threat. Well, that and the idiot who wrote a letter to _Time_ complaining about how their cover photo of “Otzi” in all his dessicated glory had made him sick. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/68 "2007-01-02T19:27:35Z")
I’m beggining to understand that quote fom _Yes, Prime Minister_: > [@](#): > > _Jim Hacker_: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: > > The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; > The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; > The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; > The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; > The Financial Times is read by people who own the country; > The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; > And the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is. > > _Sir Humphrey_: Prime Minister, what about the people who read the Sun? > > _Bernard Woolley_: Sun readers don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits. However, considering that libel laws are stronger in England that then the Guardian would had been stopped a long time ago if what you say is the whole truth. I have to agree with **Bryan Ekers**. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/69 "2007-01-02T21:35:17Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they don’t understand you. It is quite possible for two reasonable people to look at the same facts and come to different conclusions on matters of opinion. “But, but, but, you just don’t understaaaaaaaaaaand…” [/QUOTE] He wasn’t disagreeing with me, nor was I saying he was - so what’s your point? Oh right, it’s because I didn’t agree with _you_ that I’m in some way being petulant, I see. Why don’t you fuck off you patronising twat; did you understand that? The same applies to you **Bryan Eckers** - your writings in this thread remind me of someone who thinks that anyone who doesn’t have exactly the same take on things as them is a moron and should be humiliated publicly as punishment. Whilst I’ve made clear I don’t agree with some people in this thread I’ve been as respectful of their right to disagree with me as the pit requires me to. You, on the other hand, are simply obnoxious (apparently for fun, you troll). Great quote **GIGObuster** , I hadn’t read it before. Shame you’re determined to wear that “I’m with stupid” t-shirt and stand next to Bryan whilst doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/70 "2007-01-02T21:41:41Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] He wasn’t disagreeing with me, nor was I saying he was - so what’s your point? Oh right, it’s because I didn’t agree with _you_ that I’m in some way being petulant, I see. Why don’t you fuck off you patronising twat; did you understand that? [/QUOTE] Actually it was the “which lots of others haven’t seemed to do” part which my post was concerning. Dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/71 "2007-01-02T21:47:01Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Actually it was the “which lots of others haven’t seemed to do” part which my post was concerning. Dumbass. [/QUOTE] Oh, well in that case may I just say “but, but, but, you just don’t understaaaaaaaaaaand…” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/72 "2007-01-02T21:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] Great quote **GIGObuster** , I hadn’t read it before. Shame you’re determined to wear that “I’m with stupid” t-shirt and stand next to Bryan whilst doing so. [/QUOTE] So says The Ministry of Silly Walks. 🙂 AFAICR Monty Python came with that parody of British government agency to make fun of guys like you. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/73 "2007-01-02T23:45:52Z")
[QUOTE=glee] However describing the Guardian, a respected independent newspaper with the motto ‘comment is free but facts are sacred’, as ‘a pack of lies’ is just silly. [/QUOTE] I thought their motto was ‘coment is free but facts are scared’ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/74 "2007-01-03T00:46:18Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] The same applies to you **Bryan Eckers** - your writings in this thread remind me of someone who thinks that anyone who doesn’t have exactly the same take on things as them is a moron and should be humiliated publicly as punishment. [/quote] Well, in this particular case, you’re being childish in demanding that you be shielded from something newsworthy but “icky”. The fact that I’m pointing this out (in clear violation of “Nanny State Guidelines For Making Sure Everybody is Happy and No-one Gets Upset”) doesn’t mean I view people who disagree with me as morons, but if it suits you to claim such, go ahead. > [@](#): > > Whilst I’ve made clear I don’t agree with some people in this thread I’ve been as respectful of their right to disagree with me as the pit requires me to. I wasn’t aware of _any_ such requirement in the Pit. It would defeat the purpose of having a Pit in the first place. I don’t want to seem even more condescending than you’ve already accused me of being, but the world is a violent place and newspapers compete with attention-grabbing visuals and headlines. There are various technical solutions to your problem, including browser settings that don’t load pictures unless you click on their placeholders, but hearing a modern adult make such a complaint sounds like a Victorian woman eager to avoid anything that might make her gasp, let her tightly-laced corset cause her to faint. If a picture of a hanging Saddam has this effect on you, I can’t imagine you’re ready for the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the SDMB, let alone its Pit. > [@](#): > > you troll Coming from you this means… absolutely nothing. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/75 "2007-01-03T03:53:53Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] I’m beggining to understand that quote fom _Yes, Prime Minister_: [/QUOTE] If anyone is curious, here is the clip of the original \*Yes, Prime Minister \* “Who reads the papers?” ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cxdMFRwztl4/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/cxdMFRwztl4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque I was wondering about the Independent.. Looking at the comments on YouTube: > [@](#): > > firebreathone (1 month ago) > And who reads the independent? > > PseudoLonginus (1 month ago) > I read Independent on line.And I´m from Finland so it is the foreigners who read the Independent 🙂 True, I did read it a few years ago from America because one dumb reporter from that paper swallowed the false exit polls from Venezuela’s recall referendum in 2004, the opposition did their best to plant doubts and seed armed rebellion, and somehow the early “scoop” from the Independent was being used as evidence by the opposition. However, the Independent corrected itself later on the day and the opposition lost any foreign confirmation of their “evidence”. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/76 "2007-01-03T08:07:02Z")
[QUOTE=Aquila Be] That would probably be a good choice. You certainly wouldn’t be in danger of being duped by fabricated stories like the ambulance the Israelis supposedly destroyed by missile fire in the recent Lebanon conflict. [/QUOTE] Is your source for this the same as for the following?: [QUOTE=Aquila Be] Perhaps about half SDMB members have one or more newspapers that they fervently believe tells them the truth. A popular pick for dopers would be the Washington Post (owned by Katherine Meyer Graham, to mention an irrelevent fact). The taxpayer subsidised (via the BBC) Guardian would probably have a similar level of emotional support. … [/QUOTE] Because Katherine Graham is dead and the Guardian receives no taxpayer subsidy. So I’d think again. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/77 "2007-01-03T09:34:50Z")
More criticism in the letters pages of the Guardian… > [@](#): > > Your leader (January 1), which unequivocally condemns the death penalty, refers to photographs of “a tawdry event” and says “it is certain that nothing but vengeance and retribution are served by the brutal and public manner of his end”. So what purpose was served by printing one of the same photos across the front page? Those who are not similarly appalled by the gruesome showpiece could easily find the images elsewhere. “New recruits shocked into supporting the abolitionist cause” are unlikely to be found among Guardian readers, surely? > **Sylvia Chainey** > Stocksfield, Northumberland > > So it would have been all right if the execution, in which the US and Britain have connived, had happened out of reach of the cameras (Letters, January 2)? We could then have remained in comfortable denial of the barbarity of all executions, whether public or private. At least the shocking images strip bare the hypocrisy of both governments, of which Britain’s is the worse because we claim to be against the death penalty. > **John Clifford** > Edinburgh > > For this to appear on the front page of a so-called respectable paper fills me with dismay and anger. The only thing missing now is the red top and silly celebrity stories. Shame! > **Denis Dunphy** > Liverpool > > I look forward to the readers’ editor’s review of the decision. It was a huge error of judgment. > **Annie Robson** > Stevenage, Herts > > [Gruesome images that shame us all | Iraq | The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1981517,00.html) This last letter in particular shows why I read the Guardian - they will take the flak and justify their decision, or apologise if they got it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/78 "2007-01-03T15:47:04Z")
The public has spoken: that picture of Saddam’s face as he hangs is now one of the three “most e-mailed photos” on Yahoo. Right next to a marching brigade of Storm Troopers, and a very wide female ass. Apparently the public isn’t bothered. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/79 "2007-01-03T16:26:47Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] The public has spoken: that picture of Saddam’s face as he hangs is now one of the three “most e-mailed photos” on Yahoo. Right next to a marching brigade of Storm Troopers, and a very wide female ass. Apparently the public isn’t bothered. [/QUOTE] Or maybe they are! Forty minutes later, Saddam is gone, replaced by the mouse sitting on a cat sitting on a dog. Very cuddly. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283/80 "2007-01-03T18:47:19Z")
‘Yes Minister’ lifted the joke from elsewhere (I forget where but when I heard it broadcast for the first time I already new it) and slightly edited it. This was back in the seventies The original went: London’s Newspapers The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who own the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they do run the country; And the Daily Telegraph is read by people who the country ought to be run like it used to be run; The Daily Express is read by people who think that it still is; The Morning Star is read by people who think this country should be run by another country; The Sun is read by people who don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits. Pre Daily Star, Daily Sport and Independent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-guardian-online-has-a-pic-of-saddam-hanging-from-a-rope-on-its-main-page/386283.md?page=5)