Daily Telegraph Editor Defends The Tele's "Reporting"

Like a cockroach running when you turn on the lights, so to is the Daily Telegraph's editor David Penberthy running from the truth.

David has written to Crikey defending his newspaper's reporting of the Iktimal Hage-Ali cocaine issue, but it seems his defence falls short because it looks like he failed to speak to his journalists about the issue.

This blog has confirmation that Luke McIlveen contacted Iktimal about her arrest on the morning the original positive stories were run, I'll repeat that again he contacted her ON THE MORNING the story was run. Now to contact somebody to get confirmation tells me and any other normal person that Luke McIlveen knew about it before hand, and you can bet that if Luke knew about it so to did his puppet masters at the Telegraph. For them to have contacted her in the morning they would've known about it at least the day before. Interesting thing to note is that this blog actually heard about the arrest 3 days before the Telegraphs positive story, so you can bet the Tele with all their sources knew about it as well.

David attempts to somehow justify his newspapers stance by saying:
"This newspaper did not know of Ms Hage-Ali’s cocaine arrest when it published a news story, editorial and opinion piece defending her earlier this month over attacks from hardliners within the Muslim community for her drinking champagne at the NSW Australian of the Year awards. "

Well there you have it ladies and gentlemen another lie from David- "...attacks from hardliners within the Muslim community for her drinking champagne...." Now if David, as well as his lazy journalists had done a little bit of objective journalism they would've seen that it wasn't hardliners being critical of Iktimal, it was ordinary everyday Muslims who are concerned about the behaviour of those who the media labels as "Muslim Leaders".

Penberthy then goes on to say:
"It was only because of our support for her that we were contacted by persons with information about her cocaine arrest who rightly told us that we had not published the full story. We then contacted her and asked her whether it was true that she had been arrested and interviewed by police in relation to using cocaine;"

Note that he avoids mentioning when they contacted her, it is obvious he is running away from the truth- but that's something we have come to expect from Penberthy and his acolytes at the Tele.

David continues on his rampage, now choosing to savage and vilify Irfan Yusuf who had the gall to mention that he was subjected to some vile messages on his News Ltd blog. A quick read of the Daily Telegraph blogs reveals a wicked mix of hate and racism by some it's readers, one post to the story of a young 8 yr old boy who drowned trying to save his sister managed to include an attack on Islam:
"notice these poor folks are Muslim. I wonder if this tragedy would have happened if they allowed their girls to go to mixed gender swimming classes, instead of insisting that they go to the few female-only classes available. From the description of this incident, it sounds like the little girl just lost her footing and was helpless -- just like all the "30 family members" who watched from the shore, apparently because they couldn't swim either. When religion stops children from learning to swim and makes 30 people useless, it's time to think if that is what Allah really wants. Posted by: hector of hastings 8:37am today
Comment 1 of 22"

Penberthy finishes off with one last lie:
"because we subscribe to the old-fashioned notion that it’s not our job as a newspaper to censor people’s views and shut down debate."

This blog has posted at least a dozen comments on the Telegraph, all of which for some reason, did not appear- but don't take my word for it:
"Assalam Alaykum, given that there are several times i have posted comments on the Daily Telegraph website that were not published for some reason - i've decided to start a thread whereby any reader comments that aren't published are displayed for the Islamic community to see. - JStevens1044"

To further prove that David Penberthy plays loose with the truth here is the message that comes up when a post is made on the Telegraphs site:

"Please note that we are not able to publish all the comments that we receive, and that we may edit some comments to ensure their suitability for publishing.

Feedback will be rejected if it does not add to a debate, or is a purely personal attack, or is offensive, repetitious, illegal or meaningless, or contains clear errors of fact.

Although we try to run feedback just as it is received, we reserve the right to edit or delete any and all material."

So David according to your newspapers own website there is proof that you do censor people's views.

People can make up their own minds.