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Programming Forum and web based access to our favorite programming groups.C4 SnowMail - January/2001 Certainty level: 50% In January 2001 I signed up for Channel 4 TV News's email service SnowMail, under an anonymous email address. Quite soon Jon Snow and others started getting at me in the SnowMail bulleti ns, so I promptly unsubscribed. Here are three distributed messages which may be intended to be against me; I have given these items a joint probability of 50% only, since it is quite difficult to be sure these are ag ainst me, although I think they may well be. First item is from 5 January 2001. "Back passage contacts" might genuinely b e about Labour were communicating in a shielded way with ITN; but it may be about Snow's covert communications with me on his programme and in this bulletin; and it's a slightly strange thing for him to say, it suggests the human body's back passage. "I wish they'd come and talk on our website".... Snow knows I'm subscribed t o his mailing list, and he may be encouraging me to talk to him by email; again, if that comment were genuinel y about Labour, then it would be a strange thing to say, since the politicians talk to Snow by phone and on h is programme, so they wouldn't talk to him by email; my suspicion at the time is that he was trying to persuade me to talk to him by email, so he could decently lie that my thoughts of reference were incorrect. From: "Snow C4N, Jon" Subject: Channel 4 News briefing Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 17:15:06 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 January 5, 2000 Good afternoon dear viewer, Well the 'snowmail' drew a little ire from Labour HQ yesterday. A sensitive call at 6.35pm from my friendly mentor there sought to correct the impression I gave in yesterday's missive that in some way Labour was bounced into naming these latest millionaire donors. Well I'm afraid they were...res t assured Paul Hamlyn would not have been named without the diligent sleuthing of my colleagues, and had HE not b een named neither would these latest two. The only serious inaccuracy I must plead to was the promise that we would pu t these matters to a 'senior Labour person'...alas none was forthcoming...I shall make no such rash promise agai n. My same mentor was on the phone again during last night's Channel 4 News urging us to 'get some reality into the p rogramme'. I fear we may have touched a sensitive nerve...and the election campaign has not even started, or has it? I shall try to keep you posted with these 'back passage contacts' as the campaign unfolds..from all sides. I do wish t hey'd come and talk things over with all of us on the web site...here's an open invitation... So to today: Harold Shipman murdered as many as 250 people it now turns out. But he is ne ver to be tried and relatives who sclosure to their uncertainties will never reap satisfaction..we have the DPP , the Chief Medical Officer and a solicitor for aggrieved and bereaved families on the programme..the world's second-wor st mass murderer..can he be allowed to escape further action? Sending private/sexy emails in company time gets workers the sack..Big Broth er spies on office premises..is electronic life in the work place getting out of hand? We explore what we can...and if you are not sure what you can and can't send, our site spells out the legal dos and don'ts and gives you the chance to put your views to us. The CIA publishes its risk assessment for the world in the coming years..bey ond the CIA itself, what's the biggest threat to life and liberty? Find out on Channel 4 News..and a major encounte r with a man expected to take a top job in the Bush administration... And a sumptuous piece from Nicholas Glass in Valencia..a city transformed by a brilliant young architect for half the price of what the Dome cost us. Lots moving, see you at 7.00,best as ever, Jon Snow The next contact was on 11 January, with the unsubtle words "the lunatics ha ve taken over the newsroom" from Krishnan GM. The phrase needs no explanation as to why it might be a di g at me. From: "Guru-Murthy C4N, Krishnan" Subject: Channel 4 News briefing Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 16:56:25 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 January 11, 2001 Good Afternoon. Jon's away so the lunatics have taken over the newsroom. I a m joined by Samira for tonight's show. The Depleted Uranium confusion deepens. What did Ministers and senior office rs know about the risks to soldiers? What did they tell others? And why the lack of candour over the recent docum ents that have surfaced? Having dismissed the army report leaked yesterday warning of the dangers of exposur e to DU as written by a trainee and littered with mistakes, the Ministry of Defence now accepts it was written b y an experienced officer. But they won't say who. More awkwardly it emerges that senior officers decid ed a month after it was written that the report should be circulated to all personnel likely to come into contact with DU. But was it? Nobody seems to know. Our Science Correspondent Andrew Veitch has also visited the lab in Ox ford that could begin testing veterans for Depleted Uranium within six months, but they have had no contac t from the government as yet. From the Tories, Mr Duncan Smith is likely to join us. And we have Defence Secret ary Hoon coming into the studio to answer the obvious (and not so obvious) questions. No interest rate cut today from the Bank of England, but could it be next mo nth? As real fears are raised about the likelihood of recession in the US how could it affect us over here? Ther e's been a recent consensus that Britain could weather the storm instead of falling into the usual pattern of shadowing American trends. But how realistic is that? And what about all that inward investment we rely on from the States? Liam Halligan has been looking at just what impact economic downturn across the water would have on us. The former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic pleaded not guilty to char ges of warcrimes including genocide today. She was number two to Karazdic and a reputed hardliner during the "et hnic cleansing" of Bosnia. But has a deal been done on her sentence if found guilty? Just why did she g et on a plane and give herself up to the Hague War Crimes Tribunal? Nobody seems to have any explanation. Her lawyers are asking for special accommodation and even the possibility of bail. Gaby Rado is there and joini ng us live is the first Prosecutor in the Hague Judge Goldstone to discuss whether plea bargains and deals are the only way to get the real villains. Also the astonishing news that scientists in America have bred the first gen etically engineered monkey. What will they be used for and what's the next step? Does anybody really believe they won't do it to humans before too long? Julian Rush will have details. All that and loads more at seven. See you then, I hope. Krishnan. The third and final item is from 24 January, shortly after which I unsubscri bed from SnowMail. Again, it is difficult to be sure if this item refers to me; it may do, it may not do, 50% captures the possibility. Snow refers to "third leg of [Blair's] political footstool". In English culture "third leg" indicates one's male member; Snow's phrase may be a sexual reference, of which there were others around t hat time. From: "Snow C4N, Jon" Subject: Channel 4 News briefing Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 16:37:36 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 January 24, 2001 Good evening dear Channel 4 News viewer, There are times in this business when you suffer severe attacks of deja vu.. .haven't I already said "Mandelson Resigns!"...I'm afraid I have, and tonight I shall say it again. He's gone, the fat lady has not only sung but died completely and utterly on his career...that is the end of the former No rthern Ireland Secretary's political career. It's a body blow against Blair for whom Mandelson was a mentor, manipulator, calculator, friend, brother and the third leg of his political footstool. It's a body blow for a Prime Minister who has had to have him resign not onc e but twice. It calls into question Tony Blair's judgement. Mandy, probably one of the most brilliant spirits in politics, flew too close to the sun...suffering finally at the hand of his own diabolical flaw. Amazingly it's a flaw Blair understood more keenly than anyone... And then there are the Hindujas who have compromised every political party w ith ridiculous photographed party poses..who are they and how do they work? Masses moving on all fronts on this story tonight. We have the resignation speech in fu ll on our site www.channel4.com/news; if you want to see how Mandelson bowed out. There are other developments: The cancer tragedy at Nottingham Queens medical centre..the wrong drug going into the spinal column of an eighteen-year-old Leukemia victim who's now in intensive care, dangerously ill...it's happened before..why has it happened again? And a moving interview with Sharon Sage who's mother Lorna Sage wrote a spel l binding memoir highly rated in last night's Whitbread Prize. An exceptional piece.... A highly political night....see you at seven on four...best, as ever, Jon After this email I unsubscribed from SnowMail. I could not be sure that thes e items were or were not about me, but it's an unpleasant feeling that Mr Snow might be getting at me in writin g, as he certainly was when he watched me while presenting the news; so I cut my losses, so to speak, and bailed ou t. 3884 -- Posted via NewsDemon.com - Premium Uncensored Newsgroup Service ------->>>>>>http://www.NewsDemon.com<<<<<<------ Unlimited Access, Anonymous Accounts, Uncensored Broadband Access
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