Shark Links: Oct 24, 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

John Coles is a Fucking Liar


Here's yellow journalism, fear mongering, and media bias at its finest. You want a good bullshit story? Holy claspers! This does not get far from that. Online news article "Killer shark is a Cornish nasty" by John Coles from The Sun is far from accurate and unbiased. Here's the text from the article:
PROUD fishing pals pose with the killer shark they caught - off CORNWALL. Electrician Ricky Nethersole, 38, hooked the 7ft 9ins blue shark four miles off Land's End. He and friend Tony Everitt then battled 30 minutes to haul the 186lb beast on board, helped by skipper Robin Chapman and crewmate Sam Narbett. Ricky, from Wokingham, Berks, said modestly: "It was a bit of a handful. I've been trying to get a decent-sized shark for five years - and now I've finally got one." The shark was released unharmed after the snap. Robin, who said it was the biggest he had seen in eight years running fishing trips, added: "She swam away quite happily." Four people are known to have been killed by blue sharks worldwide.
One commenter named Ricksharkkiller states:

believe me it swam away happily although we were suprised it did with out its fins!
To me, that was just exemplary of the media not getting facts straight at all. Even if blue sharks have killed four people, that is not an appropriate ending to any news article. It is certainly a fact that should be completely ignored, but John must like to emphasize it.
I attempted to post my own comment only to never get it published... I wonder why? Here's my delightful comments:
Oh, thank you so very much, Mr. John Coles for that interesting inspiration! CALL UP THE MEDIA! We need an advertisement all around the world stating that, "Four people are known to have been killed by blue sharks worldwide." and sponsored by *The More You Know*. I'm sure that more people were horridly disintegrated by acid. Back to the subject, who in the world entitles a fish story as, "Killer shark is a Cornish nasty"? Does that ring a bell for any of you? Me neither. Since when would anybody make a headline about President Obama stating, "Killer black man is a Communist"? Who exactly knows that right after this 'snap' was shot, that animal was happily let go in absolute mirth? There has been a few people that have stated, 'I think the shark is dead.' and I agree... Since when are three people able to hold up a shark without it trying to get free or biting someone to do so? Would any human who was pushed in a deep pool and couldn't swim just get out of the pool, smile, and thank the person that threw them into the pool in the first place? Do people who are the subject to pranks thank the prankees afterwards? I'm thinking that they did kill the shark. In no way would any shark be pleased with a situation like this. I'm sure that they may have thrown the animal back after the picture, but they did have time to measure the animal beforehand which suggests they could have spent much more time beforehand with the animal. I was wondering, why was it that Ricky and Tony "battled" this animal? Since when is fishing a battle? Since when is a shark a "beast"? The only beasts in the world belong to the department of cryptozoology. To me, Ricky seems to just want the credit for catching this animal... Why in the world would anybody want to catch a shark anyways? For the explicit fun of it? I'm also wondering why Robin thinks that the shark swam away happily. I'm really strongly doubting that any shark swam away unharmed and happy; "Ricksharkkiller" stated previously that "it swam away happily although we were suprised it did with out its fins!" So John Coles is telling us that Rick the Electrician let the shark go harmlessly and happily, though Ricksharkkiller states that it swam away without its fins. Either the entire story that John Coles wrote up is completely absurd or the story is absurd and Rick & Friends killed the shark, finned it, and sold the fins for a profit. Pick the one you think best fits, like a nice cubic regression. Thank you, The Sun, for this interesting propaganda and yellow journalism--it is greatly appreciated.


---> Calvin Requin <---







---> Calvin Requin <---