Wednesday, October 14, 2020

BBC and "La Consulaire"

The BBC reports on the possible repatriation of "La Consulaire" to Algeria. That's a 7 meter long cannon the French captured back in 1830. (It got the name from the French consul who was shot out of it by the Algerians back in 1683.) "It was in fact Hassan Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Algiers in the 16th Century, who commissioned the giant cannon in order to protect the city from repeated attacks by the Spanish, French and Dutch." Hassan Pasha sounds very put upon, doesn't he? The BBC ignored a little bit of context.

Is that enough of an omission to make the story a lie? If not, it comes very close.

5 comments:

Korora said...

I'm surprised that the "Lies" tag only has twelve items. There's enough BS simply in current events to power a farm for a Majritian year!

Douglas2 said...

One would think that a historic artifact that is this famous and still existing would have more details about specifications readily available.

Near as I can tell the bore was about 10 inches ~25cm.

james said...

Korora, for the good of my soul and my blood pressure I try not to focus on the lies.

Korora said...

Still, you've had to correct a lot more than the tag count implies.

Sam L. said...

Bummer!! I can no longer believe what the BBC broadcasts. I am....desolated. Sho nuff.