back to article Daily Mail cites video game as proof of terrorist doomsday plot

Fear-mongering hacks at The Daily Mail have been caught mistaking footage from a popular video game series as proof of al-Qaeda's "terrifying vision" for a nuclear attack on Washington. The paper splashed a gory image showing the utter destruction that would result from the plot by terrorists to carry out a nuclear attack. In …

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  1. Bryce

    Not only that...

    But I have proof of al-Qaeda's photorealistic "terrifying vision" for a daemonic takeover of our proud Deimos base..

  2. Mike Plunkett
    Boffin

    An Experiment

    I have just added a comment to the Daily Mail online article, pointing out just how stupid they've been. I wonder if they'll actually post it...

  3. Alpy
    Thumb Down

    Like banging your head against a wall

    Reading anything the British press write about is a lot like banging your head against the way, pretty pointless and it kill serveral million brain cells.

  4. Steve Evans

    @Mike Plunkett

    They're probably stupid enough to, yes!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    noooo

    So now it's going to be late by 30-42 days+, depending on jurisdiction and how long Bethesdas employees get 'detained' by complementary manicures and involuntary watersports.

    If I manage to buy it without being arrested, will it require registration?

  6. Graham Marsden
    Stop

    How soon before...

    ... the US Government are using images of the destruction of New York from the "Heroes" TV show as "evidence" of Al Qaeda's plans to set off a nuke there...?

  7. John PM Chappell
    Happy

    The real story here is..

    ... Fallout 3 looks cool :¬)

    Can't wait, myself, in fact I think I'll dig out the two previous titles and get in the mood...

  8. Andrew B
    Coat

    If this is how things are going...

    I'm looking forward to the first Register review of the Pip-Boy.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I blame this planet of men

    You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

  10. Daniel B.
    Coat

    Red Alert 2

    This just in!

    We have received these shocking images of a real-time simulation of Russian zeppelin warships in a full-blown invasion of the United States of America!

    Mine's the one with the Tesla gun .... >>ZZZZZZAP!<<

  11. Roy Stilling

    Re: Like banging your head against a wall

    I am reminded of Humbert Wolfe's lines

    You cannot hope to bribe or twist / Thank God! The British journalist. / But, seeing what the man will do / Unbribed, there's no occasion to.

    Reg hacks excepted of course.

  12. Kwac

    'Not me' says SITE Intelligence (sic) Group

    An amusing rebuttal at the SHITE site:

    "We never said it was real and it was wrong of the Telegraph to say we did".

    And miraculously the Torygraph link disappears.

  13. Stuart
    Stop

    Tigers threaten world food stocks

    So how long before the Daily Mail read the "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" (ISBN 0006640613) and consider it an accurate depiction on how immigrants will threaten national food stocks. Reporting on inaccuracies in the Daily Mail is akin to reporting on water content in the Atlantic Ocean.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Obviously

    The Mail had no important stuff to say with a few column inches devoid of content.

    Sorta makes sense reeli?

  15. milan
    Thumb Up

    Fantastic PR

    Someone at the game publishers certainly knows how to get free massive exposure..

  16. D
    Paris Hilton

    it must be terrifying to be a Daily Mail reader

    yesterday it was killer mosquitoes that were coming to the UK to kill us all, today a group of Arab goat herders in Afghanistan are planning to build a nuclear weapon. Oh I'm shitting myself already.

    It would be nice to see the Daily Mail focus on something sensible rather than have a different horseman of the apocalypse charging across the front page each day. I don't mind the occasional Armageddon prophecy, the millennium bug was entertaining in it's day. However, I really can't be bothered with being forced to face the imminent collapse of Western civilization every single day.

    The poor bastards who believe all this crap are living in a perpetual hell, expecting their homes to be overrun at any minute by hoodie wearing, skunk smoking moslem transgender asylum seekers on a Jihad. It's really not a humane way to treat the congenitally stupid. Scaring stupid people should become a criminal offence.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @milan

    Yeah, it looks pretty excellent. Is it going to be on PC?

    Only question is whether it's a bullshot: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/09/12/

  18. Mono Ape
    Thumb Up

    The chicken little of journalism...

    The Daily Mail aka Daily Fail aka Fox News Lite UK.

  19. Tony Paulazzo

    What's the betting

    Gordon will now try to ban this game as he 'believes' (ie has no concrete evidence), that it might twist some childs brain in some way into becoming a terrorist.

    I've actually gone from being scared of NuLabours political madness to amusement at their apparent inability to remain attached to any form of reality.

    Economy down the toilet - ban pictures and books, people can't get to work - add more tax to petrol, house prices crashing - spy on your own people.

    What's the point of spying, high taxes and expensive books if 70% of the population are unemployed and sitting in front of TV watching reruns of 'under the hammer'?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @D

    Unfortunately the same kind of people who believe all the shite printed in tabloid newspapers also watch soaps to the point of extreme, where whenever a character on-screen has a baby they'll send baby clothes etc. to the ficticous character! (god knows how they find out the address of the studio, perhaps they just write "Coronation Street" on the package)

    It's a shame tabloids can't be reprimanded for their sheer incompetance at telling the truth by ignoring it or not caring because a false, sensationalist headline will make them a bit more money whilst helping to keep its regular readers in a continual state of fear and ignorance.

    Paris icon because that just about sums up the intelligence of the average regular tabloid reader.

  21. James Penketh

    that's the reason we call them...

    The Daily Fail.

    I only ever read that thing when I want to be extremely p!ssed off, partly because of the epic amount of stupid within.

  22. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    Pirate

    Skunk smoking

    "The poor bastards who believe all this crap are living in a perpetual hell, expecting their homes to be overrun at any minute by hoodie wearing, skunk smoking moslem transgender asylum seekers on a Jihad. It's really not a humane way to treat the congenitally stupid. Scaring stupid people should become a criminal offence."

    Ah, you've got it slightly wrong. The Daily Mail readers aren't that stupid, they're in fact sitting smug on this one.

    After all, these hoodies are smoking LETHAL skunk, therefore the joke's on them all along! All the Daily Mail readers have to do is to sit around doing nothing and mutter about the yoof of today and it'll sort itself out shortly. If anything, they might need more security cameras and government nannying to get them by until the yoofs die out, but that's it. Sounds like a job from heaven for them.

  23. Thomas Jolliffe
    Paris Hilton

    @Mike Plunkett

    There was recently an article on the Mail website about THE CULT OF EMO O NOEZ, so I not-so-politely sent a comment ridiculing the whole thing and saying that the poor girl who killed herself probably did so because she had serious issues, not because she listened to music which drones on and on about how the singer's girlfriend left and wore a lot of black.

    They published.

    (Paris, just 'cause this whole thing is unbelievably stupid)

  24. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    UK government has a law in place to deal with this...

    Quick: detain, question and deport Daily Mail staff for distributing terrorist publications.

  25. George Johnson
    Happy

    Oh the Daily Mail!

    Mr Marcus Brigstocke is your man! "The DM read by paranoid, middle-Englanders , breeding pointless kids whose only purpose in life is to work for Foxton's estate agents. 'Do I get a mini? Haw, haw! You want to know if it has a garden, shall we look in the bathroom?'. People who read the Daily Mail think it's just a broadsheet for people for with short arms."

  26. Jamie Kephalas
    Coat

    Top class!

    Epic Fail : Daily Mail.

    Mines the power armour with the water purifier.

  27. Chris

    Hate Mail

    It must have been a slow day for Amy stories.

    Campbell was right : Dacre is poisonous (but also very, very dim)

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ITS Daily MAIL, AGAIN!

    Need anyone say more?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Daily Fail

    Oh noes! All 3 readers of the daily fail will be against this now!

    The Daily Fail just look for sensationalist stories to keep idiots complaining about things.

  30. Steven Raith
    Thumb Down

    @Flocke Kroes

    No, no, I need something to read that allows me to get my bile up with rage and practice my imaginative insults for what I would say if I ever met one of their idiot reporters or editors. Something about having all the perspective of a letterbox and the mental faculties of a Tunnocks Teacake would work, interspersed with language that really isn't suited to polite conversation.

    Like cock gobbling, donkey fucking, inbred, troglodyte dimwit.

    Also, I like looking at people in expensive suits who are reading it intently on the train, knowing that they might earn more money than me, but by god, they certainly aren't smarter than me. Otherwise they wouldn't use that piece of crap rag for anything other than toilet roll. Even that would be under duress. I'd rather soil myself than have that incredibly backwards publication come near me, with it's xenophobic, idiotic bollocks.

    Anyone who reads the Daily Fail gets what they deserve IMHO. Dribbling retards of the highest order can all get agrophobia and stay indoors and away from the rest of us who have a minimum of three brain cells [the upper limit for a Mail reader] to rub together and can see just what shite they are happily sucking up and believing...

    Steven R

    PS: I read the Times, is that any better?

  31. kissingthecarpet
    Paris Hilton

    Its still there...

    and my comment (& no doubt many others that have been posted) pointing out their mistake has yet to be shown. IMHO The Daily Mail's ideology is the reflection of all the mean-spirited, curtain-twitching, conclusion-jumping, scaremongering neurotics out there that represent their core readership. Anyone else who reads it should bear in mind that it will inevitably have a malign influence on your opinions, so beware!

    I have chosen an icon depicting the sort of fluff they should stick to reporting upon

  32. Mark Seymour
    Flame

    FOX News even get incorrect facts incorrect.

    Here is a quote from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360661,00.html

    "The terrorist-monitoring SITE Intelligence Group on Thursday reported that terrorists had created the image, which shows a large gash in the Capitol and the surrounding area in ruins, as part of dialogue on the ability to launch nuclear assaults on the United States and Britain, the Telegraph reported."

    Should that not be "the, Daily Mail reported". It's like the blind leading the blind sometimes.

    In the words of Monty Python's Life of Brian. "He's making it up as he goes along!"

  33. Jim
    Boffin

    Hardly a realistic image...

    Sorry if this is off-topic but...

    I would have thought that the Capitol would look a little flatter, maybe even with a hint of crater, after a 'real' nuclear attack. Or have I been hopelessly misled about the destructive capability of modern nuclear weapons?

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Anyone remember C&C Generals?

    Al Qaeda-like terrorist organisations, suicide bombers, dirty bombs and crumbling Eastern Superpowers. The game was released over 5 years ago and is probably still more accurate and relevant than the Daily Fail.

  35. Kanhef
    Happy

    The Fallout fan community

    is collectively pissing itself laughing at this.

    @ David Wiernicki: It's concept art, so the game will never render anything like it.

    Minor article correction: WW3 nukes the entire world, not just Washington.

  36. Jack Simon

    *Face palm*

    Why the hell would terrorists get graphical artists to render a realistic impression of that?

    This is just amazingly stupid. Next thing they will be saying they found a flock of flying pigs and cows.

  37. Warhelmet
    Flame

    Laughable but...

    MMR, MMR, MMR.

  38. Brian Whittle
    Thumb Down

    monkey dust says all that needs to me said

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bfV3OuN57Bk

  39. Mike Plunkett
    Boffin

    24 Hours Later...

    And they still haven't posted my comment pointing out that they've been complete idiots. What a surprise...

  40. Dave Moffatt
    Black Helicopters

    Daily Mail or STR?

    I can't tell the difference between

    www.dailymail.co.uk

    and

    www.shelleytherepublican.com

  41. Steve Liddle
    Boffin

    no more comments on daily mail

    Tried to add a witty comment about the game being so realistic and provided links to the game site, but alas nothing printed :)

  42. Chronos
    Go

    Re: Hardly a realistic image...

    "I would have thought that the Capitol would look a little flatter, maybe even with a hint of crater, after a 'real' nuclear attack. Or have I been hopelessly misled about the destructive capability of modern nuclear weapons?"

    Depends on the yield, but you're right: It's not realistic. After 200 years (RTFA and make sure you're not in Washington D.C. in 2077) of being an exclusion zone, there would be all sorts of nature taking over. You know, trees, grass, wild animals (not the sort that are currently in office over there, natch) that sort of thing. If Pripyat taught us anything, its that we're probably the only species who think we've evolved enough and can stop bothering with all that adapt to survive nonsense; everything else seems to be able to live there despite the reactor going boom only 20 years ago.

    No, not tree-huggery. I'm in favour of atomic power plants, despite the fact technology seems to have become a substitute for the ability to survive without it. Just a healthy dose of derision for the species we've become, arrogantly sure of our technology and blithely ignorant of the possibility that it will be our downfall.

    Yes, I know: . < the point ---------------------- a long way ------------------------ my post > . Or perhaps not. If we weren't so dependent on things like electricity, gas, oil and coal for mere survival, would this sort of thing be quite so frightening?

  43. Thomas Swann
    Coat

    War.

    War never changes.

    /end Ron Perlman

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Jim

    @Jim

    I don't think a nuke exploded in the air wouldn't leave a crater. On the ground maybe, but not air-detonated. Wasn't Tunguska supposed to be something similar?

    Wonder what they'd make of http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fnd0qg4I_MM (Anyone want to strip the first 2:37/last 10 seconds and mail it to them) if it was given to them and they were told that "many Bothan-Muslim defectors died to bring us this video"

    You reckon you could stretch this (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1SVVKQlwTUk) out to be the US landing at night (starry sky) in Iraq (sand, weird buildings because they're foreign and scary) and being completely pasted?

  45. amanfromMars Silver badge

    More BS ....... Who's got the Shovel?

    "Al Qaeda's terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack ".... "the latest installment of a role-playing game made by Bethesda Software."

    You don't normally get to see those two so close together in a story.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On the upside...

    ...this is a lot less scary than their usual terror-headlines about falling house prices. Or perhaps they'll come up with "Nuclean devastation leads to 5% slump in property market".

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    You can learn...

    ...how to create "EZ-Throw Dynamite" as an engineer in World of Warcraft.

  48. Bob
    Dead Vulture

    Meh.

    I despair at the state of the world.

    This is just another in a growing trend of media mediocrity, flinging biased and semi-literate 'reporters' at non-stories for the sake of potentially boosting sales.

    They don't care about accuracy, they care about the news of their latest crap article spreading around tinternets.

    The media are clowns for the most part, and the proliferation of rubbish news on this bastion of modern 'culture' called the internet is only going to grow.

    I struggle on a daily basis to avoid articles about rubbish singers getting out of jail free yet again while stabbings in London continue unabated, with the government more concerned about having their massive concessions and salaries revealed.

    It's a hell of a task sifting through the dregs and trying to find some real and unbiased news. Keeps me busy for hours.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    <no title>

    Does it matter where the picture came from (copyright issues aside)? It's just a bit of sensational space filler that all newspapers indulge in occasionally. Personally, it wouldn't surprise me if terrorist groups would like to opportunity to set of a nuclear device, or threaten to do so. Might this expose not be a little over egged?

  50. Eden
    Flame

    Bashing?

    I remember seeing that article and thinking WTF but this just makes it even funnier, It also makes me want to play Fall out....

    I check a range of papers (Daily Fail, Times, Guardian, Reg, WSWS and BBC just as you get a fuller story from a few different views) but don't consider myself stupid for daring to check the Daily Fail...if anything there is some amusement to be had there, case in point.

    Just because you read it doesn't mean you agree with it...that said I still can't bring myself to read the sun as the two of three times I've tried I've wanted to hit somone for the sheer stupid biggotry of the thing and not made it past the first 3 pages.....what...why are you looking at me like that....

    Mines the mac with the crusty copy of the SUN in the hidden pocket.

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    A bit of Fry & Laurie

    I remember Hugh Laurie in a Fry & Laurie Vox Pop sketch...

    "Oh yes, I'm very much a Daily Mail person - well I prefer it to a newspaper, really."

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    ...obvious to me

    that al qauda are also game developers.

  53. Chizo Ejindu
    Flame

    Hopefully...

    Bethesda's attack lawyers will soon be all over the Daily Hate like a hot rash after i helpfully emailed them a full description of the article plus link :)

  54. brimful

    @D

    I thought that's what the terrorism act was all about. If a friggin optimus prime wielding a gun can cause the dimwits at T5 security to force the passenger to take off his T-shirt then surely the shite newspaper can be forced to pay for terrorising stupid people?

    Lemmings because the editor should lead the way.

  55. Ryan
    Paris Hilton

    First emos and now...

    CGI pics from games... I don't know much about terrorists but I'm relatively certain they wouldn't have the skills/manpower to produce something that detailled...

    What's next? jihad training camps in second life? sensationalist news over how al qaeda use counterstrike source as virtual reality hostage-taking practice?

    Paris, because I don't know what the heck is going on in the world's news either :P

  56. Ryan
    Alert

    wait...

    ... this couldn't be a viral marketing campaign, surely...?

  57. Eden

    @Ryan

    "What's next? jihad training camps in second life?"

    Err actually I seem to recall them "The Intellegence (sic) Community" bemoaning their lack of power and survilance capability for just that (terrorist training on social networking sites like 2nd life and face book....)

    Also I think Sky and the BBC recently had a "Terrorist Training Video" of a few likely lads who had been arrested that consisted of....

    "Them Paintballing"

    "Them crouching and aiming sticks at each other"

    "Them Ninja Rolling"

    The Ninja rolls had me on the floor in hysterics and the voice over talking about the "Terrorist Training" finished me off, I think I died, I should sue the BBC.

  58. Scott
    Coat

    Snake for President

    They could use escape from NY/LA as proof of terrorist planning.

    Snake would kill 'em all though.

  59. Slaine
    Stop

    M A destruction... the sequel

    Once upon a time there was a planet filled with lots of clever people but that planet went to war, twice, and most of their intelligent people were sent to the front line and shot, and many more had the sense to avoid the front line and got carpet-bombed. The decendants of the survivors (those too paranoid to do anything new or too stupid to invent) have developed incredibly quick knee-jerk reactions to anything they don't understand and they are absolutely obsessed with controlling and manipulating other people. This event is an excellent summary of the arms and legs that unregulated stupidity generates and how quickly a spurious half-truth can become "official" too. Would H.G. Wells have had anything remotely Martian to contribute? So now we must ask ourselves how long will it be before a book/game/screenshot is mis-reported and re-broadcast around the globe as breaking news and actually sparks off exactly the events depicted in the picture or a suitable reprisal for said act. In hindsight i think i now understand why it is so important to stop people from playing nasty computer games, and smoking lethal skunk drugs, and driving in nasty dangerous child killing petrol cars, or drawing pictures of tits - as a species we are obviously FAR too retarded to think for ourselves any more.

    In fact, all we need now are a couple of completely incompetent world leaders with twitchy fingers... sleep well boyzngirlz.

  60. SeanR
    Pirate

    They've deleted the comments on the website

    they're slowly trying to remove the story entirely...

  61. Bob
    Black Helicopters

    Kek

    "they're slowly trying to remove the story entirely...

    "

    And more the fools them.

    I don't believe it was a viral marketing ploy - they've already got hordes of knuckle-draggers reading their tat.

    Damn their fascist HR department hiring all the journalism school dropouts...

  62. John Savard

    Not Necessarily Wrong

    Couldn't a terrorist have been too lazy to paint his own vision of Washington D.C. after he got through with it, and thus been willing to steal an image from a video game?

  63. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @John Savard

    Not too lazy. Too busy refining uranium and concocting plans to destroy the great Satan.

    "So Abdul, what are we going to do tonight?"

    "Same thing we do every night, Mustafa, try to destroy the imperialist western satanic unbelievers"

  64. Chris

    Read by the masses too

    I'm fairly sure I saw this in London (Daily Mail) Lite on Friday too. I'm not quite sure which is worse of the freesheets - Daily Mail Lite, or themurdochpaper...

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