Slide #64/65 - The BBC Mistake

This slide and this slide are actually the same slide, revealed part by part during Gage's presentation. At his website, Gage shows this effect by reproducing it twice or three times with new information revealed on subsequent slides. However, I'm going to treat this slide and others like it on a single page.

20 Minutes Before It Happened!

On the evening of 9/11, Jane Standley went live on BBC World and reported that 7 World Trade (also known as the Salomon Brothers building) had also collapsed.

Sadly for her, 7 World Trade had not yet collapsed. In fact, it was clearly visible behind her during the entire live feed.

As I've pointed out, plenty of people expected that 7 would probably collapse. About the time BBC World was announcing that the building had fallen and was preparing to put Ms. Standley on camera, Dan Abrams was reporting this on MSNBC:

YouTube: Dan Abrams Reporting on Imminent Collapse

Some time close to this, Dan Abrams' collegue Pat Dawson was hearing the same thing:

Youtube: Pat Dawson Reporting on Concerns for Building 7

About 45 minutes before any of this, Aaron Brown had been given a warning that 7 World Trade was either falling or had fallen:

Youtube: Aaron Brown Turns Around And Checks

However, as Brown reads the report, the director cuts to a live shot of Building 7. The chryon continues to read that 7 "may collapse", and when the shot returns to Brown, he has turned around and is looking at the skyline behind him.

Dan Abrams, Pat Dawson, and Aaron Brown all knew what Building 7 looked like. It is a pity that Jane Standley did not. At the end of a stressful day, she even turned around and gestured towards a gap in the buildings that she thought had once been occupied by Building 7.

It was, of course, a simple mistake out of the confusion of the day. Aaron Brown's report said that the building was collapsing or had collapsed, but it had not. I don't blame Ms. Standley for her mistake. Why is it that Richard Gage and other 9/11 Truth Movement advocates do?

Revenge

Just before this particular argument broke loose among 9/11 CT advocates, the BBC had aired a devastating documentary about them. It was part of their limited series The Conspiracy Files, and the portraits drawn of several leading lights of the 9/11 Truth Movement were highly unflattering.

That's not quite true. Three people were interviewed for the program: Alex Jones, Jim Fetzer, and Dylan Avery. Each were given time to make their case, and without exception, the producers then interviewed experts who utterly destroyed their arguments. Avery was especially embarrassed by the program. As the interviewer explained to him what a simile was, he sat on camera picking at a scab. So the participation of these men in their own portraits cannot be denied.

Youtube: The BBC Schools Dylan Avery

The documentary aired on 18 February 2007. Alex Jones had already proclaimed the video a hit piece, and on the 20th, he and Paul Joseph Watson published a rant about the documentary at PrisonPlanet. They began calling for retractions and complaints against the video's producer. No stone was left unturned in this manic attempt to wring what publicity they could from this documentary.

And then they struck paydirt.

BBC Reported Building 7 Had Collapsed 20 Minutes Before It Fell
Revealing, shocking video shows reporter talking about collapse with WTC 7 still standing in background, Google removes clip

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Prison Planet
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 (UPDATED 5:36AM CST)

This video became their revenge, the balm for their every wound. It was their bitter enemy humiliated. "Who gave them the script?" became their mantra. For them, this mistake became another in a long line of slips of the tongue that they seize upon to connect yet another dot. Victory was theirs!

The BBC dealt with the story twice. They first defended themselves against the incredible accusation of being in on the plot. After looking into the situation, they gave their final word on the subject and moved on. Richard Gage and his fellow conspiracy theorists have not.

What Does This Prove?

As far as Gage's argument, it proves nothing. Jane Standley made a mistake. 7 World Trade was so widely suspected of collapse that a reporter unfamilar with the building thought it had. There is no story there.

However, the entire incident shows you the emotional maturity level of the people making these arguments. If they didn't want to be embarrassed on camera, why did they get in front of them? The utter childishness of this entire affair is here displayed beyond any reasonable doubt.

This, then, is what Gage chooses as his next to last argument. This is the type of incident he finds convincing, a petty bout of revenge from people who embarrassed themselves. Consider this carefully before you grant Gage and his colleagues subpeona powers to investigate 9/11.

They are unworthy of such responsibility.

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