Questions Remain: CNN Saw an ISIS flag at London's Gay Pride Parade and Wondered Where the Outrage Was

"[T]he only bad mimicry I could see was CNN's impression of a reputable news organization."

-- Paul Coombs, creator of the London Pride dildo flag

by Noah

CNN wonders where the outrage is? I've got your outrage right here, CNN. I'm outraged that you exist, and I have been for over 20 years! Yeesh, and some people think that FOX is the only cable news outlet that sees things that are not there, jumps the shark, and reports on them.

Sure, FOX is the master of such things. What can you say about a "news" outlet that uses The Onion as a source?



Or uses the Duck Dynasty guy and Rudy Giuliani as experts on foreign policy? Not to mention using Nevada welfare rancher Cliven Bundy as its race relations correspondent?

But last Saturday CNN, reporting from London, spent over seven minutes reporting on and showing what they said was an ISIS flag being carried in the city's Gay Pride parade. The only thing was, the flag was not an ISIS flag but a black flag covered in depictions of dildos and butt plugs. And I still have some questions about the incident.

By COREY CHARLTON for MailOnline

CNN has mistaken a flag displaying sex toy symbols for that of terrorist organisation Islamic State in a report it aired on London's Gay Pride parade.

In an 'exclusive' report which ran on Saturday, a CNN correspondent went on air to claim she was the only one to notice an ISIS jihad flag being waved among gay pride crowds.

But to the broadcaster's embarrassment, the satirical flag was adorned not with Arabic lettering, but symbols of sex toys.

The report cut live to correspondent Lucy Pawle, who told viewers: 'This man dressed in black and white was waving what appears to be very bad mimicry, but a very clear attempt to mimic, what is the ISIS flag - the black and white flag with the distinctive lettering.'

She continues: 'If you look at the flag closely, it's clearly not Arabic, in fact it looks like it could be goobledegook, but it's very distinctive - the ISIS flag.'

Pawle then states that she appears to be 'the only person' to notice the extremist flag being waved on London's Regent St.

'I seem to be the only person who had spotted this, and nobody seems to be raising any questions or pointing it out, so I immediately went to an events organiser who said he didn't know anything about it.

'I also spoke to the police nearby, who weren't aware either.'

Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to castigate both the journalist and the broadcaster for being fooled.

Immediately following the gaffe, her Twitter page was inundated with viewers' pointing out the mistake.

The flag was created by parade participant Paul Coombs, to start a conversation about ISIS derserving mockery and disrespect. He never thought CNN would think it was real. Who could blame him?

I created the Isis dildo flag at London Pride to start a dialogue, not get a laugh

Paul Coombs


Guardian caption: "Paul Coombs knew his 'Dildosis' flag might inspire a little controversy at London Pride. He never expected that it would go viral. Photograph: Paul Coombs"

I spent the morning of London’s Pride parade hand-stitching dildos onto a flag.

I’d been using the sex-toy motif in my work before I made a flag of Isis out of them and brought it to the march. Previously, I’ve attached dildos onto postcards from each country where homosexuality is still illegal to point out that the laws of these places regards its gay residents as mere sex objects.

The decision to make the flag was a simple one: a sense of outrage at Isis’s brutal advance across North Africa, Libya, Syria and Iraq. Medieval ideologies and barbarism were being spread and recorded through that most modern of expressions, social media, with that flag ever-present. It has become a potent symbol of brutality, fear and sexual oppression. If I wanted to try and stimulate a dialogue about the ridiculousness of this ideology, the flag was key.

It was important that I didn’t try to replicate the writing on the flag, because the words and their subject – Islam – are not the target. But if I showed as little respect to this flag as Isis shows to the religion and people they claim to represent so that when people saw it they would think, “dildos”? Would that be a crazy idea?

The Pride festival is a pure celebration of the finest aspects of humanity: of tolerance, togetherness, acceptance and liberation, the polar opposite of what Isis stands for. If there was anywhere where my flag had a voice, it was there. And I had an invitation to march in the parade with a friend involved with “Alien Sex Club”, an art project exploring the HIV syndemic by John Walter.

We agreed we would gauge reaction to the flag from fellow marchers before we hit the main streets and the crowds, but the reaction was so good humored and understanding that any worries were dissipated in minutes. The tragedies in Tunisia, Kuwait and Lyon made the case for protesting against these murderers even stronger; defiance is the best form of remembrance. The flag was so clearly made of dildos that I never thought it could be mistaken for an actual Isis flag.

But 1.5 miles (2.4km) into the march, a gust of wind suddenly snapped the flagpole in two. I was wrestling with it when three or four police officers calmly appeared beside me.

Three policemen held out the flag and inspected it, grinning, acknowledging immediately that these were definitely dildos and butt plugs. They explained that they were getting reports that a man was carrying an Isis flag through the streets, a misconception that could easily put me in danger. They asked if I would keep the flag concealed. So I put it away.

Several hours passed before I noticed spreading news that CNN reported on the flag as though it was an actual Isis banner, not a piece of cloth covered in sex toys. #DildoIsis quickly started trending online. People made tribute dildo flags. But how could a report so hysterical and so clearly false possibly get onto the air, discussed by a terrorism expert? CNN correspondent Lucy Pawle described my flag as a “very bad mimicry” but the only bad mimicry I could see was CNN’s impression of a reputable news organization. What does this say about every other report that they broadcast? And why have they not mentioned it since? They seem to think that if nobody says anything about it then it can’t have really happened.

But oh, it did. On a message board someone posted: “Whenever I see the Isis flag anywhere, all I can see is dildos!” Mission accomplished.

BUT SOME QUESTIONS REMAIN

Was CNN just trying to outdo FOX or beat FOX at its own game? What does this say about the mindset at CNN that can equate the Gay Pride movement with ISIS and see a world where gays and terrorists are working together to take over the world? Especially since ISIS is known to kidnap gay people and toss them off of buildings.

In what universe would this CNN reportage make sense? No matter to the folks at CNN. They ran with it, even bringing in their terrorism expert, Peter Bergen, for commentary. The best satirists in the world would have trouble topping this one.

How did CNN's London reporter, Lucy Pawle, not see the dildo- and butt-plug-covered flag for exactly what it was?

This story inspires me to ask: Isn't the dildo one of the top two national symbols of England anyway? Second only to an empty case of Watneys Beer?

Note that part of the story where Pawle, explaining to the CNN audience that she seemed to be "the only person" to notice the extremist flag that wasn't there, managed to toot her own fool horn, saying,

[N]obody seems be raising any questions or pointing it out, so I immediately went to an events organizer who said he didn't know anything about it. I spoke to the police nearby, who weren't aware either.

Damn! You go, girl! What are they paying you? Good thing CNN was on the case!

Was CNN just trying to outdo FOX or beat FOX at its own game? What does this say about the mindset at CNN that can equate the Gay Pride movement with ISIS and see a world where gays and terrorists are working together to take over the world, especially, since ISIS is known to kidnap gay people and toss them off of buildings

In what universe would this CNN reportage make sense? No matter to the folks at CNN. They ran with it, even bringing in their terrorism expert, Peter Bergen, for commentary. The best satirists in the world would have trouble topping this one.

How did CNN's London reporter, Lucy Pawle, not see the dildo and butt plug covered flag for exactly what it was?

This story inspires me to ask: Isn't the dildo one of the top two national symbols of England anyway? Second only to an empty case of Watneys Beer?

Explaining to the CNN audience that she seemed to be "the only person" to notice the extremist flag that wasn't there, Pawle managed to toot her own fool horn by saying --

[N]obody seems be raising any questions or pointing it out, so I immediately went to an events organizer who said he didn't know anything about it. I spoke to the police nearby, who weren't aware either.

Damn, you go, girl! What are they paying you? Good thing CNN was on the case!

But from what I know of England, through working at a couple of English music companies, I would think that every English woman has at least some familiarity with dildos, if only out of necessity. I expect that England even has a Museum of Royal Dildos, or something over in their Parliament building. I hear the "Dildos of the Upper Classes" display at the House of Lords is very comprehensive, as is the "England: 1000 Years of Dildos and Butt Plugs" exhibit.

You know how much the English love tradition. They celebrate their queens so much that I believe I even once heard something about a dildo called the Victoria Specia, "available in a numbered LTD edition."



Did someone have to explain to Lucy Pawle what a dildo is? Was she just auditioning to replace Sarah Palin at FOX, or get a gig on Fox and Friends? Was her mission just to make Wolf Blitzer look intelligent by comparison?

Final thought on this: We now know that Rafael "Ted" Cruz and Mike Huckabee don't watch CNN. For if they did, they would be railing for weeks to come against the merging of Gay Pride activists with ISIS on Hannity, O'Reilly and the rest, smashing CNN's coverage of ISIS teaming up with gay activists to dust.

In the end, CNN needs to learn that there is only one FOX News and that, try as they might, they are just a pale, feeble imitation.

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