Bartram BS

Solomon must be feeling pressure to deliver something, anything to back up his recent sensationalist claim that 50 (count 'em, 50) Spanish government officials were arrested for improper dealings with Odyssey. Today he posted what we suppose was an attempt to provide evidence to support the charge, which has yet to be covered in the media. As we're about to show, what he actually accomplished was to demonstrate just how low HHI will go to "prove" their bias against Odyssey.

Here's what Bartram posted on HHI today, which he cites as a quote from a Spanish news article, along with our note of missing text:

"Of the 385 prosecutions instituted informative and processed last year, 211 are for the Prosecution of Cadiz and 174 to the Prosecutors area of Algeciras [NOTE THE DELETED SECTION HERE]. Also, the Attorney provincial Environment opened last year six prosecutions for offences against the historical heritage, stressing the investigation for alleged plundering of archaeological sites underwater and seizure of property of historical heritage by the vessel the American company Odyssey Marine Explorer the Strait of Gibraltar."

The Angry Twit was kind enough to provide a link to his source, but foolish enough to assume no one would check it. We did, and what we discovered astounded even us. Bartram selectively edited quotes from the article to not only fundamentally change its context, but also to make it appear as if Odyssey was associated with a high level of illegal activity.

Here's the same first sentence with the deleted text (in italics). As you will see, it reads quite differently.

"Of the 385 prosecutions instituted informative and processed last year, 211 are for the Prosecution of Cadiz and 174 to the Prosecutors area of Algeciras, most of them (345) related with crimes against spatial planning. Many of these crimes are related, according to the document contains, by not complying with orders to stop illegal construction in undeveloped land; licenses granted to illegal urban and false documents for the granting of writings by new construction."

In other words, most of these cited charges, which are from last year to boot, don't have anything to do with underwater archaeology, cultural heritage, or the arrests of government officials, but rather with land-based construction citations! There's also two more full paragraphs, totaling six sentences, separating Solomon's first edited sentence and the one that mentions Odyssey. This is unethical, incredibly disingenuous "editing" and clear evidence of a purposeful intent to mislead readers.

This is also a perfect example of how HHI regularly operates and it's why the group and its contributors should never be taken seriously by anyone interested in history, archaeology, or any issue related to Odyssey or Spain. And legitimate news organizations and reporters interested in getting the story right should be especially wary of the group. (Are you listening John Colapinto?)

To add injury to insult, or more appropriately, to add more slime to his innuendo, Bartram concludes this abortion of the truth with, "As I wrote earlier, Spain is taking this matter very seriously."

So there you have it: yet more shameless HHI buffoonery. We hope Odyssey will feel free to use this evidence in any proceedings they decide to pursue against HHI, and especially against that lying sack of worthless shite, John "Solomon" Bartram.