From: Ant McWatt (antmcwatt@hotmail.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jan 14 2005 - 00:16:29 GMT
Mark Steven Heyman made the pertinent comment on January 9th that:
I consider the WSJ [“Wall Street Journal”] to be an excellent source of
information, except for their editorials, of course. For example, by
reading the Journal, I learned a lot about what the passage of NAFTA
would mean to American business. People who read such papers,
primarily investors, require and expect accurate information. But
this is off-point...
I don’t think there is such a thing as a politically neutral
observer. Everyone’s world experience shapes and colors their
opinions. And, in the case of the profit-driven mass media a new
level of skepticism is warranted. This is why it’s important to
examine the full spectrum of opinion, from a wide variety of sources…
Ant McWatt states: Yes, this is an important ideal - as I will show in the
illustration given below.
Platt Holden remembered accurately:
Awhile back I cited an article in a British newspaper reporting on
the sad state of their National Health System only to be told by
someone (Anthony McWatt as I recall) that the newspaper I drew the
information from was totally unreliable.
Ant McWatt comments: The so-called UK “newspaper” that Platt referred to is
called “The Sun”. If you visit their website at: www.thesun.co.uk that will
give a good flavour of what the typical daily edition of this publication is
like i.e. cheap and facile.
Anyway, they actually apologised to Liverpool – as a city – last year due to
a seriously mis-leading article of theirs (ironically titled… “The Truth”)
that reported on a disaster that occurred at a football stadium where 96
Liverpool people lost their lives.
Andrew Coombes of an “independent” news group provides the background of the
story [anything in square brackets is an addition made by me]:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sun has again apologised for its “The Truth” story, made a few short
days after the [1989 Hillsborough} disaster [in Sheffield] that eventually
claimed 96 lives. Yet the Sun’s apology will not cut much ice with those on
Merseyside. The Sun stated in its editorial on July 7th [2004] that it is
has apologised in the past for its reporting of the disaster, and that it
has no hesitation in apologising again. However, such apparent contrition is
only window dressing when there is no analysis provided on how their
dreadful “The Truth” story did more to set back the cause of justice than
perhaps any other single event in the aftermath of the disaster.
“The Truth” was, ultimately, one of the most mendacious pieces of journalism
ever committed to print. The piece reported that fans urinated on police
attempting resuscitation. It brazenly stated that Liverpool fans raided the
pockets of injured and dead fans. It reported that Liverpool fans leered at
the exposed breasts of a female fan who had been mortally injured in the
crush. It referred to the Liverpool fans as being a drunken, seething mass.
And, crucially, it reported these unsubstantiated allegations as fact. This
appalling journalism (if such a tag can be applied), was not just a slight
slip-up that a simple “Hands up, Guv” apology will ameliorate.
96 Liverpool families travelled to Sheffield for inquests on their lost
loved ones with the full knowledge that Britain’s best-selling [“newspaper”]
had effectively criminalised them. One would like to suppose that our legal
system would remain largely untainted by the sweeping statements of a
tabloid newspaper looking to sensationalise an already emotive event. But
then, one tends to underestimate the power of the media in shaping popular
attitudes, amplified when a few handy regional stereotypes are there to peg
a fallacious story on. In the courtroom, stereotypes were again intrinsic to
the way that the inquests were steered. Fans were described by several
police officers as an uncontrollable mass, only intent on gaining entry to
the ground to watch an FA Cup semi-final. Tellingly, blood alcohol levels
were referred to at length at the inquests, an unprecedented move that no
doubt was influenced by the kind of reporting that the Sun pushed as
“truth”.
The reporting that was made by The Sun became commonsensical, and
hence public figures who were largely unqualified to speak on the events at
Hillsborough were faithfully given column space - from Bernard Ingham [a
Conservative politician] (who referred to “a tanked up mob” as being to
blame) to Brian Clough [a rival football manager], the overwhelming negative
statements concerning the events at Hillsborough and those about Liverpool
residents were faithfully relayed. Granted, the Sun did not report many of
these statements themselves, but it was largely responsible for promulgating
an environment where mythic assumptions around the disaster and the city
could be played out, and rehearsed as fact. 15 years later, the families of
the Hillsborough dead have still not received the justice (and the full and
comprehensive inquest) they so deserve, and to a large extent because of the
powerful outside pressures that infiltrated the courtroom and affected the
decision making processes made therein.
The Sun states in its editorial “The Sun of 2004 no more deserves to be
hated on Merseyside than Wayne Rooney [a football player who has recently
moved outside Merseyside] does”. Such bleating shows the Sun
does in fact not care about the Hillsborough families one jot, and only
illustrates that it has failed to grasp the depth of hatred that exists on
Merseyside for the effects that its false reporting provoked. The Sun
conveniently plugged into a set of assumptions about the behaviour of both
football fans and Liverpudlians, and with those assumptions helped engineer
an untruthful dominant ideology that, left unchecked, caused immense hurt
and suffering. For the Sun to give a mawkish apology behind the image of a
football prodigy is a further insult to the Hillsborough families. In 2004,
the newspaper seems to have forgotten that the hundreds of families torn
apart by the Sun’s abhorrent reporting 15 years ago had nothing to hide
behind. The Sun stole the innocence of those killed or injured at
Hillsborough.
But above all this, The Sun obviously feels it has paid for its mistake. Its
editorial states that 15 years is a long time - nine years longer than the
Second World War. To which the people of Merseyside will say - 15 years is a
hell of a long time without justice. For The Sun to say that the old staff
have cleared their desks and that now there are new faces at the paper
betrays a failure of understanding that the disaster’s aftermath has on
Merseyside, and thus makes the latest apology distinctly hollow.
In short, The Sun needs to offer more than an apology in the tone of a
petulant child that feels that its after-school detention is up. It must now
step forward and demonstrate a full understanding of the real events of the
disaster and its aftermath, from its own journalistic failings to the
mendacity and evasiveness of South Yorkshire Police. A full and truthful
context must be given to The Sun’s readership. The 96 innocents who never
came home from a football match deserve nothing less.
Andrew Coombes July 7th 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2004/07/295149.html
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Ant McWatt comments:
I know Platt wasn’t aware of the above issue but he might now see why
someone as myself with close links with Liverpool was not very impressed by
his referencing of “The Sun” in order to support his argument against public
national health systems.
And, the owner of “The Sun” (the “bright light of the UK media”)?
Well, maybe it comes as no surprise that it is Rupert Murdoch – also the
owner of Fox news which is termed the “The Most Biased Name in News” by the
“Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting” website (www.fair.org). Of course, it’s
always easier to accept the status quo line of Murdoch (which will always be
one of the “best promoted” political lines) rather than spend some time and
care to assess a wide variety of sources beyond the status quo that he
represents. This lack of care is a bad mistake, and, as seen in “The Sun”
can have serious long term repercussions in the upset it causes.
So ends today lecture.
Anthony.
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