The British Press and Northern Ireland
| Date: | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Organisation: | Northern Ireland Socialist Research Centre |
| Author: | Eamonn McCann |
| View: | View Document |
| Discuss: | Comments on this document |
| Subjects: |
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution
24th February 2014
This document was published in 1971 by the Northern Ireland Socialist Research Centre, of which there is on information available, although presumably it was connected closely with the Socialist Workers Movement founded that same year.
It covers a range of issues concerning the British Press and Northern Ireland from “The Press & the IRA”, “The Press and the British Army” and “The Lie Machine”.
Its contents is wide-ranging, engaging with a variety of examples of what it considers to be breaches in journalistic standards in the British Press, but the Introduction gives an impression of the contents:
British newspapers are wont to congratulate themselves on their high journalistic standards. The British people are encouraged to believe that their press is the best in the world. Phrases such as the ‘guardians of liberty’ have been known not to stick in the throats of leader-writers.
During the past three years while editors and higher executives have whiled away the time in contemplation of their own ethical purity, the job went on of managing and mangling the news from Northern Ireland. Most British people have a distorted view of what is happening in NI. This is because they believe what they read.
There have been honourable exceptions. But examination of reports reveals a clear pattern of distortion. The news has systematically been presented, consciously or not, so as to justify the assumptions and prejudices of British establishment and to serve the immediate political needs of British governments.
It notes that the press was ‘generally favourable’ to the Civil Rights Movement. ‘Editorially ever paper backed O’Neill, who was portrayed as a ‘cautious crusader’. There was little or none of the cruder distortion which was to come later’.
And it agues that:
The real, sustained and systematic distortion began when British soldiers came onto the streets, and by the middle of 1970 when the troops were in almost constant conflict with Catholic working-class neighborhoods most papers had in effect stopped carrying the news. They were vehicles for propaganda. Some incidents were ignored. Others were invented. Half-truths were presented as hard fact.
Interestingly it does not distinguish between what it terms ‘different wings’ of the IRA.
In the Postscript it argues that:
A free press would be one disentangled from the whole system of private ownership. Recently some journalists… have become disenchanted with the manipulation of news…no longer content merely to feed their unused stories to Private Eye, they now seek to remedy this situation by demanding a ‘democratic’ press. By this they mean some form of ‘journalists’ control’, the right of journalists to sit on company boards or to have a say in formulating editorial policy.
This is trendy nonsense. As shown above, the newspaper industry is an integral and necessary part of the capitalist system. It cannot be detached form it and its problems dealt with in isolation by some minor internal restructuring. The fight to free the press to tell the truth is the fight to end the system which needs to destroy truth.
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You can join this discussion on The Cedar Lounge Revolution
By: roddy Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:36:35
If advancing the labour cause means attacking welfare recipients and travellers,then you’re welcome to it. I’ll stick to the Connolly version.
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By: WorldbyStorm Tue, 25 Feb 2014 18:33:52
In reply to roddy.
+1 roddy.
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By: gracchus44 Tue, 25 Feb 2014 20:00:31
In reply to WorldbyStorm.
Roddy
Should that read the Connolly House version ?
James Connolly is referring to the abolition of proletarianism – tilting the balance of power in favour of labour . That removes the necessity for Lady Bountiful welfare. – giving you back your own money. The conquest of Ireland created proletarianism and the division between catholic and protestant in the privatisation / appropriation of the commons – the land. restoring the commons to the public benefit creates the material basis for a united people / nation.
there is no possibility whatever of the north ever getting a halfpenny from the south .Conditions north and south are much the same economic level. Therefore the north and south both have to be viable for national unity. Increasing exchequer transfers, for whatever purpose, from England are fine by me – and are very much Sinn Fein and Unionist policy. But they are increasing your dependence on england – they are steps towards greater union not steps towards independence. At the last election the figure of 78% was quoted as the part of NI national income coming from across the water .(Incidentally FF etc in the south 30s and 40s were highly indignant at what they called ‘the british subsidy for Stomont’ and deemed it an interference with Irish affairs). I say get all you can – so long as you don’t continue to claim that you are separatists. Or cause damage that must be of similar magnitude to the bank bailout . You will sometimes read of Sinn fein talking demogogically about James Fintan Lalor James Connolly Patrick Pearse – but you never see proposals and you never will. Sinn fein stands for catholic restoration (to themselves as much as possible) – not for commons restoration ;a secession of the conquest not the undoing of the conquest; they stand for poverty relief (paid by Britain) not the abolition of poverty.
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By: Jonas MacFarquhar Sat, 01 Mar 2014 15:52:47
Marco Polo formalized the Sineurabia Code with Magog Kublai Khan a century after the Fourth Crusade partitioned Greece with Venice and Russia with Poland. Then imposter Polish clergy concocted the Uniate Eastern Rite. That is why there are Magog Muslim Lipka villages still in Poland. Marco Polo Korcula Croat family were part of Venice force occupying Byzantium. Poland persecuted Protestant Jan Amos Komensky of Torun and burned Leszno under the leadership of Jan Dziedzic banning Protestant Socinians in 1658. Polish laws of 1717 and 1733 barred Protestants from parliament, public office, higher military ranks, and free worship – including Evangelicals of Stanislawow, Calvinists of Wilno and Volhynia, and Lutherans of Silesia – justifying Partition of Poland. They ate glis glis yet blamed others for their pestilence. Polish Jesuit Felix Dzerzhinsky was the Bloodiest Bolshevik. Hitler was a Catholic Altar Boy. Hilter was protege of von Papen, Catholic who directed Armenian Genocide and Black Tom, NJ megaton WWI sabotage – which is why Churchill called them Magog Huns. Pogroms against Jews began with Warsaw decrees of 1570, 1580, and 1633 from tracts of Marcin Czechowic against Isaac of Troki. This is why worst Nazi camps were in the lands of the former Lithuanian-Polish Empire. Magog massacred Little Bighorn, Pearl Harbor and Boston Marathon. Crimean War against Photius Heresy avenged humiliation of Louis Napoleon uncle because Czar Alexander marched on Paris, demanding food Bystra. Do you remember Franco one hundred fifty thousand muslim Moors proclaiming Death to Intelligence? Or Hitler Mufti in Jerusalem and Bosnia spawning the PLO. Greece was neutralized during the Crimean and Cold Wars by P5 Sindona and Venice nobles masquerading as Greek Shipping Families who pay no tax because of Liberian Registry. Clinton embargoed photographs vindicating Serbia because Choochtown had his crotch files. Carolingian Brzezinski spawned Zia al Haq, Khomeini, and bin Laden and breaks up superpowers via Aztlan and Kosovo as per Joel Garreau Nine Nations. Schindler Unholy Terror shows 9/11 was Yugo Crimean Blow Back. Greece 2008 riots incited to stop Russian pipeline. Putin tax, gay and oil policies are almost like Sarah Palin. Putin did not violate constitutional term limits like Bloomberg. CNOOC was not allowed to buy Unocal just like Exxon and Chevron tried to buy Yukos. Hermitage Browder grandfather was FDR chief red. Cuomo environmentals even exterminating Tchaikovsky swans. Anyone who knows the cruel, vindictive ending of Vercingetorix, Spartacus and Carthage can only blame Rome for the death of the Messiah. Let them off to Argentina where Croat and Arab Nazis pork for lore enforcement, casuistry and pestilence instead of thinking!
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By: Bob Smiles Sat, 01 Mar 2014 17:45:53
In reply to Jonas MacFarquhar.
I sort of lost you there
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By: roddy Sat, 01 Mar 2014 20:45:25
Don’t quite grasp the point myself either.
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By: Eamonncork Sun, 02 Mar 2014 10:57:55
In reply to Bob Smiles.
I prefer his columns about father’s rights and gay marriage myself.
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