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| John Pilger |
John was often outspoken with his reporting but seldom, if ever, wrong as he delved into the murky depths of international politics in defence of those wronged. It was John who was one of the first to give a non-western edited version of events and atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv on the Palestinian people dating back to the earlier days of the conflict in that part of the Middle-East.
From the Middle-East to “Northern Ireland” (the six counties) John Pilger was usually one of the first on the scene giving an objective account, not edited by the British Government, of the situation in the six counties. Many governments around the globe, particularly those of the USA and Britain disapproved of some of John’s reporting but this did not prevent Pilger from reporting the truth, or as near to it he could get.
When the Nigerian/Biafran conflict began in the 1960s he was one of the first on the scene sending back images and an oration of the horrific situation there including starving children. He also highlighted the roles played by Western arms dealers in prolonging the suffering in that part of the African continent to amass huge profits. I can remember back in the late 60s watching on our old black and white television set reports of what was happening out there. of course, I was too young to understand but those images have remained with me throughout the years. Such images should have sickened any sane person but mattered fuck all to the profiteering arms dealers!
In his native Australia Pilger championed the rights of the aboriginal population, the native Australians, and he exposed the crimes committed against them by the colonial Australian state. In 1985 he produced a documentary, The Secret Country, which exposed many of these offences against these natives and this remained one of his finest works. John Pilger was a bold and courageous journalist, a novelty in that profession in many respects. In his earlier years he was a War Correspondent for the Daily Mirror exposing some of the crimes committed by the West in Vietnam and Cambodia. Books like Hidden Agendas, Distant Voices and Heroes opened peoples eyes to conflicts that were rarely reported on the mainstream news, like the situation in East Timor and Biafra.
John Pilger did an outspoken report on the state of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) after a mock run was carried in London to test the NHSs state of readiness in the event of a pandemic ever breaking out. This was done in 2016 and the NHS was found wanting in many areas including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The Government did not act on this survey’s findings and when, three years later, Covid 19 hit with terrible consequences the NHS, as discovered three years previous was found wanting. The findings of the 2016 ‘dummy run’ were frightening and the British Government did their level best to keep them under wraps. John Pilger did a comprehensive report on the state of the NHS and its ability to cope based on the 2016 findings. The failure of the British Government to act on these findings had catastrophic consequences when the real thing hit in late 2019.
He also did a comprehensive report on the state of the NHS and the extensive waiting list for hospital beds. It was he who revealed to us that in 1948, the year the NHS came into being, the service could boast just over 400,000 public beds for a far smaller population. Today the same NHS can provide just over 120,000 public beds for a far larger population according to the Pilger report. Most other reporters and certainly the British Government would never inform a gullible public of this fact, the real reason for the NHS waiting lists, and would prefer people to foolishly blame immigration for the strains on the NHS. How many times do we see on various television current affairs programmes MPs, NHS bosses and others with vested interests in keeping the public blind to realities giving us bullshit reasons for the problems faced by the NHS, but never the whole truth?
From the Middle-East to “Northern Ireland” (the six counties) John Pilger was usually one of the first on the scene giving an objective account, not edited by the British Government, of the situation in the six counties. Many governments around the globe, particularly those of the USA and Britain disapproved of some of John’s reporting but this did not prevent Pilger from reporting the truth, or as near to it he could get.
When the Nigerian/Biafran conflict began in the 1960s he was one of the first on the scene sending back images and an oration of the horrific situation there including starving children. He also highlighted the roles played by Western arms dealers in prolonging the suffering in that part of the African continent to amass huge profits. I can remember back in the late 60s watching on our old black and white television set reports of what was happening out there. of course, I was too young to understand but those images have remained with me throughout the years. Such images should have sickened any sane person but mattered fuck all to the profiteering arms dealers!
In his native Australia Pilger championed the rights of the aboriginal population, the native Australians, and he exposed the crimes committed against them by the colonial Australian state. In 1985 he produced a documentary, The Secret Country, which exposed many of these offences against these natives and this remained one of his finest works. John Pilger was a bold and courageous journalist, a novelty in that profession in many respects. In his earlier years he was a War Correspondent for the Daily Mirror exposing some of the crimes committed by the West in Vietnam and Cambodia. Books like Hidden Agendas, Distant Voices and Heroes opened peoples eyes to conflicts that were rarely reported on the mainstream news, like the situation in East Timor and Biafra.
John Pilger did an outspoken report on the state of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) after a mock run was carried in London to test the NHSs state of readiness in the event of a pandemic ever breaking out. This was done in 2016 and the NHS was found wanting in many areas including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The Government did not act on this survey’s findings and when, three years later, Covid 19 hit with terrible consequences the NHS, as discovered three years previous was found wanting. The findings of the 2016 ‘dummy run’ were frightening and the British Government did their level best to keep them under wraps. John Pilger did a comprehensive report on the state of the NHS and its ability to cope based on the 2016 findings. The failure of the British Government to act on these findings had catastrophic consequences when the real thing hit in late 2019.
He also did a comprehensive report on the state of the NHS and the extensive waiting list for hospital beds. It was he who revealed to us that in 1948, the year the NHS came into being, the service could boast just over 400,000 public beds for a far smaller population. Today the same NHS can provide just over 120,000 public beds for a far larger population according to the Pilger report. Most other reporters and certainly the British Government would never inform a gullible public of this fact, the real reason for the NHS waiting lists, and would prefer people to foolishly blame immigration for the strains on the NHS. How many times do we see on various television current affairs programmes MPs, NHS bosses and others with vested interests in keeping the public blind to realities giving us bullshit reasons for the problems faced by the NHS, but never the whole truth?
Time and again these programmes often hosted by very credible people will wheel out some important sounding official to spin us all yet another yarn about the reasons people cannot get a bed in a public hospital. They seldom, Panorama occasionally excepted, give us John Pilgers account. A little frightening for them perhaps?
John Pilger was a reporter/journalist the likes we are unlikely to see again. He was direct to the point and got to places many others in his profession would cringe to go. He was the author of several works including Year Zero about the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the evils carried out by this gang and Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy, He was also the director of various documentaries often in war torn areas of the globe often putting his own life in jeopardy. John Pilger was a journalist and activist which often prompted people hitherto just casual observers to become campaigners themselves. His documentaries won ‘critical acclaim’ including a BAFTA and an Emmy. He was twice named journalist of the year.
It wasn’t only foreign policy which john Pilger reported - he also covered the Liverpool dockers dispute in the 1990s and took up the ‘campaign for justice’ of the families affected by the Thalidomide drug during the 1970s. in 2003 he was rehired by the Daily Mirror and his reporting made the paper the only mainstream daily to oppose the war in Iraq.
John Richard Pilger, born 9th October 1939 Bondi New South Wales, Australia – died 30th December 2023 London, England, aged 84 RIP.
John Pilger was a reporter/journalist the likes we are unlikely to see again. He was direct to the point and got to places many others in his profession would cringe to go. He was the author of several works including Year Zero about the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the evils carried out by this gang and Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy, He was also the director of various documentaries often in war torn areas of the globe often putting his own life in jeopardy. John Pilger was a journalist and activist which often prompted people hitherto just casual observers to become campaigners themselves. His documentaries won ‘critical acclaim’ including a BAFTA and an Emmy. He was twice named journalist of the year.
It wasn’t only foreign policy which john Pilger reported - he also covered the Liverpool dockers dispute in the 1990s and took up the ‘campaign for justice’ of the families affected by the Thalidomide drug during the 1970s. in 2003 he was rehired by the Daily Mirror and his reporting made the paper the only mainstream daily to oppose the war in Iraq.
John Richard Pilger, born 9th October 1939 Bondi New South Wales, Australia – died 30th December 2023 London, England, aged 84 RIP.
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
His earlier work was superb but the last three decades of his life was characterised by obsequience towards dictators such as Milosevic, Putin and Assad simply because they were anti-Western his view. He went to great lengths to minimise Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar Albanians in 1999
ReplyDeleteBarry - the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found that there was no evidence to hold Milosevic culpable. It even found that he was giving direct orders to prevent the killings. Not that I am any more enamoured towards him by that.
DeletePilger exposed the West - after Israel's war on children supported by the West who now seriously believes that the West stands for Western values? Even on Ukraine, is there anybody who genuinely feels that the West have any moral qualms about Putin's murderous war?
Western democratic leaders with their support for mass murder in Gaza make a dictator like Putin seem humane. How it has come to this travesty, we will muse over for year to come. But I think the balance sheet will favour Pilger.
He broadcast on RT and faithfully regurgitated the Kremlin line on the invasion of Ukraine. He supported Brexit and did not seem to have a problem with the election of Trump. There are many allegations around his failure to fact check and even to make up stories. Sad.
ReplyDeleteMilosevic was a war criminal. No excuses. He was responsible lar geky for the breakp of Jugoslavia. https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1107 and https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1093
DeleteHis work on Cambodia was good, but let us not forget thgat Mao's China backed the genocidal regime.
I can find noting in that which shows he was a war criminal. Breaking up Yugoslavia is hardly a war crime. The West which badly wanted to convict him of war crimes failed to do so.
DeleteIt's like having our very own Mark Regev on the Quill
ReplyDeleteSkin, never mentioned Israel for a start. Secondly, Pilger's fact checking defects have been commentefb
DeleteMany have commented on Pilger's fact checking faults and his smearing of the Syrian opposition to Assad e.g. Times obituary 2nd January. Try debate rather than the ad hominem attack, Skin
DeleteBarry, in your list of countries Israel was conspicuous by its absence. It read as if Pilger's coverage of Israel was the driver behind your attack and that you didn't mention it in your list to hide that very fact.
DeleteHere is a full account and analysis of Pilger's journalism MO:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/john-pilger-was-an-apologist-for-genocide-we-should-not-celebrate-his-journalism/ar-AA1mwwwx?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ASTS&cvid=2077ecc64a284ee190901e1b3f2db55c&ei=8
Just that it is not a very good account. You could have got better from Douglas Murray. I read that a few days ago but never even got to the end of it I found it so skewed. Kamm is a neocon critic of all things Left and is guilty of what he has accused Pilger of. He supports the genocidal regime waging war in Gaza, an enthusiastic supporter of the warmongering leader of the Labour Party - Blair, and an enthusiastic supporter of the War of Aggression against Iraq. I read his book many years ago - Anti-Totalitarianism. It was little more than a hymn of praise to Ronald Reagan.
Delete