John Pilger mockery

[Barry the Sprout]

A mock piece of writing from John Pilger I found. Very funny, and sorry to all my anti war friends but this is quite good. Saw this and thought of Yorick...


And I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!
I was reading a chilling bedtime story to the children. Like me, they had been shocked by the fascist-imperialist territorial claims by the 3-Not-So-Very-Little Pigs on the impoverished wolfs home. And like me, they could see through the evasions and lies to the truth of the merciless persecution of the wolf community over the past fifty years.
"Again and Again, ceaselessly and without remorse,". I interupted the story to explain: "The West has attempted to blacken the name of the wolf community through fairy tales aimed at targetting the young.".
"But the public is not so easily fooled. Wolves have been killed in their beds, had their heads chopped off by CIA agents posing as woodcutters, and brutally destroyed through mass genocide on the say so of the Bush family and its handmaiden Blair. According to one estimate, over ten million wolves have been slaughtered in a blood bath to which our multinational dominated media is only too keen to turn a blind eye. Imagine it; ten million wolves. Baby wolf. Mummy wolf. Auntie wolf. All silently murdered in a pitiless array of so-called fairy tales.".
I then paused, wiped away my tears, and looked deep into the childrens eyes.
"No Paul McCartney concert for them". I choked, thats the truth they never tell us.

I did not kiss them goodnight. I couldn't. My god, can't you see, this is no time for goodnight kisses. Also, i would have been physically incapable of delivering a kiss to their cheeks. Ever since the start of the murderous campaign by Anglo-American imperial forces following the unfortunate collapse of the World Trade and Arms dealing Centre (the true story of its faulty brickwork has yet to be told: what they don't tell us is that it would have fallen down anyway - and that, let me assure, you is a matter of record) I have been wearing a burqa. This is in solidarity with the literally millions of middle eastern women who are being forced to live under the heel of the Bush-Blair mass murdering axis.
As the world renowned Professor David V Spart of the University of Oxbridge makes horribly clear in his recent ground breaking article in the New Left Reveiw of Semiotic Studies in Neo Fascist Imperialism, not until the "liberals" and the other crypto-fascist lickspittles of the Murdoch owned Western media conglomerates are forced to put on their burqas will they be able to comprehend the devestating record of Western oppresion of the wak and the hungry. I have thus decided that all children entering the Pilger household will hencedforth wear burqas. So to will our hamster - an Iraqi refugee from the Western oppression that is decimating his or her country - and our four goldfish, who, contrary to Western propoganda, actually enjoy wearing their burqas, as they allow them at last to have a good rest, away from prying eyes, lying completely still at the bottom of their bowls, peaceful at last.

FACT: According to one estimate, a recent poll suggests that up to 96.4% of ordinary decent Britons are against the Anglo American invasion of Afghanistan. Asked "Do you approve of the way the Dictator Blair is covertly splattering Afghani mothers with the blood of their new born babies before slitting the throats of their midwives?", up to 99% repied with a whole hearted "No". That is the truth our so-called "government" never tells us.


That is about half of it, but I am starting to get tired of typing. I might add the rest in later if I get time.

[Memnoch]

To be honest, John Pilger's just as extremist and biased as guys like Jerry Falwell of the US. He's got his reasons for doing what he's doing.

[Silver Cheetah]

quote:

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Originally posted by Memnoch:
To be honest, John Pilger's just as extremist and biased as guys like Jerry Falwell of the US. He's got his reasons for doing what he's doing.

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Could you lay out what those reasons are, Memnoch?

[Memnoch]

quote:

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Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:


Could you lay out what those reasons are, Memnoch?

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In my opinion? Sure. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Pilger reminds me of an American by the name of Lyndon LaRouche. He is very left-wing, left-wing to the point that moderate left-wingers such as myself back away from what he says because of the way he says it. I understand that he has made a career out of championing the rights of the unfortunate and the downtrodden, but I think that somewhere along the way he started to believe his own press and has now degenerated into mere sensationalism. He REFUSES to admit that the other side has a perspective that if understood would aid in resolving the issue. His writing for the Mirror is an example. The Mirror is hardly what I would call a credible publication, even for left-wingers in Britain, is it? It's very sensationalistic. I would have thought that writing for the Guardian would have been more credible if he was truly trying to influence people to his way of thinking. It demeans his message in my opinion.

I don't question his desire to bring the truth about hidden agendas and so on, but I must question the manner in which he does so. Extremism of any form, left or right, makes me uneasy. I'm a realist. The reality for me is that this world is not going to be changed by radicals on either side - it will be changed by moderates through sheer weight of numbers.

I also feel that Pilger relies more on his ability to use highly emotive, visual language to put his message across than providing facts and substantiation. He is only interested in HIS side - not in the other side. He is unable to see things from any other perspective than his own.

Don't feel that I'm picking on Pilger here - most of the American media (Fox News in particular) are guilty of exactly the same thing, on their side. Like I said, extremism of any form worries me as I feel that it is synonymous with an inability to admit that one is wrong, and an inability to see things from the other side. That could be because I'm in Sydney - which is quite a moderate city in my opinion.

[Silver Cheetah]

quote:

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Originally posted by Memnoch:


In my opinion? Sure. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Pilger reminds me of an American by the name of Lyndon LaRouche. He is very left-wing, left-wing to the point that moderate left-wingers such as myself back away from what he says because of the way he says it. I understand that he has made a career out of championing the rights of the unfortunate and the downtrodden, but I think that somewhere along the way he started to believe his own press and has now degenerated into mere sensationalism. He REFUSES to admit that the other side has a perspective that if understood would aid in resolving the issue. His writing for the Mirror is an example. The Mirror is hardly what I would call a credible publication, even for left-wingers in Britain, is it? It's very sensationalistic. I would have thought that writing for the Guardian would have been more credible if he was truly trying to influence people to his way of thinking. It demeans his message in my opinion.

I don't question his desire to bring the truth about hidden agendas and so on, but I must question the manner in which he does so. Extremism of any form, left or right, makes me uneasy. I'm a realist. The reality for me is that this world is not going to be changed by radicals on either side - it will be changed by moderates through sheer weight of numbers.

I also feel that Pilger relies more on his ability to use highly emotive, visual language to put his message across than providing facts and substantiation. He is only interested in HIS side - not in the other side. He is unable to see things from any other perspective than his own.

Don't feel that I'm picking on Pilger here - most of the American media (Fox News in particular) are guilty of exactly the same thing, on their side. Like I said, extremism of any form worries me as I feel that it is synonymous with an inability to admit that one is wrong, and an inability to see things from the other side. That could be because I'm in Sydney - which is quite a moderate city in my opinion.

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Okay, thanks. I haven't read much that Pilger has written, and was interested in your viewpoint. I take your point about the Guardian. It's an excellent newspaper, as newspapers go, whereas the Mirror is certainly a sensationalist tabloid. I think I must go track down some of his latest writing. Only then will I be able to form an informed opinion.

EDIT: your comment regarding extremism - I agree with you, up to a point. The inability to see another viewpoint is not particularly helpful or positive. However, sometimes radicals are *needed* to make change happen.

I have only come to this conclusion quite recently. Unfortunately, government and big business have honed the ability to ignore legitimate and legal protest about their actions to a fine art. Would some of the more unsavoury practices of transnational corporations, for example, have become common knowledge were it not for the highly visible and vocal anti-globalisation protesters?

I hate to say it, but would the media have bothered to cover anti-globalisation demonstrations and protests to the extent they have had there not been violence? (Selling being their main aim, when we come right down to brass tacks...) I do not condone violence, however, sometimes it takes extremism to get people's attention. Most people seem so indifferent to what is going on in their world, - human rights/environmental abuses being high on the list, that sometimes it takes a jolt for them to open their eyes.

Awareness that there is a problem is necessary in order to put mechanisms in place to accomplish legal, citizen sponsored change.

[Memnoch]

quote:

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Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:


Okay, thanks. I haven't read much that Pilger has written, and was interested in your viewpoint. I take your point about the Guardian. It's an excellent newspaper, as newspapers go, whereas the Mirror is certainly a sensationalist tabloid. I think I must go track down some of his latest writing. Only then will I be able to form an informed opinion.

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Start at his website as it has a list of his writings. Read his earlier articles and compare them to his later ones and you will see a difference. Read the one he wrote for the Mirror and you will understand why I said what I said. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Silver Cheetah]

quote:

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Originally posted by Memnoch:


Start at his website as it has a list of his writings. Read his earlier articles and compare them to his later ones and you will see a difference. Read the one he wrote for the Mirror and you will understand why I said what I said. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Thanks very much, Memnoch. BTW, I've just added an addendum to my post above, regarding extemism.

[Barry the Sprout]

I think you are right about the article in question. The Private Eye spoof got it just right on how over the top it was. But I have respect for most of his work and his ability to swim against the tide on this issue.

But yeah, sometimes he makes the whole thing ludicrous.