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> From: Ken Freeland <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [CHOMSKY] THE TEARS OF THE MIGHTY  by Jared Israel
> Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 10:13 PM
>
> THE TEARS OF THE MIGHTY [please forward] by Jared Israel (3-15-00)
>
> www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]
>
> A grim miscarriage of justice has just occurred in Britain. It's not the
> first.
>
> Living Marxism, the iconoclastic magazine edited by Mike Hume, was found
> guilty of libel against ITN, the British news station.
>
> Living Marxism has been ordered to pay $580,000 U.S. This punishment is
an
> attempt to crush the Living Marxism (LM) journalists for doing their job.
In
> this article, I'll discuss the background of the case and take a look at
a
> truly amazing Reuters dispatch about the verdict.
>
> FIRST, SOME BACKGROUND
>
> In 1992, ITN, the British news station, sent a film team to Bosnia. It
was
> led by Penny Marshall. The ITN people came back with what was supposedly
a
> film of a Serbian concentration camp. A death camp, if you will.
>
> Or will you? A death camp? What is wrong with this story? First off, how
did
> Penny Marshall and an entire film crew get into a Serbian death camp and
> shoot a film? Didn't somebody have to transport the crew members plus a
> mountain of equipment? Didn't somebody have to show them around, feed
them?
> The crew needed time to set up their cameras and so on. How did they do
all
> this without getting caught? Did they parachute out of the sky? I mean
> seriously, didn't they need the cooperation of the administration of the
> so-called death camp?
>
> They did.
>
> But why would the Serbian authorities want to help? Were they morons?
Didn't
> they know the West was hostile to the Bosnian Serbs? Weren't they
attacked
> every day in the British press? Wasn't the Islamist leader, Izetbegovic,
> treated as a hero? Knowing ITN was probably anti-Serb, why would the
Serbs
> let an ITN crew in to film - a death camp?
>
> Could it be that the place they filmed was not a death camp? That the
> Bosnian Serbs let in Penny Marshall and her film crew precisely because
they
> had nothing ugly to hide.
>
> A LUCKY BREAK...
>
> Fortunately we don't have to speculate. By coincidence, a group of
Serbian
> filmmakers accompanied the ITN crew that day. The Serbs shot a movie -
> that's right, they literally shot a movie - of Penny Marshall and company
> shooting their movie. The Serbian film can be viewed on a standard VCR. I
> have watched it several times. In other words, I have seen a movie that
> shows every move Penny Marshall made that day.
>
> I know that the ITN crew shot at two locations. I know that the first was
a
> detention center at Omarsk; the second was a refugee center at Trnopolje.
>
> THE OMARSK DETENTION CENTER: NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME
>
> The Omarsk detention center was a modern facility, pleasant, not at all
like
> a jail. Before the war it had been a mining company's administrative
center.
>
> There, prisoners of war, captured from the Bosnian Islamist army, were
held.
> The men were not shackled; they were not behind bars. Rather, they
lounged
> in a cafeteria area. They looked well fed. The Serbian guards were
casual. A
> Serbian administrator (later shot dead by NATO troops while fishing with
his
> son) made a little speech. He explained that the Serbs viewed most of the
> prisoners as good people who had been suckered into supporting 'the
> rebellion', the secessionist revolt against Yugoslavia. He said only a
small
> group was hard core. The Serbs wanted to keep the hard core in jail but
let
> the others go.
>
> So here wa a real, live Serbian detention center. But Penny Marshall
didn't
> use any of this footage.
>
> Why?
>
> Because it didn't have the look she was looking for.
>
> FEEDING REFUGEES AND OTHER ATROCITIES...
>
> The ITN crew moved on to the refugee center at Trnopolje. They set up
their
> camera equipment inside a small barbed wire enclosure. The barbed wire
was
> old, falling apart in places. It surrounded a storage shed, a wheelbarrow
> and other construction equipment. Outside the enclosure, refugees milled
> about, curious.
>
> Filming from inside the barbed wire, Marshall asked if anyone spoke
English.
> One man replied, Yes. Marshall spoke to him. Are you a prisoner? No, said
> the man; we're refugees. Marshall was clearly impatient. She pressed the
man
> to criticize the Serbian officials. The man insisted: the Serbs treat us
> well; they give us food; the only problem is the weather is too hot. Much
> too hot.
>
> Then Marshall spotted a tall, emaciated man. What is wrong with that man,
> she asked. The Bosnian refugee shrugged, said something about it being
> personal. (In fact the emaciated man was suffering from TB.)
>
> EDITING TO MAKE A STATEMENT
>
> None of this conversation was used by ITN. Why not? Was it because it
showed
> the Bosnian Serbs in a humane light?
>
> Instead, ITN produced film clips and stills that made it look like the
> emaciated man and the other refugees were being held behind barbed wire -
> inside an enclosure. These pictures were sent around the world. Many
> newspapers ran them in montage with old Nazi concentration camp photos,
> using captions like:"Serb Death Camps!"
>
> Millions were fooled. They believed they had been shown pictorial
evidence
> of a new Nazism in Europe. This helped swing Western public opinion
behind
> Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Islamist extremist whose model of
tolerance
> was the Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini.
>
> DAVID TAKES ON GOLIATH
>
> LM, a brave little British magazine, exposed this fraud. A link to that
> exposé is posted below. Amazingly, they were sued by ITN for slander. A
news
> station slanders the Bosnian Serbs and then sues a muckraking magazine
for
> slander? I thought news stations were supposed to protect us from
> establishment lies? I thought they were supposed to get sued for libel -
> that they opposed such law suits on principle…
>
> Not in this brave new world.
>
> Today we learned that ITN has won. Apparently, instead of focusing on the
> real evidence - the uncut footage of the film - the trial was dominated
by
> the testimony of a witness who claimed the Serbs beat people at this
> "concentration camp." Alas, false witness is a commodity in the free
> marketplace of our brave new world, especially when one has the resources
of
> the giant corporations that control the media in the NATO countries.
Money
> buys lies. Moreover, LM was prevented from presenting expert witnesses.
And
> in his final comments, the judge apparently sided with ITN.
>
> COMPOUNDING A LIE
>
> Below I've posted a link to the Reuters story covering this verdict. You
> will notice that Reuters never mentions what was said in the Living
Marxism
> exposé. It never mentions that ITN shot pictures from inside a barbed
wire
> enclosure and then claimed the people in the film were "behind barbed
wire."
> Instead it simply asserts that Trnopolje was a concentration camp as if
that
> assertion were a proven fact.
>
> So then, ITN sues to silence freedom of speech - freedom of speech which
was
> here used in the most honorable way, to challenge the lies of the mighty.
> ITN wins. LM is crushed for telling the truth.
>
> And what does Reuters do? It uses the occasion to once again broadcast
the
> very lie that Living Marxism got sued for disproving! Truly beyond
belief.
>
> PLAYING FOR EFFECT
>
> One final point. In the new journalism, emotions are shamelessly
exploited
> for political effect. Consider this from the Reuters story:
>
> "Marshall, wiping tears from her eyes, said the judgment was 'important
for
> the people who were in the camp.'" (Reuters, 3/124/00)
>
> This is a crass emotional lie. Consider: Marshall, in reality the
> representative of great power, is presented as frail, in need of
protection
> (the weeping woman). By focusing our attention on her tears
(vulnerability)
> Reuters engages our emotions and suspends our disbelief. Penny Marshall
has
> been made real to us precisely the way a fictional character is made real
-
> we identify with her emotions. Having identified with her, having
suspended
> disbelief, we tend to receive with scant skepticism her comment that:
>
> " the judgment was 'important for the people who were in the camp."
>
> How clever! A fiction within a fiction. Reuters hasfaricated a fictional
> character, a weak, defenseless Penny Marshall that we can believe in -
the
> real P. Marshall is backed by the most powerful forces in Britain - and
> likewise Marshall has her own little fictional characters. For she has
> invented the Bosnian victims in that non-existent 'death camp' where
> refugees actually came for food and where the only complaint was 'the
> weather is too hot.' She has invented the people for whom she weeps.
>
> No similar emotional pitch is made for the LM people. Marshall comes
alive
> but they lie obediently flat. And LM, which dared defend the victims of
Ms.
> Marshall's lies - LM that has been crushed under an impossible financial
> burden - LM comes off as - a bully!
>
> Unbelievable.
>
> LET'S STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH, SHALL WE?
>
> Why didn't Britain just launch a missile attack on the LM offices like
the
> one where they killed those dangerous reporters and makeup girls at
Serbian
> TV, and get it over with? Hmmm? Afterwards, the media could endlesly
repeat,
> like a mantra, that the LM people were lying propagandists who had
> accidentally died as collateral damage in a revenge attack for which the
> finger of responsibility must in the end ultimately and totally point
to...
> Slobodan Milosevich.
>
> Lady's and gentlemen, this is Jared Israel signing off, and that's show
> business.
>
> What, Ms. Marshall is still weeping? Well of course Ms. Marshall is still
> weeping. She's weeping all right, she's weeping all the way to the bank.
>
> Let's hope there's a Hell.
>
> ***
>
> Further reading on the Libel case...
>
> * 'English Libel law, a Disgrace to Democracy' by Mike Hume, editor of LM
> magazine. Mr. Hume remains defiant, and is looking for a job. Also, for
> those near London, details of an after-the-trial party, March 18th.
> http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hume/english.htm
>
> "The Truth vs. ITN - And Reuters" Includes the original LM article, over
> which ITN sued, and the Reuters article on the trial. If you look at the
> pictures shown on this page, pictures that were produced by ITN and that
are
> reproduced here from the front pages of newspapers - if you look
carefully
> at these pictures and you are at all familiar with barbed wire, you will
be
> able to tell that the men are on the outside of the enclosure.
> http://www.emperors-clothes.com/images/bosnia/camp.htm ** IF YOU FIND
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