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"Probing Media" ignore major story.
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anti-war / imperialism |
news report
Friday January 20, 2006 14:39 by Davros - The Daleks The Planet Skaro
Defence Dept. bill U.S. for torture flights. On RTE’s Prime Time programme, broadcast on the 19th January 2006, former U.S. government legal advisor, David Rifkin dismissed the proposition that the U.S. government are blatantly lying when they state that torture detainees are not being transported through Shannon airport. The lawyer claimed that such a lie would not be possible when one takes into account the “probing media”. |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4There's no such thing as a servant with two masters.
I'll focus specifically on RTE, but what I say could be applied to just about every media outlet in the country (not including licensing, in any direct way, plenty of indirect examples though), Indy being the only seriously viable exception to everything suggested.
RTE is primarily, an economic entity, with all priorities geared towards profit first. To prove this just google them, every complaint they make or request, well it's an economic one. Arguably one could offer that, the better the programming, the better the market appeal, and that this leads to a top notch organisation. Bootstrapping.
But top notch in what?
Well to answer that one, one must consider their purpose. Of course, before one can establish purpose, one must identify the owner.
So before I become embroiled in the constitutionalities of why and how such a specimen as RTE can exist. Just let me point out that it is this constitutionality alone, that is the difference between what they do and the crime of extortion, with regards to their licensing priviliges. Enough said of that.
Who is RTE's owner?
Us?
They claim to offer a service afterall. I mean, if we are their owners and their "service" revolves around what we consider to contribute to the greater good, then that's the question of purpose sorted out, and the constitution is not violated.
However since RTE is profit driven, and that the license fee only accounts for a very small portion of RTE's accounts, as they often complain, well this points to our idea of being in command or control to be at odds with simple logic.
At the end of the day, the poor bastard who has been scared and threatened, by all the machinations of the state and by all the machinations of RTE and its "bosses," has finally caved in and bought a license (And this is what it takes to make it happen). There's an angle right there, in as far as explaining purpose is concerned. Infect at any given opportunity, extract money, and sell the carcass to the "bossmen," whereby which a never ending line of advertising, that suggests to you that you no longer need to think, that the only things that matter are products and purpose, that's what it's about.
In fairness if RTE flew an American flag in the background, during the news and politically motivated shows, rather than just the rest of what it shows, well then at least they'd be acting truthful.
Here's an interesting statistic I've compiled:
the population of America was 280,562,489 in 2002
Approximately 2800 were killed in the 9/11 attack in the twin towers, this is approximately 0.000997% of their population (also remembering that not everyone killed was an American).
Compared to us, with a population in 2002 of 3,917,203 and 448 people who killed themselves in 2001which is 0.0114% of our population (sorry about 2001, I couldn't find the figure for 2002, but I assure you that it was similar, but may have been a little lower, seeing that the suicide rate always increases in Ireland. ).
When you do some math with these figures you get some interesting results. In a nutshell, the deathrate in Ireland via suicide is 11.434 times greater than the deathrate in the twin towers, remembering of course that suicide in Ireland is motive and on the increase. Basically speaking, an Irish person is 11.434 times more likely to kill themselves than an American was to die in the twin towers. I'm trying not to belittle the victims and survivors of 9/11, I'm focusing on Irish death. I wonder what figure would describe the media's coverage of the twin towers, when compared to its coverage of suicide in Ireland?
An extreme quantity of evidence exists, that show the actions of George Bush Junior, since he first stole an election, have been at odds with international law and Irish law, and that our government has loped lovingly alongside their American masters, tongues a lolling. And that's just the tip of of it. The media has spewed a muck that has obscured most of this, despite the ammount of it that exists.
The media, in general, have taken all shreds of morality from their basics of operation. There's an argument to support this, so long as the greater good results from its practice. When morality is removed to specifically facilitate purpose, rather than cement agreement, this is the point of no return. I have always thought that the media should be the voice of the people, and that ultimately, such things as tribunals, garda ombudsmen, an others where superfluos, in that the voice of the people, well, that was their purpose. Of course I have been pretty much constantly aware, that in practice, that this ideal is violated.
Let me give an example of RTE shedding morality, and getting to the point, it's a valid point no doubt, but that's not my point. My point is that morality has been stripped and the rest is cold hard cash. And that ultimately RTE's point is to profit.
This was said by Peter Feeny when the government introduced legislation, prohibiting the advertising of Alcohol during daylight hours a while back.
Peter Feeney, head of public affairs policy with RTE, says the organization will no longer be on a level playing field if this measure goes through. ‘Our major concern is not with the restrictions itself but with the fact that it won’t apply to broadcasters who aren’t regulated in ROI, so it will only hit RTE and TV3. UTV, Sky, MTV etc will continue to carry ads for alcohol at any time during the day, and we feel that revenue from alcohol advertising will go offshore to non-Irish broadcasters. If this was to be a Europe-wide regulation, we would have no problem with it. But this just puts us at a disadvantage with our competitors.’
Children, parents and society do not form a true part of RTE's argument. They are the commodities that are for sale to big advertising companies. The level playing field that RTE speaks of is not an imaginary one. I mean look at the argument over competition. This competition is for daytime advertising of alcohol. Fair enough the revenue is gone, but competitiveness is not an issue if it is now illegal to advertise alcohol during the day. Or rather it is not the Job of RTE to enforce the legislation on others or worry about others profiting from it, the money has already been irrecovably removed from their table at this point already.
So like I said at the start. RTE and other Irish forms of media could still be described as probing. Insofar as one is willing to qualify it by explaining what it is they like to probe. I would even suggest they are good at this probing. But they are immoral and repugnant to the idea of being a voice of the people. Rather they are the voice for those who would own us. And most certainly they have been a voice for American and Irish propaganda in relation to our support in and condonement of illegal wars.
I tell you, I cannot wait till these sacks of shite start to gut each other as they race to expose each other, with the hope that they will be seen as having been less a bastard than the others.
There'll be an interesting vacuum at the end of it all I'm sure.
Sláinte Seán
Enough of the myths surrounding Shannon Airport, been reading unfounded stories for the past few years and hopefully Indymedia will show a bit of fair play and leave these comments on screen for ( we'll see ).
Mr.Davros, you are misleading people when you say for, for example, "Rendition Flights" are using Baldonnell Airport, just as fellow ill-informed writers have reported these Aircraft at Shannon Airport.
Firstly, why would the US Government use Ireland even if it had High Profile Prisoners to transport when it has at its disposal so many UK military fields and European military allies. To risk the Fuellers, Handling Agents, Caterers .etc seeing prisoners being transported by plane at Civilian Airports would be very foolish. Also contrary to what has been published previously, Handling Agents, Caterers and sometimes Gardai have been on board some of these aircratf and noticed nothing amiss. Maybe they are all liars or maybe they are just normal people doing their jobs. ?????
As far as I know the CIA do not own any Aircraft but just lease them as needed, I'm still checking this out.
Chartered aircraft carrying US troops through Ireland are not allowed to carry ammunition on the same flight and although some troops may have their weapons on board, they are not allowed by their own Commanders to have even one bullet on their person.
Unfortunately most people working in or around the Airports know their is nothing sinister going on but either can't be bothered or have been advised not to comment as some reporters are twisting things to make a story out of nothing.
On a final note, workers at airports, are usually from all walks in life and whether at Dublin or Shannon , they come from a 40 mile radius and are dependant on the Airport's good business.
The workers at these airports know deep down there is nothing sinister going on and won't leave themselves open to scaremongering.....................
Are the planes logged that have been involved in renditions doing and going via Shannnon
All Aircraft landing at, and taking off, from Irish Airports are logged. No exceptions.
Please remember that just because someone in another country "claims" a paticular aircraft is involved in clandestine operations, this dosen't make it a fact.
In reality, the CIA don't own any aircraft, but do charter aircraft from time to time. Now if Joe bloggs, the following week, also charters the same aircraft , does this mean Joe is also working for the CIA ?
Other writers to this site, claim "rendition flights" land in Ireland with or without "detainees". They obviously aren't aware that when one charters a plane to go from one country to another, that people sometimes do not return to their point of departure and the return trip can and often is chartered by another who may wish to return to the original. Usually these parties aren't even aware that someone else is chartering the return leg.
Numerous people, including politicians and plane spotters have "demanded" answers regarding "Rendition Flights" which they claim have landed in Irish Airports from both US and Irish Governments.
Both US officials, including Ms.Rice and Bertie Ahern, have assured the public, that to the best of their knowledge, our airports have not been actively used.
So why now, do you and the media, as you have asked the question, not accept the answer.