A different perspective

The recent findings re Hillsborough has revealed a shameful cover up by the police and enormous miss-information fed to a gullible press who run with the lies purely to sell their papers. In short both have been totally discredited.

Wind back a few year from Hillsborough and we arrive at the miner's strike. The public's perception throughout the rest of the country, on all the relevant issues, was based mainly upon the same personnel at South Yorkshire Police feeding their slant on events to what was then a very biased Tory sympathetic press.

Now, I am not very political minded, and I certainly do not think shouting "scab" at Nottingham supporters, who in the main were not born at the time of the miners strike, makes any sense whatsoever. I also believe that there were wrongs on both sides. However, I do think that the coverage of the miner's strike was exceedingly one sided. Now its apparent that the ones feeding information to the press were not whiter than white servants of the community that did not have their own agenda.

At least now it should be apparent to all that what was delivered to the rest of the country as the "truth" about events surrounding the miner's strike now carries little credibility at all.

Sorry to bring this up at a time of such a wonderful result yesterday, but it has been bugging me all week.

 

Totally agree

I knew a lad who was an NUM shop steward in South Derbyshire who suffered dogs abuse and threats to his family from the "nice" UDM boys. I don't ever recall that being reported.

 

Re: Totally agree

Good post. Evidence shows above all else that newspapers are establishment mouthpieces. You can look back over prominent events and see the first draft of history (and the one then believed by the casual reader) is often written by the police and establishment giving the 'official explanation' of events. This first draft then becomes very hard to re-write.

Take Jean Charles Menenez - killed in cold blood by armed police on the tube. The first news was that 'he was wearing a bulky jacket', that he had 'wires dangling from under his jacket', that he 'ran from police', that he 'vaulted a ticket barrier'. Afterwards came the incorrect information that his 'visa had run out' and that 'he shouldnt have been in the country'. All of which were plain lies.

Hillsborough, The Miners Strike, Ian Tomlinson and many more events where the state protects its own and serves out disinformation and lies in order to do so. Thankfully these days these lies are easier to see through due to mobile phones, video, social media etc., but they still do it.

The police are the armed goons of the government and as history will show when times are hard and people understandably get pissed off with with their bent, corrupt and self-serving leaders, they will not flinch in the face of putting down popular repression - and the media will be first in line to back them up.

It was ever thus, it just didnt always look like it.