Limerick Leader prints more propaganda and again presumes to speak on the behalf of activists

national | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Friday May 19, 2006 00:22

by Seán Ryan

Limerick Leader follows up on an article they published recently, where they along with the American Ambassador, threatened the people of Limerick with their jobs, if we didn't shut up about Shannon Airport.

Following this, activists including Ed Horgan wrote to the Limerick Leader in reply and were published.

The have published a reply to us. And I for one do not like it.

The Limerick Leader has done it again.

It has published a piece on its Editorial and Letters section on page 8. The title of the piece is “Air Storm.” Funnily enough it is published under another article titled: “Mind games.”

It starts out by rubbishing Ed Horgan’s reply to a slanderous piece published by them some weeks ago. (See link at bottom.)

It has now published more propaganda and stated that ‘protesters deny none of these facts.’ Of course they again ‘forgot’ to verify this.

Some of these facts include:

i. The troops tours of duty are legal.

ii. Full sovereignty was restored to Iraq on June 30th 2004.

iii. There can be no question of the Iraqi government’s legitimacy.

iv. “American and other multinational forces are in Iraq with the agreement and approval of both the legitimate government of Iraq and the United Nations. What more can anyone ask?”

v. “Finally there is no issue here of neutrality, either. We are not at war with Iraq or with Afghanistan. We are helping those governments to fight terrorism and insurgency. There are no state-to-state conflicts in either theatre – thus, there is no legal issue around the concept of neutrality. For the military are there to protect the process of creating democracy. And the UN are the moral guardians of that process.

After pointing out that us ‘protesters’ (Are we no longer activists?) do not deny these facts, we are informed: “The truth is that supporting democracy is not only our legal right. It is our moral duty.”

I’m going to take some time out before I tear this apart. I’m too angry and insulted to do so presently.

Here’s a link to a piece on Indy that shows the development of the above:

Limerick Leader Slanders all Activists. - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75738

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Comments (7 of 7)

The advantage of newspapers to those in power

by Terence

Fri May 19, 2006 11:12

The advantage of newspapers to those in power is that it is a broadcast system. Of course we are told there is a means to reply so that they can claim it is not all one way traffic, but in a case like this which is clearly important to the power brokers, the policy is simply to just print lies because they know since all the newspapers are corporate owned, there is little or no mechanism for those lies to be corrected. And they have total control.

It is a measure of their arrogance and the confidence that they have in excersing their control of the media that they can manipulate public opinion at large that they can knowingly print such blatant lies.

This whole issue raises the question: How many times does this happen on all sorts of stories from poltical to environmental to ...?

Actually elsewhere in the international press one of the main set of lies being spun at the moment is about Chavez. Again it is a measure of how important it is to the international capitalist agenda that they take him down too. See the URL below for more on this.

Editorial in Limerick

by Cllr Kieran Walsh - Labour Party

Fri May 19, 2006 21:27

Not having seen the two long letters that the editorial speaks about, i am slightly confused as to the purpose of the Limerick Leaders piece. Can anyone post the links for these letters?

What annoyed me is the not just the tone of the editorial, but also the use of the inverted commas, I will respond to this "article" in due course.

As pointed out, this article deserves to be tackled, and i would urge Indymedia users to respond to it by post or email

editorial@limerickleader.ie

or

The Editor
Limerick Leader
O Connell Street
Limerick

Fraternally
Kieran

Limerick Leader Editorial

by Margaret

Fri May 19, 2006 21:36

Here's a link to the Editorial in question dated 19th May. They don't post the Letters section on the Limerick leader website.

http://www.limericktoday.com/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionI...14776

Link to one of the letters

Fri May 19, 2006 21:49

The transcript of Ed Horgan's letter is near the bottom of the page on the link I gave above.

If I've got the time I'll type the second (although I didn't type the first) transcript this weekend.

2nd letter is now on Indy too

by Sean Ryan

Sat May 20, 2006 02:17

I've just typed up the second of the letters. It's on the other Indy piece in the link I gave in the article.

Soul For Sale

Mon May 22, 2006 17:05

May 21. 2006 8:33 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: The formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom. And the formation of the unity government in Iraq begins a new chapter in our relationship with Iraq.
This morning, I called the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker to congratulate them on working together to form the unity government. I assured them that the United States will continue to assist the Iraqis in the formation of a free country, because I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally in the war on terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and al Qaeda, and will serve as an example for others in the region who desire to be free.
Thank you.

The Limerick Leader should read the above statement. It’s nice and short so hopefully attention spans will not waver. Bush made this statement a day or so ago. I got it at : http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/2006052....html

It may be short but lots of information can be gathered from it.

i. Democarcy has not yet been established in Iraq.
ii. If democracy has not been ‘established’ then no constitution has been in effect, neither has sovereignty existed.

The UN in the last week has finally declared Guantanamo Bay and illegal facility.

Cia torture jets and indeed troops facilitated and enabled at Irish airports and landing strips also facilitate populating illegal detention facilities. They are therefore breaking ‘the law’ in Ireland. There are many more ways of defeating the Limerick Leader’s pathetic attempt to spin this fact. I’m just keeping in the very present tense.

Finally in an attempt to expand the dubious findings of the High Court when ruling against Mr. Dubsky. They ruled that the ‘war ©’ in Afghanistan was not a ‘war ©’ as defined in the Irish Constitution. War ©. The Limerick Leader would now have us believe that there is no war in Iraq, that Bush’s staged ‘mission accomplished’ soundbyte was the end of the ‘war ©.’

Any chance us activists could organise a fund to buy a full page add in a national newspaper, to advertise the Limerick Leader’s ‘Soul for Sale’ approach?

Bertie Blather

Mon May 22, 2006 19:56

Bertie Ahern today again repeated a lie that has become more believable thanks to repetition.

It was said at a joint news conference with Howard the Duck the Aussie PM. Bertie again said that Irelands 'facilitation' of the American war machine, was done in agreement with UN resolutions.

Many who can remember past their breakfast, that UN resolutions that appear to support Illegal wars of agression were applied retroactively. It is also readily apparent that none of the 'facilitation' that we applied was applied retroactively. We facilitated in anticipation of UN resolutions and therefore without legal justification or permission. To further illustrate the heiniousness of this act, the Secretary General of the UN still calls these acts of wanton cowardice and agression, 'illegal.'

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Limerick Leader prints more propaganda and again presumes to speak on the behalf of activists

Comments (7 of 7)