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RIP John Pilger

Idris2002

Idris2002

canadian girlfriend
Dead at 84, according to his family on twitter.

He didn't always get it right, but when he was right he was bang on.

On my phone, so no link, but when I can I'll post one.

I saw him speak once in Dublin about a film he'd done about East Timor. I asked him about hassle he'd got from the Australian military for showing it in Oz. Wish I could remember what he said now - I think he connected it to the training agreement Oz had with the Indonesian army!
 
danny la rouge said:
in the last 20 years lost his way big time.
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I think that's fair. But he'd already done his bit by then. butchersapron once described Chomsky as being trapped in the Cold War, and there was a strong streak of that in how JP reacted to the past two decades. On twitter I once tweeted at him "come on man, don't be a campist!"

But he had already done his bit: and there's still a strong streak of the Cold War in today's world (though it's already a Hot War in a lot of places, and likely to get hotter still).

Link as promised:

 
www.urban75.net

RIP John Pilger

Dead at 84, according to his family on twitter. He didn't always get it right, but when he was right he was bang on. On my phone, so no link, but when I can I'll post one. I saw him speak once in Dublin about a film he'd done about East Timor. I asked him about hassle he'd got from the...
www.urban75.net www.urban75.net
 
nino_savatte said:
His reports from Vietnam and Cambodia opened so many eyes to the atrocities being committed by the US military and its proxies. Rest in power.
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The War You Don't See was also very good and eye-opening and I rated his books aswell. I found that he always provided valuable insights in his work, including in recent times (just one example being his documentary about the NHS).
 
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Can't forgive his disgusting whataboutery / bullshit re: ex-Yugoslavia in the mid to late 90s so not going to shed crocodile tears I'm afraid. I can quite believe he did some good work earlier and particularly remember his work on East Timor but became an unhinged conspiraloon
 
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It's with the saddest of hearts we learn of the death of one of the world's greatest journalists, John Pilger.

Rest in power John and thank you for the inspiration...

“Journalism is about holding power accountable, asking uncomfortable questions, and giving a voice to the voiceless”

“The real test of journalism is not just reporting what is happening but why it is happening”

"You’re working within a system that is inherently hostile to truth telling. One only has to see the media reaction to the truth tellers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange. The bitter reaction of people who shamed much of the media, almost at a stroke”

"The whole essence of media is not about information. It’s about power.”

“It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.”

“If those who support aggressive war had seen a fraction of what I’ve seen, if they’d watched children fry to death from Napalm and bleed to death from a cluster bomb, they might not utter the claptrap they do.”

“The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies – socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor – and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.”

“In the end, it's about the people – those who suffer, those who are responsible, and those who care enough to take a stand”

"The role of a journalist is to challenge the status quo, not serve it"

"Official truths are often powerful illusions"

"Empathy is the fuel for investigative journalism"

"The powerful fear truth, for truth has the power to topple their empires"

"Our duty is to speak truth to power, regardless of the consequences"

"The greatest crime of war is not only the loss of life, but the loss of truth"

"There isn’t a war on terror, there is a war of terror”

"Journalism should be a beacon of hope in a world of darkness"

"Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what Orwell called the official truth. They simply cipher and transmit lies. It really grieves me that so many of my fellow journalists can be so manipulated that they become really what the French describe as functionaires, functionaries, not journalists"

"The true measure of a journalist is not their popularity, but their ability to challenge the powerful and give voice to the powerless"

"Silence in the face of injustice is complicity"
 
Idris2002 said:
I think that's fair. But he'd already done his bit by then. butchersapron once described Chomsky as being trapped in the Cold War, and there was a strong streak of that in how JP reacted to the past two decades. On twitter I once tweeted at him "come on man, don't be a campist!"

But he had already done his bit: and there's still a strong streak of the Cold War in today's world (though it's already a Hot War in a lot of places, and likely to get hotter still).

Link as promised:

Click to expand...
Bit of a derail but I'm not sure that is true with Chomsky though I have only read his stuff this millennium becoming familiar with him post 9/11 and only reading or watching lectures from the Cold War period a decade or more after influenced by his later writings. Chomsky was often hostile toward the Soviet Union when it was brought up although it wasn't his focus. It appears he thought that post war America was all about maintaining its supremacy and keeping control of resources. Part of this would inevitably mean competition with the Soviet Union but I don't think he saw that competition as central. He often saw the apparent Soviet threat as an excuse for the US to carry out the above objectives. So his views may not have changed much with the end of the Cold War but only because he saw that conflict as less important and already saw the US as the dominant but not quite only superpower.
 
CNT36 said:
Bit of a derail but I'm not sure that is true with Chomsky though I have only read his stuff this millennium becoming familiar with him post 9/11 and only reading or watching lectures from the Cold War period a decade or more after influenced by his later writings. Chomsky was often hostile toward the Soviet Union when it was brought up although it wasn't his focus. It appears he thought that post war America was all about maintaining its supremacy and keeping control of resources. Part of this would inevitably mean competition with the Soviet Union but I don't think he saw that competition as central. He often saw the apparent Soviet threat as an excuse for the US to carry out the above objectives. So his views may not have changed much with the end of the Cold War but only because he saw that conflict as less important and already saw the US as the dominant but not quite only superpower.
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Like Pilger also a genocide-denier / obfuscator and bullshitter re: what happened in Bosnia in the 1990s. Fuck him.
 
CNT36 said:
Yeah, he's gone that way as well. Could argue maybe earlier with Cambodia etc but I don't know enough about that.
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If I recall correctly, I don't think that Chomsky denied what had happened in Cambodia under Pol Pot, once Pol Pot's regime had been deposed by the Vietnamese army and the truth had indisputably been revealed (by, amongst others, John Pilger). However, while Pol Pot was in power, Chomsky argued that the claims of the extent of human rights abuses were wildly exaggerated. He was not the only one. Given the proven track record of imperialist mass media in promoting untruths and propaganda, more than a few people believed that the claims about Cambodia were lies.
 
PTK said:
If I recall correctly, I don't think that Chomsky denied what had happened in Cambodia under Pol Pot, once Pol Pot's regime had been deposed by the Vietnamese army and the truth had indisputably been revealed (by, amongst others, John Pilger). However, while Pol Pot was in power, Chomsky argued that the claims of the extent of human rights abuses were wildly exaggerated. He was not the only one. Given the proven track record of imperialist mass media in promoting untruths and propaganda, more than a few people believed that the claims about Cambodia were lies.
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That's my take of Chomsky's position from those of his books I've read. However, others (mainly right wingers) have claimed his contemporary stuff were more of a straight denial. IIRC He also claimed that the death toll of US boming of Cambodia was higher and that due to the chaos, terror and internal displacement caused the Khymer Rouge were able to take power.
 
Pilger undoubtedly got many things wrong, more so as time went on. But he was also fucking brilliant when he was on form, writing with a warmth and empathy for the oppressed and a hatred of their oppressors. He was anti-western hegemony, which led to him getting some things badly wrong after the collapse os the USSR (although he was never uncritical of the stalinists either). Year Zero was massively important, actually world changing, and the criticisms Pilger faced for it were from idiot right-wingers who objected to Pilger calling Pol Pot an 'Asian Hitler' when he [PP] was a self declared Marxist-Leninist. Utter bloody nonsense.
 
To start with where he ended up is to simply dismiss, unintentionally or intentionally, decades of brilliant, fearless and most importantly accessible journalism. He and Paul Foot at the Mirror were a combination you would never see these days, in fact, wouldn't have seen in the last couple of decades. Both had an audience in print, media and live at meetings and rallies which would the envy of what ever passes as today's left. His film on Palestine is still so very relevant.

By all means, write off his later stuff but the majority of his output was outstanding and inspirational .
 
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