RIP John Pilger



Never really aligned with his political stance on a lot of subjects, but his writing and views of the Vietnam conflict should be a must read for any aspiring journalist or any humanitarian.
A huge loss for free thinking writers, and free speech, just when we need them more than ever, regardless of whether you agreed with him or not.

RIP and thank you John.

You made a difference.
 
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In the 1980's a mate and I got him to run a story in the Mirror about homeless families. It was OK but the treatment of some of the facts left a little to be desired. My mate complained to Pilger about it and he just said "Well the Mirror is a shit newspaper." His reporting had obviously fallen victim to some jobs worth sub-editor.

In journalism honest reporters with integrity like John Pilger are a very very rare breed . Journalists will ALL claim that they want to be just like him but I have always found the majority of them to be a bunch of self-serving bastards willing to distort the truth & lie to serve their publisher in order to get on.

Cheers John
 
Doggedly sought the truth - but only if the truth matched his anti-Western world view. Served him well in Southeast Asia, where he exposed genuine crimes. But by the end he was pro-Trump, pro-Assange, pro-Putin, pro-China, pro-Brexit etc etc. His embarrassing takes were legion.

This was three days before the invasion of Ukraine, which he confidently said would never happen:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1495801529764306951

Here he is blaming the UK for the Salisbury poisonings:
pressgazette.co.uk

Journalist John Pilger says ex-Russian spy poisoning case is a 'carefully constructed drama in which the media plays a role'

Journalist John Pilger has described the poisoning of a Russian ex-double agent and his daughter in the UK as a “carefully constructed drama in which the media plays a role”. Pilger said the events surrounding Sergei and Yulia Skripal, who are still in a critical condition after being attacked...
pressgazette.co.uk pressgazette.co.uk
 
Toronado said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1741419322449215716

Sad news, a good bloke with some very very top class documentaries, insights and points of view
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Twat for my money.

He said anyone who warned of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was pro war and stirring up trouble that wasn’t there. All while writing his film called “the coming war on China”.

Before the invasion of Ukraine he assured us it wouldn’t happen, when it did happen he pivoted immediately and seamlessly to “they deserved to be invaded anyway”.

No tears shed. He was only bothered about exposing “the truth” if it was anti American or otherwise embarrassing to the west.
 
He was lucky in a way to have lived when he did. There is less tolerance for the telling of home truths these days and far fewer opportunities to air them as Murdoch-style reporting has pretty much taken over the mainstream.
 
r@mside said:
He was lucky in a way to have lived when he did. There is less tolerance for the telling of home truths these days and far fewer opportunities to air them as Murdoch-style reporting has pretty much taken over the mainstream.
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Home truths work both ways marra.
 
Produced some incredibly strong work, some of which helped changed the world - his work on East Timor, for example, where we, the US and Australia helped facilitate and cover-up massacres of thousands - and was a lifelong important critical voice. Seemed like his blinkers, shaped by his experiences, got tighter as he got older though and he fell prone to the fallacy that my enemy's enemy must be my friend, hence his fawning views on Putin and Assad.
 
It is sad news. Until a few years ago ITV would make space in its schedules once a year, usually after the News at 10, for a Pilger documentary, always a complete contrast to the fluff and nonsense it puts out the rest of the time.
 

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