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From: jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics,net.tv,net.nlang.celts
Subject: Propaganda/Disinformation Story to be Aired by NBC-TV
Message-ID: <307@bonnie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Dec-84 13:18:16 EST
Article-I.D.: bonnie.307
Posted: Mon Dec  3 13:18:16 1984
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

	On December 3, 1984 at 9:00 pm (EDST) NBC-TV will broadcast a fictional
drama about Northern Ireland called "Children in the Crossfire". But already
a storm of controversy has arisen concerning the factual misrepresentation and
outright deceptions perpetrated in this story. Stories concerning the furor
over this program have already appeared in the New York Times and the producer
of the program, Frank Prendergast, has asked that a disclaimer be inserted
stating that this fictional draama is not a true story.
	However, this request for a disclaimer by the producer has been
declared inadequate and insufficient by those protesting the program, because
such disclaimers usually have little impact on the viewing public and fictional
stories are often taken for fact by a large segment of the viewing public,
especially when the fictional story is based upon current events. Remember the
radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"?
	For instance, the story starts off with a group of Nationalist youths
playing football while being watched over by a British soldier. When the ball
rolls off the field, a British soldier runs out to retrieve it for the boys
and is shot in the back by the IRA. In actual fact, no such incident has ever
taken place in Northern Ireland, nor is it likely to ever happen given the
the current attitude of the British Army which sees itself as having the
god-given mission of harassing the Nationalist youth of Northern Ireland at
every available opportunity.
	On the other hand, an actual incident which will probably never be
reported by NBC-TV or any other major network is the following: a group of
Nationalist youths were playing football while a British soldier was watching
them. As they were kicking the ball around the field, the soldier shot the
football with his rifle. In the British Army, this probably passes for a joke,
especially when Nationalists are on the receiving end of the joke. However,
if Nationalists were to play the same type of "joke" on the British Army,
it would be regarded as an act of life-threatening terrorism, which is
exactly how this incident was interpreted by the Nationalist community of
Northern Ireland.
	Another event which you will probably never see portrayed by network
television was the killing of Stephen Geddis, age 10, by the British Army
shortly after returning from a trip to the U.S. to heal the scars of war
on a small boy. Nor will you see the stories of any of the other children
killed by the British Army portrayed on network television.
	Another story you will never see portrayed on network television
is the story of David Seaman, a British soldier, who called a press conference
in Dublin on October 23, 1971. He was a member of a British Army bomb squad
whose job it was to plant bombs randomly and explode them in order to blame
these bombings on the IRA and thus discredit them. He confessed that the
Special Air Services (SAS) had exploded random bombs in Northern Ireland for
which the IRA was subsequently blamed. David Seaman left the news conference
with the announcement that he was returning to Northern Ireland to gather
further evidence. He was later found dead in a ditch in Northern Ireland.
	David Blundy, a reporter for the London Sunday Times gave a general
summary of "dirty tricks" operations carried out by British personnel in an
article published on March 13, 1977: setting off "IRA" bombs, planting
ammunition on suspects, using non-standard weaponry (like that used by the
IRA) to shoot at civilians, carrying out "sectarian assassinations" and
discrediting politicians deemed hostile to government policy.
	The SAS is a secret military organization. The British Army does not
publish the identity of soldiers in the SAS. All military awards, medals and
decorations for this unit are given out in private restricted ceremonies and
those who are killed in the SAS are buried in a restricted graveyard on an
army base in Wales. The motto of the SAS is "Who dares, wins".

				From the notebook of:

				Winston Smith
				Ministry of Truth
				Airstrip One

				(in real life J. M. McGhee clyde!bonnie!jmm)

	"In time of war Truth is so precious that it should always be
	 surrounded by a bodyguard of lies."

				- Winston Churchill

				  from a wartime lecture to Josef Stalin on
				  the need for secrecy.