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In
the immediate aftermath of the media having 'outed'
the man they claimed to have been the British agent
Stakeknife - Freddie Scappaticci - the Andersonstown
News in a bid to con us into thinking that it
alone had seized the moral high ground of journalistic
ethics, launched a vitriolic attack on those elements
within the media who broke the story. Its editor,
in the manner of the babbling buffoon of Baghdad,
ranted and raved about hacks and nameless and faceless
sources. Readers were regaled with lurid tales of
the 'yellow Press - those worthless rags, tabloid
and broadsheet, which fill column after column with
material that would be laughable if it wasn’t
endangering the lives of countless people.' And, with
as much false virtue and pseudo indignation as he
could muster, he admonished his 'shameful' colleagues
in the journalistic profession. He alone stood pure
and uncontaminated by the 'sources' disease.
One
banner headline, aimed at highlighting the supposed
superior ethical standards of the Andersonstown
News vis a vis its competitors, proclaimed 'Lies,
damn lies and the media'. The paper also provided
Freddie Scappaticci with a platform to explain his
position. Those that run the Teach Basil business
concern seemed oblivious to the anomaly of giving
one person the right to reply and informing others
that they are officially banned from the paper - unless
of course they are the victims of accusations through
its pages and then the no right to reply rule kicks
in.
Scappaticci's
interview in the paper was described by the editor
as 'frank and outspoken ... We ask him tough questions
he gives us straight answers.' That none of this was
true is neither here nor there at the moment. The
same editorial (May 19) hurled invective at the media,
alleging a 'press pack drip-fed ‘exclusives’
by faceless sources.' Now apart from the irony of
the paper perhaps being binge fed its own world exclusive
from the most prized asset of those same sources,
there is a further little matter of brazen inconsistency
and downright hypocrisy.
The
sources for the 'Stakeknife is Scappaticci' story
- one of whom was allowed to write his own commentary
piece in the Andersonstown News in 2001, only
then he was a source alleging British state collusion
with loyalists - were described as opting to 'hide
behind gullible hacks who are more interested in shifting
papers than getting to the truth of Britain’s
Dirty War.' Readers were assured that the media had
'disgraced themselves ... And when the dust has cleared
from this Stakeknife affair (if indeed it ever does)
will those journalists who have fed us four days of
lies and deceit from ‘security sources’
throw away their contact books and try instead to
talk to people who will tell them the truth? You can
bet your boots they won’t.' And who would that
teller of 'the truth' be? The editor of the Andersonstown
News? Are we to believe that because his paper
would never accuse anyone of being an informer on
the basis of information provided by unnamed sources
he can claim to avoid dishonesty like the plague and
is therefore more reliable than those ’hacks’
he condemns?
This
would be all very well if it were not for that little
matter of inconsistency referred to above. In September
of last year a West Belfast man was convicted of killing
a member of the RUC. Charlie Pollock was sentenced
to life. In a post-trial edition of the Andersonstown
News a headline ran, 'Cop killer was RUC's ''top
tout''.'
The
death riding maniac jailed for murder this week
was the RUC’s top local tout when he ran over
and killed a cop on Kennedy Way in August 2000 ...
The Andersonstown News can exclusively reveal that
27-year-old Charlie Pollock had been working as
an informer for over a year before he mowed down
Constable Norman Thompson (34) on Kennedy Way in
August 2000 ... A former close associate of Charles
Malachy (Charlie) Pollock (27) has told the Andersonstown
News that Pollock was the RUC’s eyes and ears
in West Belfast even as he terrorised the streets
in stolen cars and peddled drugs to young children.
Our source described Pollock as the RUC’s “top
tout” in the city. He said Pollock extricated
himself from a number of tight corners by activating
a panic button supplied by the RUC for use in the
event of his being apprehended by local republicans
or community watch activists … A former criminal
associate of Pollock has now come forward to describe
Pollock “evil and manipulative” and had
boasted of being “untouchable.” Our source
says Pollock was responsible for bringing large
amounts of drugs into West Belfast including ecstasy
and cocaine, and had close contacts with loyalist
paramilitaries.
Gullible
hacks, liars, purveyors of deceit, disgraceful journalists
using nameless and faceless sources to accuse someone
of informing? Let the gander sup its own sauce. It
is becoming evident that through the pages of the
Andersonstown News the people of West Belfast
are being offered an ersatz news service. The readership
is subject to manipulation rather than information.
Pravda was arguably less subject to political
control. The paper’s hardworking and poorly paid
base level journalists are the only people to emerge
with integrity from the squalid business enterprise
that sits on Hannahstown Hill.
What
shall the paper tell its readers if it is established
that a British agent used its pages to push a line
aimed at concealing the true extent of British state
involvement in the murder of people it claimed were
its own citizens? And how would it explain that he
never faced a serious question? Shall we get a rare
confession that there was a hidden agenda or will
we be palmed off with what we know already - that
the interviewer was an idiot? The Andersonstown
News has fallen far short of the lonely but elevated
moral plateau it claimed to occupy in the wake of
the Stakeknife story. But as Nietzsche once said,
those who are born to crawl shall never fly. What
emerges from this sordid affair is that in the Andersonstown
News you start at the bottom and work your way
down - all the way to the editor’s chair.
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