Been thinking about this July 1985 Speech by Margaret Thatcher, to the American Bar Association. It’s where she made the famous comment about “find(ing) ways to starve the terrorist & the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.” margaretthatcher.org/document/106096
#Thread
#Thread
At the time Britain was in the throes of a violent campaign by the IRA; according to the Speech, 2,500 lives were lost over the previous 15 years. Barely a year earlier Thatcher herself had narrowly survived the Brighton hotel bombing.
Her thought-provoking words:
Her thought-provoking words:
The speech came back to mind this morning when I read a news headline that said:
“Kill [redacted], Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau orders his fighters.”
And I’m like - where do we draw the line between reporting news and doing the propaganda work of Boko Haram for them?
“Kill [redacted], Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau orders his fighters.”
And I’m like - where do we draw the line between reporting news and doing the propaganda work of Boko Haram for them?
I typed the attached screenshot on a Journalists’ whatsapp group I belong to.
[Thatcher’s words again, from 1985: “For newspapers and television, acts of terrorism inevitably make good copy and compelling viewing. The hijacker and the terrorist thrive on publicity...”]
[Thatcher’s words again, from 1985: “For newspapers and television, acts of terrorism inevitably make good copy and compelling viewing. The hijacker and the terrorist thrive on publicity...”]
