Lies that change radio history

There are a number of books out there about anorak-loved radio stations. There's that newish one about Radio Jackie, the one written by Peter Moore about his involvement and the subsequent death of the offshore Caroline, the one from Paul Rusling about Laser, or the autobiography from Johnnie Walker, and so on and so on.

Now, the Jackie one and the Peter Moore openly say that they've made bits up, or changed things for comic or dramatic effect. Indeed, Moore's book openly plays down the involvement or importance of some of the legends of Caroline in favour of always showing himself in a better light, and places people on board together who actually were from different eras and never on the Ross at the same time. The Jackie book credits the wrong person with standing up to the then 'GPO' (a major and very important part of Jackie's history, surely?), merges people into one hybrid person for the book, and changes stories from the truth to a lovely dramatic fantasy.

But apparently none of this matters because the books have a little note in the front of them saying that they are mainly made up. Hmmm. That's alright then.

Now, anoraks are, on the whole, sticklers for the truth. They love to chronicle what's really happening, cutting through the spin of the day. That's why anoraks were quick to focus on the extensive collection of anomalies in Johnnie Walker's book relating to his time on Caroline, and others have moaned about the 'lies' relating to other parts of his life post Caroline.

So, to get to my point. Well, two points.

Firstly, I don't understand why anoraks seem to just shrug off these lies and accept them just because they were written by 'persons of note' from the world of anoraky radio. Anoraks are the first to complain when the history of radio is mis-reported on TV or documentaries or offshore radio is depicted in a theatrical way that looks nothing like it really did. Surely, anoraks should be up in arms about the writers of these books full of wild inaccuracies and false stories about a subject that deserves the truth to be told about it? Yet nothing. Just blind acceptance. Anoraks should be ashamed of themselves.

Secondly, when all the anoraks who witnessed the truth are finally dead, then the only record for future generations will be these made up stories and mis-representations of the era. Regrettably, future generations will know nothing else and history will have been successfully re-written by these authors, who will be quite possibly be seen as the heroes from an era they were mainly on the sidelines of. Should we all be ashamed that the subject that we love will have completely changed from the truth in favour of the nicely crafted fantasies? Don't we owe the real memories something more than that?

As a side point, doesn't it make you realise just how easy it is for people to re-write history. How much of the history of something as close as the Second World War has been re-written away from the truth? Let alone the history of thousands of years ago!

—
* Christopher England just said that *

Chris, you don't have to go back to the Second world war, just read some stuff about the Falklands War or the the Gulf War, or closer to home the miners strike in 1984/85, the closest we've been to a civil war in this country for centuries. All the manipulation of the TV and Radio, to suit the people in power, although Laser 558 just kept up the music output, lets face it they were certainly detached from the mainland, not just literally. I think it's a case of reading between the lines and making up your own idea of what you think the real truth was, if you were'nt there. Unless you were actually there to witness the same thing as some "writer", you either have to accept it, or say it's a load of cobblers. I do agree with you tho, if your going to write an autobiography, whats the word "artistic licence" or whatever, to me that means it might as well be a fairy story as long as it sells. All the best from Geoff

Quoting a previous miamigorocks Geoff contribution:-

I think it's a case of reading between the lines and making
up your own idea of what you think the real truth was, if you were'nt
there.

That's fine, but then you get two things happening.

I mean, I'm not saying the history of the evolution of radio would ever be taught in school as part of, er, History. But, if it was, then what books of reference are the kids of 100 years from now going to have? Yep, the made-up books which we've spoken of. They will become the reference books that the kids may have to study. The kids will maybe sit exams and so on, expected to answer questions with the 'new truth' from these outrageous books. They won't be allowed to question or read between the lines any more than they are when reading the history of (say) Henry the Eighth which we just accept 'as-is'.

Secondly, if you encourage people to challenge and read between the lines then they'll never believe anything. That can be just as dangerous and destructive as blind acceptance.

I'm not sure what the answer to this should be, but letting these fantasies re-write history can't be good, surely? There must be something that could be done.

—
* Christopher England just said that *



Well exactly chris, just take a look of major reference books in the world, The Bible is and was the most influential. Off course most of the stories have a bit of truth in them, but they've been changed to suit the people in power at the time of writing, mainly the Christian Church. No doubt many other religious books have had the same alterations made to suit wheoever. I think it's of prime importance to get balanced information, by that i suppose two completely different versions of the same event, if thats possible. With the freedom of the Internet, which will no doubt be "controlled" or "censored" before too long, you can get varying accounts and info about anything. Just because a teacher tells you it's right doesn't mean it is, nor is a bloke in a pulpit or a place of worship, right in every thing he says neither. The older you get the more you have the luxury of hindsight, politics and power are just the same, being "economical with the truth" is just telling porkies. Spin doctors for all the major parties do the same, i think it goes back to that saying "don't believe the hype" or better still "never mind the bollicks".

Geoff, great post.
I've read the Bible, The Quran, and many other religious books.
Perhaps I'm wrong but I never spotted any "Kill the unbeliever" text in any of them.

Sadly books are always open to interpretation and unfortunately some seem to choose to read them as an excuse to fight "holy" wars.

Wake up humankind, stop it. they are merely books FFS!!!

I'm not disrespecting anyone's faith here, just sayin' If a deity exists it should be thoroughly ashamed of what humans are doing in it's name.

Alex Jenkins <...> said:

 

From: Steve Leyland [...]
Sent: 11 May 2008 10:39
To: ...
Subject: Re: [Anorak Nation] Lies that change radio history

 

And only this week we in the UK are rewriting a most horrific part of history just because it offends the MUSLIM believers  

www.celticmusicradio.net
 

Yes, sad how we seem to be too quick in this country to change things for 'others'. Who ever thought that the mass killing of millions during WWII by the Nazis never happened has definately got a sick demented mind in my opinion. I'd rather keep my views on islam / muslims to my self on this forum as some think my language towards certain references is OTT, so be it. Some may call my opinions 'racist', this shows how ignorant some are, islam is not a race.

So, bearing all that in mind and more,Islam = Mental Disease and that's me putting it politely. Just read some of the Sharia Laws as a fine example of islamic humanity. Anyone who condones Sharia beliefs must have a sick mind. It ain't normal. Fiddling with 9 year old girls isn't normal let alone marrying them. Back to the subject of Jews and Russians being massacred, Islamic beliefs here are in denial as it is a well known fact the German Military consulted with Muslims in the middle east to learn methods of Torture throughout WWII to be used on POWs & at Concentration Camps.

I don't blame the muslims for wanting to change history here in the UK education system, I blame the white do gooder, liberal lefty who assists muslims with this disgusting form of brainwashing. These are the people who need to be brought to trial as traitors and beheaded in the way the very religion they are assisting deals with things under Sharia Law.

'Another rant by'

The Guff

From: "Alan Milewczyk" <...>

The problem, as you rightly say is, when something goes down in print,
whether it's true or not, that it's just a matter of time before someone
accepts it as gospel.

And to open a new can of worms. The bible is the biggest example of this.

Loads of different authors, what is to say none of them took a bit of liberty with the facts.

Absolutely numbing, those images of what humankind can do to his own species in the name of what, NATIONLISM. They go on about carbon footprints, and yet 10s of thousands of people in Burma are dying, because their government is ran by the military. The world is a beautiful planet, ruined by it's present master species, the human race. We are all as easy led by the ruling classes, the holocaust happened a mere 70 years ago, and theyre wiping it from the books of todays students, absolutely totally insane. I have nothing against people believing in what they want to believe, but i don't need their religion i've got my own belief, in my own head, i don't need to convince anyone else i'm right, it's personal choice. All this religious dogma, all these "nutters", brainwashed by whoever, in the short time mankind has been on this planet, he's done nowt but fight, kill, massacre, all for the sake of what, two things, Power and Greed. To throw a little radio into this very serious matter, Lord Haw Haw, (William Joyce) was hanged for treason, for working for the German Radio, ok he was giving out their "propaganda", but not much else, there wasn't much justice for him neither.

Alex

Those images are still shocking 60+ years on.

I take your point about removing it from our schools. That is shocking if true.

Surely they are missing the bigger picture about the holocaust. It wasn't just committed against Jews, they also killed Slavs, communists, disabled, mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals to name a few, plus all the war crimes that were committed in the occupied countries. It was a crime against humanity not just the Jewish people.
This is a story that should be told, as a lesson to future generations.

Quoting a previous Steve Leyland contribution:-

I've read the Bible, The Quran, and many other religious books.
Perhaps I'm wrong but I never spotted any "Kill the unbeliever" text in
any of them.

Sadly, I think you are wrong. The Torah, Bible and Quran all contain either direct instructions or parabled references to how to kill the unbeliever let alone the fact that they should be killed. Only the works describing Jesus don't portray him as being into killing. Subsequent bits added in to Bible after the Jesus stories go on about killing. It's these that were used by the Catholic church to justify their culling of women as witches, or to participate in crusades. Meanwhile the Quran's writer Mohammed goes into great detail about how to kill unbelievers, hence the structured 'beheadings' of 'Westerners' we've famously seen.

—
* Christopher England just said that *



I'm not going to get on my soap box, but i might as well, it is free speech on here. The concentration camps in germany were there long before the war, they murdered hundreds of thousands of their so called"inferior" peoples, including, people with mental illnesses, or who just didn't fit the bill of a pure german. The Brits in their infinite wisdom had camps in the mid thirties too, full of so called "mentally or physically handicapped or just disabled people" so as to "purify" the british stock. They were covered up off course, with the start of the 2nd world war, they were phased out. Mr Oswald Moseley and his manic black shirts, were the british version of our Nazis Party in the 30s too. It was turbulent times way back then, I'm glad i didn't have to live thru those dark and dangerous years.Fot the sake of generations to come this recent history of genecide should not be forgotten, ever. It seems that even things like the holocaust, is insignificant, i don't think so. I know in the history of man, there has been many millions killed/murderd because of whatever, but we have PROOF, real proof of what the Nazis did in the 30s and 40s, it should be remembered at least once a year, to remind folk now of how horrific mankind can be, maybe it might make people think twice, before casting their votes for a new regime.



Quoting a previous Alex Jenkins contribution:-

And only this week we in the UK are rewriting a most horrific part of
history just because it offends the MUSLIM believers

This is just part of the much bigger Islamification of Britain.

This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum
because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never
occurred.

The thing is, we really really don't know, and we can't know what actually happened. We are reliant on the 'historians' (or 'chroniclers') to tell us the details. Depending on which 'historian' is writing or speaking the story will change.

We've seen how stories can change on a subject such as the history of radio which we collectively know a lot about. We know that they are changed by people with agendas to make themselves look bigger and better, or changed (maybe 'innocently') to make the story read a lot 'sexier' than the actual truth. So, on something far more important such as the Holocaust there are plenty of folk, including whole States, with agendas as to which story we should believe.

I'm not a Holocaust denier, but I certainly do question the accuracy of the 'details' I'm fed about it. When you look at counter 'evidence' provided by people like David Irving it can be extremely compelling to at least stop and say, "Hang on a minute", especially when he's demonstrating in pictures the truth of what a picture actually shows, yet is being claimed by other interested parties to show something else. There's even demonstrations of how things have been drawn on to photos in order to show things that were never there on the originals, but are photos being touted to support mass murder claims.

So, at the very least a free-thinker has to stop and question the Holocaust, not just accept blindly what we are told about it. It certainly wasn't an exclusively Jewish tragedy either. If any evidence is being distorted it's quite definitely in the under-representation of the figures of non-Jews who were brutalised. That, at the very least, needs to be addressed.

Re; the chain email:

Take a look at the photos though. What do they really represent? Let's be completely brutal about this: A building that appears to have suffered extensive bomb or fire damage. A fence that appears to have moved (possibly as a result of a bomb blast?), and a hundred or so dead people.

Where's the proof these people were executed, are Jews, or are the victims of any form of systematic genocide? By looking at these photos, horrendous as they are, I'm afraid I see no evidence one way or the other. Yet people will 'suggest' they are evidence of 'x' or of 'y'. They may well be. But, all I've got is the word of whoever is presenting the pictures to me. And they'll always have an agenda.

—
* Christopher England just said that *

Alan thanks for that info, i get on my soap box in the name of decency and the good side of the human psyche. I'm not a racist, i'm not a person who thinks one kind of person is inferior to me, or for that matter superior. I am absolutely sickened though by what people have done to other people, in the name of whatever. I'm glad you have pointed this out about removing the holocaust from the corriculum, because i was considering writing a letter to the education minister to ask "WHY". I'd rather have the internet, with all it's flaws, than a stifled censored world, where a lot of people have to live through every day. all the best to all

They may well be. But, all I've got is the word of whoever is presenting the pictures to me. And they'll always have an agenda.
 * Christopher England just said that

Free thinking is all very well and good, having an open mind is too, but the evidence of genocide in the years between 1933 and 1945, in germany is overwhelming. The warsaw guetto, the concentration camps at Buchenwauld, Austswich, Belson, and loads of other places. To me it doesn't matter if there was a hundred killed or a hundred million, it's murder, by a regime on it's own people and others it sees as aliens. I think there be a special day worldwide where all humans remember the atrocites they have done to each other, a time to reflect, and maybe right the wrongs in some way, or am i just been a silly old bugger with a sense of justice and fairness in my heart.