The Lie Machine

Description

Paul Foot of the Daily Mirror talks to camera about anti miner propaganda seen in the print media and in particular the Sun, Express and Mail newspapers. Gavin Richards of the Miners Campaign Tape Project continues the theme and in particular the attacks the papers have made against the leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill. We see clips of news coverage and newspaper headlines including articles that liken Scargill to Adolf Hitler. There are shots of Bold Colliery in St Helens and interviews with miners where an exaggerated news story suggested that the strike had ended. A clip from a BBC news report about trouble outside the Hunterston coal depot in Ayrshire states that miners charged police when the pictures clearly show it was the other way around. An unnamed miner talks about false media coverage of Parkside Colliery in Lancashire. Mike Power of the Daily Mail talks to camera about the long history of lying on the Sun newspaper. Dennis Skinner MP gives his opinions of the media and talks about the number of people in power who have received knighthoods from Margaret Thatcher. A graphic shows the overseas mining and oil interests of the companies that own British newspapers. An unnamed woman talks about the reporting of the ‘miners wives’ issue and we see women at a rally and there are also clips from speeches made by Arthur Scargill and Jack Taylor at a rally.

Credits

Thanks to Belt & Braces for commentary and voices
Produced by the Miners Campaign Tape Project for the National Union of Mineworkers
Contributors:
Community Production Group; Open Eye (Liverpool); Cinema Action (London); Active Image (Rotherham); London Media Research Group; Films at Work (London); Nottingham Video Project; Birmingham Film and Video Project; London Video Arts; Amber Films (Newcastle); Community Video Workshop (Cardiff); The Other Cinema; Trade Films (Newcastle); Platform Films (London)