You Shine On, Pilger

Australia's greatest journalist, John Pilger, will no longer stand in front of a camera to alert the world to unreported tragedies and abuses.

Published: 2024-01-01

Updated 2024-01-02: The update section (sub-article) was added.

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News of the death of Australia's greatest journalist, John Pilger, hit the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC, at 5 minutes before the change of year 2023/2024, Australian Eastern summer time.

The obituaries will come. [And they have, sort of. See ‘Update’ below]

They will sing his praises, as well they should. He was principled and brave. He worked from the lowest ranks and continued to be a voice for those who had none. He highlighted the plights of many, many ignored and abused from the native peoples of the Pacific islands who suffered from nuclear testing, to the first peoples of Australia continuously murdered, displaced and disenfranchized by Australian governments, to the US troops in Vietnam drafted into a war which was fought for reasons which nobody understood, and of course, to the Vietnamese who died in the millions. He documented the genocide in Cambodia by Pol Pot. He documented the elite corruption behind the IMF and US corporations.

He understood the revolution in journalism which Julian Assange was heralding, and had continuously supported both the man and the idea behind Wikileaks. He could be found at protests, in court rooms, and on radio show after television show worldwide highlighting the systemic abuse and tirade of lies being delivered by vengeful US power brokers and a tired and complicit US commercial media.

Well played, John Pilger.

You have shone as a light for yet another generation as Wilfred Graham Burchett had before you.

Well played, Pilger.

Update

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of journalists, as opposed to employees, working for the English language MSM.

Below, collected in about 1 hour before 21:50 AEDT on 2024-01-02, can be seen every reasonable original obituary for John Pilger. They naturally sort into "English MSM" and everybody else, with the two exceptions being the English language news publications for which Pilger worked.

From Al Jazeera to Frontline (the Hindu) adjectives like “Legendary “and phrases like "voice for the oppressed" are used. As soon as one wanders into the English MSM we get no adjective but "controversial" or "campaigning".

Yes, this brave and principled journalist is still stinging the English MSM whom he scooped again, and again, and again covering the ugly underbelly of empire during the Cold War.

At Consortium News it is Joe Lauria who has been compiling the plaudits for Pilger's principled career, one in which he displayed exactly that which The Hindu's Frontline lauds him, being a

Fearless voice for the oppressed

A raft of the "newspapers of record" are conspicuous by their absence 48 hours after Pilger's family informed the world of the "dissenting voice", the "controversial campaigning documentary maker", the "journalist and filmmaker"'s death.

Zero points are awarded to the following, who could not even raise their pen:

• 👎 Reuters

• 👎 Agence France-Press

• 🖕 The New York Times

• 🖕 The Washington Post

Yes, these upstanding members of the MSM cower on, even after Pilger is no longer able to embarrass them.

John Pilger understood journalism and, in this networked age, the revolution that the idea behind Assange's Wikileaks represented. The frog spawn of the English language MSM don't and continue to carry water for Assange's persecutors.

The good news is that there are, just as there were back in Pilger's youth, principled young journalists learning the trade. We can ignore the reptilian jizz and look to quality journalists and opinion writers finding their places in the independent media. Pilger would naturally be happy with this situtation, and encourage us to get involved and support them.

Onwards!

Sources [update]

Tributes Pour in For John Pilger, no author (compilation), Consortium News, 2022-01-01

The World Has Lost John Pilger, no author, Consortium News, 2023-12-31

Farewell to John Pilger, Craig Murray, Craig Murray, 2023-12-31

Fearless voice for the oppressed: John Pilger, giant of investigative journalism, dies at 84, FRONTLINE NEWS DESK, Frontline [the Hindu], 2023-01-01

Mirror legend John Pilger awoke world to great injustices as tributes pour in, Nick Webster & Jessica Boulton, The Mirror, 2023-12-31

Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger dies aged 84, Jay Akbar, ITV, 2023-12-31

• Note that ITV played a large role in supporting John Pilger's documentary film making.

Renowned Australian journalist John Pilger passes away at 84, Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera, 2023-12-31

The world has lost a dissenting voice: Australian journalist John Pilger has died, age 84, Matthew Ricketson (Professor of Communication, Deakin University), The Conversation, 2024-01-01

Legendary journalist John Pilger dies aged 84, Saskia O'Donoghue, EuroNews, 2023-12-31

Investigative journalist John Pilger, known for covering aftermath of Cambodia Pol Pot’s rule, dies at 84, South China Morning Post, 2023-12-31

A Voice for the Oppressed: John Pilger, Radical Journalist and Documentarian, KJ NOH, CounterPunch, 2024-01-01

English MSM

John Pilger: Campaigning Australian journalist dies, no author, BBC, 2023-12-31

John Pilger, controversial campaigning journalist and documentary maker – obituary, "Telegraph Obituaries", The Telegraph, 2023-12-31

John Pilger, Australia-born journalist and filmmaker known for covering Cambodia, dies at 84, no author -- and classified under 'entertainment', Associated Press [US], 2024-01-01

Journalist and filmmaker John Pilger dies aged 84, Ashley McMillan, Sydney Morning Herald, 2023-12-31

John Pilger obituary, Anthony Hayward, The Guardian, 2024-01-02

Sources [origninal article]

Veteran Australian journalist and documentary-maker John Pilger dies in London, aged 84, ABC News, 2023-12-31 11:55pm.

WATCH: Mercouris on Pilger, Consortium News, 2024-01-02

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