A brilliant documentary about the McLibel trial will be shown on BBC2 tomorrow (Sunday 4th June) at 10:30pm. I saw it a couple of months ago on BBC4 and it really is far more interesting than any documentary about a legal case should be.
For those of you who don’t know about the case, here’s a quick rundown: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4266741.stm
Essentially: Two campaigners produce a leaflet accusing McDonald’s of all kinds of nasty things. McDonald’s weren’t very happy about this and took them to court, expecting the two to roll over and beg. Despite there, at the time, being no legal aid for people in libel cases (a law which has now been changed as a result of the McLibel trial) the two decided to fight their case… And, from a very valid perspective, won.
There were multiple issues involved, and the two won on the most important ones, and probably should have on a couple of others, but were still ordered to pay damages. Not surprisingly, after the amount of negative press they received for the trial, McDonald’s has made no effort to collect the fine.
It’s a story that is just so improbable that if it were not for the facts would seem too far-fetched to be true. But it is true. Watch the documentary, and decide (if you already haven’t) that you never want to let that junk in your system.
Here’s some feedback from the BBC4 showing a while back: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/yoursay/mclibel.shtml
I feel bad for McDonalds. They’re just a buisness trying to make money like everybody else. And if you don’t want to eat there then don’t. But people should stop attacking them. McDonalds gets blamed for more than they should. It’s not McDonalds fault that people are fat, it’s they’re lack of selfcontrol that makes them fat, they just don’t want to admit that, so they blame it McDonalds. And what about Burger King and Wendy’s and the other fast food chains? You never hear about them, it’s always McDonalds that gets blamed, and seriously you’ll have have the same health problems if all you eat is Whoppers as if all you eat is big Macs. ANYWAY I just think people blame McDonalds for things that are they’re own fault because who wants to blame themselves? Ya so. I’m done.
The thing about the McLibel case, forgive me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while since I read up on the details, is that McDonald’s said that the claims made were libelous. As it turned out, some were true. It was their own fault for drawing attention to the claims.
Admittedly, McDonald’s are not the only offenders, but they are very much guilty of intending to portray their produce as a healthy food. The courts found that many claims against them were true, and a moral decision would find that most of them were true.
If you want to play ‘oh those poor little multinationals’ then there are better targets to than McDonald’s. Yes, they have been the focus of many attacks, but they are also the worst offenders. Watch the documentary. Unlike many films the views seen in it are substantiated by many years of judicial scrutiny.
..ok.. am i mental..
.. i tune in for informative, soul saving, interesting programme ( cos i did work on it for my a’level ) . and i find…. GOLF ..
wrong channel or typical tv programming priorities?
Bah, that would be typical. I didn’t watch it tonight because I saw it recently, so I can’t say for sure. Maybe Maccy D threatened the BBC!
it started a little after eleven ish i think….
*yawn* .. still saw it all though
:-p