Alas not many children will see the program on McDonald’s on Cutting Edge on Tuesday.
It is on SBS. It is serious. It does not come in the colourful short bites that children love, irrespective of content.
But it is before their bedtime, starting at 8.30pm.
The program is on what has become known as the McLibel case, the longest trial in English history. McDonald’s sued David Morris and Helen Steel after they persisted with a pamphlet campaign outside McDonald’s in London. McDonald’s $5000-a-day barrister estimated the case would take about 2 and a half weeks. It took two and a half years. Morris and Steel represented themselves but as more became known about the case, many witnesses and people with legal skills volunteered to help.
Under English (and Australian) law all the onus is on the publisher to prove the truth of everything published.
As on commentator said on the program, there is no freedom of speech, only an appearance of freedom of speech.
This is a David (and Helen) vs Goliath story.
The irony of the McLibel case is that it was only because Morris and Steel were penniless that they could afford to take on such a marathon libel action. When you ain’t got nothin’ you got nothin’ to lose. Large media organisations have been intimidated by McDonald’s by being faced with the chilling costs of proving in court the truth of everything published. The program listed about 50 mainly British news organisations who had corrected and apologised to McDonald’s. Many of those corrections were probably false in light of what came out in the McLibel case. So much for the power of the media.
The judge ruled that McDonald’s exploited children with their advertising, falsely advertise their food as nutritious and are culpably responsible for cruelty to animals.
Children generally love animals. What a triumph of modern advertising techniques that they love McDonald’s as well.
The judge found that McDonald’s were strong antipathetic to unions, pay the works low wages and risk the health of long-term very regular customers.
But he said that Morris and Steel had not proved true that McDonald’s, which consumes 6 per cent of the world’s cattle and lots of cattle are reared on what was formerly rainforest, was not responsible for destruction of rainforest. Nor did McDonald’s cause starvation in the Third World.
McDonald’s did not want to take part in the program, but the program had news tape of McDonald’s executives saying that McDonald’s had proven as true that McDonald’s did not harm the environment.
Wrong. He missed the whole point of repressive libel laws which this program so comprehensively illustrates. McDonald’s had not proven they do not harm the environment. It was just that Morris and Steel had not proven that they had.
Everything is deemed false until proven true. That is not freedom of speech.
Morris and Steel with appeal to House of Lords and, failing that, the European Court of Human Rights. The latter might knock some sense into British libel laws.
In the meantime the children will keeping watching $2 billion worth of McDonald’s advertising a year and keep pestering their parents. At least here is some ammunition for parents to resist – “”culpably responsible for cruelty to animals”.