Yesterday I was watching the TV as usual after I got home from work and I saw a story on Channel 9 A Current Affair of a man named Brendan O'Connell. What caught my attention was what he was saying about the 9/11 twin tower attack in the United States. He claims that the attack was orchestrated by Israel or planned to gain support for Israel cause, I am not sure what exactly he said but it was something to that extent.
Now I have come across some similar points of view on the internet on web sites such as
www.911missinglinks.com
and some You Tube videos, whether it is true or not it is not for me to judge in this forum. But Being the inquisitive person that I am I looked up Brendan O'Connell's You Tube videos, the one Channel 9 were advertising, and I had a look for myself.
From what I can see Brendan O'Connell did not do anything but express his opinions yet he is charged with a crime that may poses a 14 years jail term. This is more than some other serious criminals would get just for speaking his mind. This is very disturbing to any one anywhere. I am even reluctant speaking about this issue in the fear that I may be targeted for sounding like I support this man. So let me make it clear I do not support any racial hatred, but let me also say it is a sad world that I live in if I have to make this point in fear.
After looking at all the videos and reading numerous blogs about Brendan O'Connell I started to get the picture. It seems that first of all Channel 9 has twisted and manipulated some video footage to make Brendan O'Connell sound bad. It also seems to me that there are organised groups of people with a common meme that Brendan O'Connell been criticizing have ganged up against him to silence him. These groups have been criticised for their human rights abuses, their influential political powers and their ability to label any one who opposes them as a criminal.
This lowers the standard of the Australian commercial TV networks when they do anything for a story, even if it is for criticizing a man for his free speech by manipulating footage and over dramatising facts. All that aside I think Channel 9 has aided the cause of Brendan O'Connell more than anything by making me and others aware of his story even thought it is clear that it was not the intention of the story. As they say no publicity is bad publicity.
