My first exposure to John Pilger was listening to a documentary on aboriginal deaths in custody on ABC radio that he made. I had only recently arrived in Australia and had no preconceptions about the issue.
After listening to the interview, I was convinced every death was deliberate murder by the police and the reason they were in prison in the first place was because they were arrested by racists police as they were just going about their normal day to day activities.
As I learned more about my new country I began to understand why there were so many aborigines in custody, which was mainly due to crimes they committed as a result of social depravation and the hopelessness of their existence. Random arrest was not the cause. Their deaths in and out of custody were mostly through suicide, again caused by their hopelessness. None of that was conveyed or even offered as a possibility in the Pilger documentary.
Since then I have seen Pilger for what he was. A far left extremist who was willing to use media to promote his anti-establishment anti-West agenda with the ABC more than willing to provide him a platform for his agenda.
