Was RTE right to invite David Irving to appear on the Late Late Show?

66% YES 34% NO

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Your Reaction

• He didn't shout "FIRE!" did he? Then yes.
  Kynos  Not Answered
• ateigh three %like irvine cuppa? -dont believe it comma roll it collect,umm collette-bit passe.(MW may not 'select country whyso for poll.
  maria-syd  Australia
• fifty five percentage agree correct mw?
  maria  Australia
• Although I'd never accuse RTE of standing up to censorship and protecting Free Speech nor anything like. Not since the Dr Crown Affair. Easier read is it was good for Pat's ratings. And it doesn't MATTER what Irving's subject and contentions are, the fact is this increasingly becomes a world where free speech is undermined and oppressed. From BushCo's executive order 13233 (that not only allows a former President to dictate which of his papers and decisions can ever be examined, and prevent any and all of his historical record from being scrutinised, it also allows any of his successors from allowing it. So we may never find answers to the most burning questions about the New World Order that is BushXo's legacy.) all the way to digital rights management, that has nothing to do with preventing piracy and only interferes with and limits one's enjoyment of one's legitimately purchased digital content. Meaning, for example, that if I weren't such a technical guy and able to reflash the firmware on my laptop DVD-R drive, I would be forever prevented from enjoying four fifths of my own DVD collection and therefore out thousands of dollars.
  Free speech regardless of subject however offensive and distasteful - generally only because it upsets our sacred cows - has to be protected. Otherwise soon everything bad is doubleplusgood and everything good is doubleplusbad.
  Kynos  Not Answered
• y'all agree yes-sir? yesir? sri SIr,umm yessir "after the sit. in leb.becomes clearer, a huge isralei op in gaza,to take control of the g-e "border" and to "set-up" new intelligence mechanisims within gaza comma all to prevent"-dhis Mr Sheridan-FE-edit at will-murdoch at large tday page twenty eight-at large? -isnt he grand?- for whom what, wherewithal- we are to learn- heapa shite mate-heapa krapp.sine,
  norah -syd  Australia
• Didn't know he had been, but fair play to the Late Late. Was he given an opportunity to speak without being shouted down? Did Alan Shatter show up to heckle him?

  Kynos is spot on in his first post. Strange that some events in history are now deemed off limits to any real discussion.

  On a not unrelated issue, a rather long post of mine didn't make it on to the board last Thursday. All about Lenni Brenner's book, 51 Documents, which is strangely out of stock at Amazon these days. And some positive reviews for the book seem to disappear from Amazon.
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/51-Documents-Zionist-Collaboration-Nazis/dp/1569802351/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204813828&sr=1-12

  From a review... "Brenner has argued that Zionism, rather than fighting anti-semitism, has often collaborated with it for it's own political ends and, in the process, has betrayed the Jews it was purportedly liberating.

  The case is a convincing one. From the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, we hear that anti-semites should be considered friends of Zionism for anti-semitism would lead Jews to believe that they should not seek assimilation in gentile society but would look to leave and found their own state. Thus, anti-semitism was not to be opposed.

  ...And then it comes to the Nazis themselves. We find German Zionists seeing National Socialism as a kindred ideology to their own. We find SS officers visiting Palestine at the invitation of mainstream Zionist organisations in order to help facilitate Jewish emigration to Palestine, including Adolf Eichmann who would record his admiration for Zionist politics. We find the SS producing a commemorative medal with the Zionist star on one side and the SS insignia on the other. We find a Zionist agent in the pay of the Gestapo with the full knowledge and approval of his superiors as he betrays anti-Nazis. And we find the origins of the Israeli navy in Mussolini's Italy wearing Blackshirts and singing Fascist hymns."
  Monseul  Christmas Island

• I neither agree nor disagree with maria-syd and norah & rourkie, but unlike Voltaire would never consider dying to defend their right to say whatever they're saying. If Irving was Irish and were elected to the Dail he'd have the hallowed right to speak to an empty chamber and claim the usual expenses. Dustin the turkey has a right to sing at the Eurovision song contest, so Irving has a right to the Late Late.
  Sean  Central African Republic
• I wouldn't begin to tell anyone who they should or should not invite to enlighten them. Well I'll wager he may just find a few followers in Ireland, as he did in North America from the Aryan Nations, KKK,Heritage Front, and an assortment of right wing Nazi Sympathizers,as well as deniers of the Holocaust.He certainly kept the RCMP , CISCIS, and all other law enforcement agencies busy here in the 1990's.
  paorach  Canada
• If it was right to invite IRA apologist Gerry Adams on in Gaybo's day, then yes.
  Niall of the 9 sausages  Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• No freedom of speech should not allow someone to distort what historically happened. Think of the consequences! RTE are useless anyway and the salaries paid to the presenters are not in proportion to value for money.
  Eamon  Ireland