Recovering 'Truth' with Phil Scraton
Tuesday 16th May
Written by Emma Hulme
I love Phil Scraton. I think most people in Liverpool do. A beacon of light in a historically dark time. And he has bite too. He famously refused an OBE stating, ‘I could not accept an honour tied in name to the 'British Empire'. Many of us know about his work on Hillsborough but tonight I learnt much more about his published research.
‘Post-truth’ seems to be a word we can’t escape at the moment and the audience heard about how facts are less influential on shaping opinion than the appeal to our emotions. This seems pretty apt right now when A Tory government are so obviously conjuring a media frenzy about a ‘terrorist sympathiser’. And it’s working. Are we being given the facts? Or are we just misplacing them within our emotions?
Having researched women in prison as part of my degree I will never forget reading a piece about Maxine Carr, partner of Ian Huntly who was found guilty of the murder Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002. Carr received more media coverage than he did for a two-week period and the language the media used to describe her was as though she had murdered the two girls instead. Of course, she hadn’t. She had provided a fake alibi and was sent to prison. Yet we had to demonise her, she must be ‘evil’.
Phil talks so passionately about this regarding such cases as Jamie Bulger and The Strangeways Riot in 1990. He explains how quickly the media and politicians feed us opinion or ‘post-truths’ and we believe it, even when it’s lies.
With his extensive research on childhood, transition, criminality and social justice Scraton knows what he is talking about and kept us entranced for the whole two hours. Of course he went over (I think he could have done another hour!) but as he drew to a close he brought it back to Hillsborough and the huge injustice faced. It reminded me how those families refused to quit until they got the truth but it also made me think about all those people who have faced injustices alone, with nobody to help them speak up. This happens every day and most people will never be heard.
The event challenged me, made me think of all the times I have jumped on the media bandwagon of bashing people or all the times my white privilege has acquitted me. I left with so many questions and a thirst to learn more. We must become the dissenting voices, we must challenge the hierarchy, we must bear witness to the injustices faced by so many and we cannot stay silent. In this ‘post truth’ world we have much to learn.