Smear campaigns.

Leftys/labour are the masters of propaganda, deception, lies and spin...

nicko wrote:If the articles were not true why aren't the persons named not suing for Libel ?

In the case of the contentious Daily Mail article - an opinion piece written by journalist Geoffrey Levy and not a news item in which facts, mistakes and deliberate untruths could more easily have been determined - Ralph Miliband could not have sued because he was dead and the Daily Mail, quite rightly, gave Ed Miliband the right of reply.

Generally, people do not sue newspapers or broadcasters for a number of reasons; one is that there is often an element of truth in an allegation ((journalists do routinely and thoroughly research their subjects and know that they may be called on to substantiate what they write and say) and secondly, as libel is a civil as opposed to criminal matter, a loser faces being hit very, very hard financially with court costs alone.

There is also the likelihood that the newspaper and its defence team would dig out far more about the complainant than he or she would wish to be revealed in court and under the protection of privilege. Very few cupboards are devoid of skeletons...

In the article in question the Miliband famliy could not reasonably challenge the principal elements - that Ralph Miliband was a Marxist (he was) who in the past had, according to Levy's research (which he could no doubt have substantiated) written disparagingly about the British and their war effort and also the British institutions of the Monarchy, Church and military. I believe that at one stage he had also called for a "workers' revolution."

Nothing illegal in that, of course, but Levy's article questioned - and quite rightly in my opinion - what influence their father's opinions and philosophy might well have had on his sons David and Ed, both of whom were potentially Prime Ministers of this country.

Where the Daily Mail was unfair, again in my opinion, was in the headline (which would not have been written by Levy): The man who hated Britain. That may well have been a matter of conjecture, but it certainly cannot have been shown to be factually correct.