[785] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
McSpotlight WWW site (long but good)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matthew Krom)
Tue Feb 13 13:32:36 1996
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
From: krom@media.mit.edu (Matthew Krom)
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 96 13:29:25 -0500
Check it out -- right now the page has a countdown to Feb 16.
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 96 12:40:30 -0500
From: dbriars@world.std.com
To: mclibel@facteur.std.com
Subject: **McSpotlight, our new WWW site
Subject: **McSpotlight, our new premier WWW site
Date: Feb 10, 1996
From: Albert Beale <worldpeace@gn.apc.org>
McLibel Support Campaign, c/o 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, UK
Tel/Fax +44-171-713 1269
PRESS RELEASE 12th February, 1996
"McSpotlight" Worldwide Web Site to be launched Feb 16th
Final nail in the coffin of McDonald's global censorship strategy
http://www.mcspotlight.org/ (opens Feb 16)
McSpotlight, an on-line interactive library of information and
communication, makes freely and easily available across the globe
everything that McDonald's don't want the public to know. It is
the most comprehensive source of information on a multinational
corporation ever assembled.
McSpotlight is the latest and the most dynamic tool of the
movement against McDonald's and all it stands for. As one of the
new breed of Internet sites starting to make full use of the
world's most powerful and revolutionary communication system,
McSpotlight combines text, graphics, video and audio into a
readily accessible and interactive package that can be used by
campaigners, journalists, researchers, scientists, and surfers
alike - not to mention all McDonald's customers and employees who
want to know the truth.
The McLibel Trial and the issues at its heart (diet and
ill-health, destruction of the environment, animal welfare,
exploitation of children through advertising and workers through
low pay) provide the focus for the site. The McLibel Two (Helen
Steel & Dave Morris) have stood up and fought against McDonald's
attempts to bully and intimidate the company's critics into
silence. The climate of fear that McDonald's tactics have created
in the past is fast being eroded, and the Internet will be the
final nail in the coffin of McDonald's attempts to suppress
criticism. They cannot hide the truth any more!
The Launch of McSpotlight
Come and see the launch on 16th February of the Internet site that
will help crack the glossy image of the $26 billion a year
corporation once and for all:
10.30am - Leicester Square McDonald's, London W1. The McLibel Two
will access McSpotlight for the first time on-line on a laptop
connected by mobile phone to the Internet, outside the McDonald's
store at Leicester Square (opposite Swiss Centre). Photo
opportunities available.
12 noon to 2pm - Cyberia Cafe, 39 Whitfield Street, London W1
(nearest tubes Tottenham Court Rd / Goodge St). At a press
conference held at London's first Internet cafe, volunteers who
have helped compile the site, and the McLibel Two, will introduce
McSpotlight on a large monitor. Journalists will be able to
explore the site themselves on any of the terminals around the
cafe.
Video Press Release - available on request.
For information about McSpotlight and its launch, please contact:
Polly Lawrence, tel 0181-220 2318, fax 0181-444 1597, mobile
0374-140725.
E-mail: mcspotlight@globalnet.co.uk or the number above.
For more details about McSpotlight, please see further press
release attached.
Please note: the McLibel Support Campaign is supportive of, but
independent from, McSpotlight which is a project of the
McInformation Network based in 14 countries.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
McSpotlight Press Release
Final nail in the coffin of McDonald's global censorship strategy
http://www.McSpotlight.org/
McSpotlight is the latest and most dynamic weapon in the fight
against McDonald's global domination. As one of the first
Internet sites starting to make full use of the century's most
powerful communication system, it combines text, graphics, video
and audio into a readily accessible and interactive package that
can be used on a whole spectrum of levels by campaigners,
journalists, researchers, scientists, students, and surfers alike.
McDonald's own customers and employees may well find it impossible
to ever walk through the Golden Arches again after visiting
McSpotlight.
The infamous McLibel Trial, and the issues at its heart (diet and
ill-health, destruction of the environment, animal welfare,
exploitation of children through advertising and workers through
low pay) provide the focus for the site, but it is not just
McDonald's in the McSpotlight. As the most carefully manicured,
defensive and possibly the most arrogant corporation, they have
been used as a symbol for all transnational corporations
maximising their profit at the expense of people, animals and the
environment.
Some of the highlights of McSpotlight are:
- - RealAudio interviews with the McLibel 2
- - the video clip linking McDonald's with rainforest destruction
(evidence in the trial)
- - the complete set of McLibel witness statements & scientific
reports used as evidence
- - "guided tours" for first-timers
- - autonomous pages for 26 countries (many run by key local
campaigners)
- - the Debating Room
- - the infamous "McQuiz" (Sample question: "Why is it
environmentally friendly for McDonald's to produce mountains of
disposable packaging?" Answer: "...otherwise you'd end up with
lots of vast, empty gravel pits all over the country." - Ed
Oakley, McDonald's Head of Purchasing for Northern Europe, in the
witness box.)
McSpotlight marks a watershed in the history of grassroots
activism. Compiled by a huge team of volunteers working from 14
different countries, with support and contributions from not only
the McLibel Defendants and their colleagues, but also some of the
world's leading scientists and authorities on the issues
(including Professor Colin Campbell, author of the "China Study",
the world's most authoritative report on the links between diet
and cancer), it shows that power, influence and advertising budget
are no longer the restraining factors dictating how far a message
can be heard. The equipment is easily available for anyone to
rapidly and cheaply disseminate information to the 70 million
people with Internet access worldwide. As a form of campaigning,
McSpotlight marks a development from the established methods
employed by protesters from the Jarrow Marchers & Greenham Common
to Brightlingsea & Newbury.
"The climate of fear that McDonald's past tactics have created is
fast being eroded, and the Internet will be the final nail in the
coffin of their attempts to suppress criticism. The McLibel 2
have shown that people will not be bullied and controlled for the
profits of a few." - Franny Armstrong, McSpotlight UK volunteer.
A huge controversy is raging among the legal experts and political
authorities as to whether and how to regulate the Internet. Up
until now, the main subject of concern and media hype has been the
dissemination of pornography, particularly to children.
McSpotlight will realign the debate to the fundamental issue:
should the spread of information about matters of great public
concern be controlled, and if so by whom? This is of course
particularly poignant in McSpotlight's case as Freedom of Speech
forms the core of the McLibel Trial.
"It is vital that scientists and members of the public feel able
to discuss openly and freely such important issues as the links
between diet and disease and the targeting of children, without
fear of being sued by those with vested interests. The Internet
is an ideal forum for such a debate." - Dr Neal Barnard,
President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,
USA.
The McDonald's Corporation will be faced with an impossible
dilemma: should they attempt to close down this site, one of the
most comprehensive and damning collections of data ever assembled
about a single corporation, immediately after their disastrous
attempt to suppress the distribution of the McLibel leaflets?
(1.5 million copies of the leaflets have been handed out in the UK
alone since the writs were served 5 years ago, and thousands of
people have pledged to continue distributing them whatever the
verdict in the trial.) Once information is released onto the
Internet, can it ever be stopped?
"We have been defending the right to criticise multinational
corporations for over 5 years since McDonald's served the writs on
us. The campaign is clearly unstoppable: McSpotlight now makes
freely available across the globe everything they don't want the
public to know - and in the kind of detail that all those who
value the truth will appreciate. We're backing McSpotlight 100%."
- - The McLibel 2 (Helen Steel & Dave Morris).
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
McSpotlight Launch - Friday February 16th 1995
Photo opportunity: 10.30 am - McLibel 2 activate the site from a
laptop connected to the Internet by a mobile phone. Outside
McDonald's Leicester Square store, opposite the Swiss Centre,
London W1.
Press conference: 12noon-2pm - Cyberia Cybercafe, 39 Whitfield
Street, London W1.
Video Press Release: Available on request.
UK Press Contact:
Polly Lawrence - Tel 0181-220 2318, Fax 0181-444 1597, Mobile
0374-140725, E-mail mcspotlight@globalnet.co.uk
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
McSpotlight has been constructed by the McInformation Network, an
international network of volunteers working from 14 countries
around the world. It is autonomous from, but supportive of, the
McLibel 2 and the McLibel Support Campaign.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. McLibel Support Campaign Press Office
PO Box 62 Phone/Fax 802-586-9628
Craftsbury VT 05826-0062 Email dbriars@world.std.com
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.interlog.com/eye/Misc/McLibel
http://student.uq.edu.au:80/~s002434/mcl.html
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