Day 313 - 13 Dec 96 - Page 46
1 that McDonald's own or control" -- the words he uses --
2 "land in the Third World but just that the question is
3 whether they are responsible for damage that may thereby be
4 caused by their business by that supply chain".
5
6 On the second column, above the picture, "which keeps most
7 black people poor and hungry while many whites grow fat".
8 This is a comment, we would say, of the effect of economic
9 imperialism in general.
10
11 The next column is, "Why is it wrong for McDonald's to
12 destroy rainforests?" We would say that is comment. The
13 word "destroy" is a... What is the word? It does not
14 imply that McDonald's are doing it necessarily themselves,
15 it is a sort of overall comment on the responsibility that
16 McDonald's have for rainforest destruction. Also in the
17 second paragraph in that section about "McDonald's and
18 Burger King are two of the many US Corporations using
19 lethal poisons", we would say 'using' is comment.
20
21 Under 'colonial invasion' - "McDonald's and many other
22 corporations are contributing to a major ecological
23 catastrophe", we say that is a general charge and
24 Mr. Rampton, we say, recognises that when he says it is
25 generally descriptive of the facts put before it.
26 Therefore, it would relate to the damage to forests, and
27 also we are entitled to pray in aid anything which has come
28 up as evidence in this case that would be relevant to
29 ecological damage which would go towards justifying that
30 general charge of McDonald's contribution. "McDonald's and
31 many other Corporations collectively are contributing to a
32 major ecological catastrophe".
33
34 So, we would argue that what that means is, are McDonald's
35 with other corporations collectively contributing to
36 ecological damage?
37
38 Then at the end of that paragraph, "arrogance and
39 viciousness of multi-national companies and their endless
40 search for more and more profit"; we would say that is
41 comment - fair comment, of course, we would say. And the
42 phrase, "helping the McDonald's empire to wreck this
43 planet" is fair comment in the light of all the previous
44 general charges and comments and facts in that fact sheet.
45
46 McDonald's food being unhealthy, we would say that is fair
47 comment. That is in the heading, it is the next section,
48 because although obviously there is a whole factual
49 substratum about all that, but it is a fair comment that
50 anyone is entitled to draw. The third line, "irrelevant
51 facts and figures". It may not matter at all in the
52 evidence in the case but basically that is comment, whether
53 the facts and figures are irrelevant or not.
54
55 "The accepted medical facts", we would say the word
56 "accepted" is a comment. I mean, I think we have
57 demonstrated that, yes, that the facts are accepted, but
58 we, certainly someone, could certainly consider they are
59 accepted if it is accepted by the World Health Organisation
60 and other bodies.
