“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Joseph Gobbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, was spot on when he said this as we found out with Patrice Evra this weekend.
On Saturday night Patrice Evra made claims that Liverpool’s Luis Suarez had racially abused him. Twitter was awash with people offering opinions on the matter then Liverpool Football Club employee Kristian Walsh tweeted:
Patrice Evra has accused racism of three players before today. All three have been cleared.
In a similar vein as Goebbel’s comment, all it takes is one crack in the veneer of truth for people to doubt. We as humans are not natural disposed to believe anyway, we require proof for EVERYTHING so if someone can sow a seed of doubt it is quite likely that this seed will grow to a mighty oak.
Kristian Walsh claimed he was trying to prove Goebbels’ theory, I don’t believe him, instead I think he genuinely thought that was the case and was attempting to discredit Patrice Evra so later when it became apparent that Evra had not made accusations of racism on 3 occasions he attempted to back track and eventually tweeted:
In conclusion: the Evra tweet was a fallacy. I’m an idiot.
Despite his admission, Walsh had done the damage he sought to do and people now had a reason to doubt Evra’s claims. Ask a person why they don’t believe Luis Suarez racially abused Evra and it is likely that they will make reference to Evra having ‘previous’ in regards to making allegations of racial abuse despite Walsh’s admission that he had made his statement up.
I don’t need to go into the history surrounding Patrice Evra and previous allegations of racism, Red Flag Flying High and Republik of Mancunia already did wonderful jobs debunking the lie that Walsh helped spread but what I can look at the present and the future.
People are calling Evra’s character into question and this has been made even worse by the fact that Sky claim that they cannot find footage verifying Evra’s claims (would it be a weak argument to claim that can’t find footage to disprove Evra’s claims? We all know something was definitely going on between the two players). In essence the Frenchman is being declared a liar but it’s not like Suarez is an angel.
We are all aware of his antics against Ghana in the World Cup, his biting of an opponent whilst playing for Ajax, his diving whilst in England. If people want to question Evra’s integrity, at least look at him in comparison to Suarez.
Evra has told Sir Alex Ferguson that he wants to pursue this and he clearly feels aggrieved but he faces a losing battle without actually footage to verify his claims. The incident that took place involving the Chelsea groundsman is a perfect example of this as two other people heard the abuse that was aimed at Evra yet Evra still received a four match ban and a hefty fine for his trouble.
In the film Training Day, Denzel Washington’s character states,
“It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove.”
And Evra may struggle to prove Suarez did in fact racially abuse him. Despite being the victim in all of this, Evra appears to be coming off the worse from this and bizarrely Suarez is being painted as the victim with people already looking past the investigation and demanding that Evra be punished if Suarez is found innocent.
Upon investigation, we may never find out if Suarez did say the things that Evra has accused him of saying and that is as good as him being cleared. The burden of proof lies with Evra and whilst Suarez may have made the comments if Evra can’t prove it, it will be seen as a victory for Suarez.
Guilty people have got away with greater crimes (I’m sorry OJ did it!), so I hope that if Suarez did say the disgusting things he is accused of, not only as a United and Evra fan, but as a human being interested in what is just and fair that somehow it comes to light.
There is an old but true saying what goes around comes around . I do not disbelieve Paddy Evra !
So Suarez runs rings around Evra, and the referee calls them over after Evra waves an imaginary card and blowing kisses at the Anfield crowd & the French international fails to mention to the referee that he is been racily abused? Hmmmmmmmmm and then after the match and talking to Fergi, they decide to go and make a complaint to the Referee? Then in a BBC MOTD interview Fergi is asked about the free kick that lead to Liverpool’s goal & Fergi says Suarez was diving all over the place, even though it was Charlie Adam’s who was fowled. sounds like a deliberate ply by the Manchester utd manager to tarnish the Liverpool star who constantly terrorises the utd defenders with his skill. It’s not as if Fergi has never made false slurs before, as this attack on a whole German nation shows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAFzjHZlOQ0 What is with utd always attacking the germans?
Haha, What a sad story, If Suarez said it more than 10 times then I’m pretty certain 1 of the cameras would have some footage of this, but yes he lost the battle at Chelsea due to lack of evidence, because it was a lie… Just like last weekend when he(Evra) could not handle Suarez a bit at any time of the game and needed an excuse! 10 times, not 1 Camera nor the Ref and I can Guarantee not 1 liverpool player heard this, So yes he is fighting a loosing battle.
@ 5 Times and Nero
This Suarez giving Evra a hard time so he cries racism is nonsense and you know it. Sit down and genuinely ask yourself if that is a serious argument.
If this was Evra’s plan there are a few more players that have given him a harder time than Suarez that he could have targeted and in regards to Nero’s point about the Chelsea case being a lie 2 members of staff (neither black) heard what was said to Evra as well but I guess you’ll claim it was one big scam by United to get Evra off the hook!
If i was Evra on that field and someone made racist remarks towards me…more than 10 times…would I have kept quiet till after the match…NO
If i could target anyone in the Liverpool team who would i target…suazez of course yes…he is one of our stars, if not THE star at the moment, and with his history (not in English football i must add) he would have been the easiest target.
maybe he said it, maybe he didn’t…but with no proof, no one who claims to have heard it, the ref included, fergie leaving him to sort it out for himself…hmmm? it seems like the odds are in suarez’s favor…wouldn’t you say?
but then again: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”…dumb ass anti liverpool people!
and as to him diving all over the place, go watch your own star players like nani diving all over and shedding tears…now that is what i call a cry baby…
but hey, maybe you’ll have better luck on old trafford…as commentators have said most 50/50 decisions will always go in Man U’s favor…or at least for your sake, I hope so…till we meet again YNWA
That’s because most commentators are former LFC players or from non-United teams and are jealous and cannot hide their bias. I wouldn’t be complaining about decisions not going your way when you scored on a free kick that was awarded because of a dive and Downing didn’t get carded when flagrantly diving.
I can’t even believe you brought up the Nani-Carragher incident while trying to prove calls supposedly go United’s way. I’m pretty sure a studs up challenge right below a player’s knee and missing the ball completely should’ve been a straight red.
All of this of course has nothing to due with the racism claims, and not being able to prove it has little bearing on whether or not it took place.
What really frustrates me in a general sense is that the FA and FIFA for that matter could easily hear players’ conversation if they wanted to. They have campains to “stomp out racism” but ignore tools easily accessible to them to help achieve that goal.
In North America with Leagues such as the NHL and NFL, they use high tech boom microphones and can pickup a conversation happening on a field as it it were happening right before you. It’s not used for enforcement, but for something called “sounds of the game” for entertainment purposes as no one would dare utter racist slurs. I don’t see why they don’t use it in Europe where it could be used for entertainment, but also enforcement when needed.
you can even google “nfl sounds of the game” to see what I’m talking about.
The FA wont even investigate Brian Robson Manchester Utd world ambassador selling English clubs (2 at a go) never mind put a stop to Fergi’s Influence with Mike Riley, nice dive by rooney for the second penalty tonight, & and clattengurg has the manc derby game result ;);) I know who my money is on! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/8646675/Manchester-United-retain-Bryan-Robson-as-ambassador-in-face-of-Dispatches-backlash.html