08-08-2018

 

Mike J. Carroll

Murphy Village

North Augusta, S.C. 29860

mikej.carrollauthor@gmail.com

 

 

WYFF Channel 4 NBC

Desk of the Assignment Manager
505 Rutherford Street
Greenville, SC 29609

(864) 242-4404

newstips@wyff4.com

 

Sirs;

 

I ask that WYFF Channel 4 NBC consider my rebuttal for publication. It provides answers to the questions published by your broadcast, entitled; “Mysterious group with roots in the 1800s return to scam elderly, others, Upstate officials warn,” subtitled; “Travellers keep communities, culture, language like long ago.” It’s time for the other side of the coin to see the light of day. It's time to give a voice to my people and the opportunity for them to expose the discrimination, intolerance, and racism they have suffered for generations.

 

 

Guilt or Innocence: It’s Time for the Accused to Speak

 

By Mike J. Carroll, Irish Traveller

 

A news report produced by WYFF Channel 4 NBC, entitled; “Mysterious group with roots in the 1800s return to scam elderly, others, Upstate officials warn,” subtitled; “Travellers keep communities, culture, language like long ago,” creates fear in the viewer and promotes bigotry, discrimination, hatred, and racism. Nowhere in the narrative of the report was the accused given the opportunity to defend themselves against their accuser. A biased argument is a lie that puts forth only one point-of-view and denies the accused their right to reply. Demonstrated by the ease in which the educated vilify the illiterate and the powerful subdue the helpless. Our village in South Carolina has been visited numerous times by the media who seek only to unveil what is wrong in our culture in their quest for sensationalism and increased readership and viewership. State authorities, not unlike the Gestapo and the Nazi Party are quick to prosecute those in the name of political advancement without fear of retaliation. I wrote my book, entitled; “Irish Travellers: An Undocumented Journey Through History” because there must be an island of truth in a sea filled with lies. The book is available on amazon.com.

 

 

The news report includes a picture positioned to display only the prosperous of our community careful to ignore the many single-wides, and double-wide manufactured homes that house most of our people. The Sheriff, unnamed in the report “warning residents to be on the lookout for a group known as the Travellers” whose only intent is to scam people. Facebook used as a weapon by the “Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office” to deliberately marginalize an ethnic minority by depriving them of economic prosperity. Unsupported theories about the history of our people by those who know nothing about our heritage. Racists who deceitfully increase our population size by lumping together unrelated ethnic minorities and referring to them as Gypsies. American-Irish Travellers are never referred to as individuals but continually referred to as a gang, group, con artists, or criminals. Replace American-Irish Traveller with any other ethnic minority within the narrative of these constant accusations, and it would cause public outcry, but the public remains oddly silent. The expression: “You cannot be just a little pregnant,” equates to; “You cannot be just a little racist.” Those who use racist tactics in public against American-Irish Travellers use those same racist tactics against other ethnic minorities behind closed doors. Any newspaper, television news report, reporter, or public official who uses race as a determining factor to prove guilt is guilty of racism.  

 

I ask that you publish this rebuttal, but I don’t expect my response to be published because the truth is feared far more than a lie. I will publish this rebuttal on my webpage in seven days if your channel refuses to give the accused equal time.  

 

Respectively Submitted,

 

Mike J. Carroll, Irish Traveller