May Day, The Hype, The Coverage, The End

flogen

So what did you think of the Irish medias may day coverage as a whole, including the build up and the day after stuff??

I am pissed off at the tabloids and the amount of hype they put behind the possible trouble, which was passed onto the more respectable media too.
RTE covered the actual day very well, although I felt the protests didnt get much coverage until the little ruckus at the end of the day, which is a shame, given the fact that it was mainly peaceful.
The News of The World today reports of the mahem of the day, basically the 30 minutes of trouble which was very minor in comparison to what they made us expect..

Kudos to RTE though, they covered the celebrations quite well IMO.

Flogen

Cork

I feel that SKY also covered it well. It is a good sign that their forthcoming news service will cover storys as they happen.

I feel that over the next few years - news coverage will have more local news content. I think SKY will have a definate edge over RTE.

Memnoch

sky = owned by ruport murdoch = i never trust anything they say

monument

Originally posted by Cork
I feel that SKY also covered it well. It is a good sign that their forthcoming news service will cover storys as they happen.

They looped maybe about 30min of tape for an hour.

As far as I know, the Irish Times were the only national daily newspaper that did not hype it to bits before the event, unless maybe one of the tabloids acted respectable?

I wonder what their reason was to publish the names and address of the arrested. Oh, well, I’m off the shop to find out…

DadaKopf

The Times even ran a story dismissing the irresponsible hype all the other organs were churning out.

On the whole, I'm thoroughly apalled by the hype, reflecting an absolute disregard for journalism ethics. Moreover, it reflected the media's over-willingness to hijack something for pure profit over and above any claimed attachment to facts and disinterested reporting.

It seemed to me the government, Gardai and media were feeding each other with misinformation in an upward spiral culminating in a phantasmagoria invented to suit each of their respective objectives.

The government succeeded in discrediting the protesters by flooding any opportunity to communicate the underlying reasons for the protest. The Gards found that it was an excuse to equip themselves, receive training and restore some lost public support. And the media made money.

I'm not convinced of the extent to which the media has been damaged by their feeble and obvious attempts to invent a 'riot' that never occurred. People aren't so questioning.

And finally, vis-a-vis Sky News; the live, on-the-scene reporter was quite good and matter-of-fact. But from 9pm onwards, the editorial line hardened and they represented the confrontation as a 'clash' (implies connotations with the Poll Tax riots) and framed it in such a way as to imply this was a serious assault on Farmleigh, and that despite these 'clashes' (which cost €4.2m - another coded attempt to discredit the events) our EU ubermenschen soldiered on.

Our media coverage was an absolute discrase and it just goes to show the public will hear only what they want to hear, or are told to hear.

monument

The two Irish Times articles published today are informing…

Unlike some clams in some reports, only person who appeared at the special setting of the court has an address out side the Republic.

“..the organisers stopped it around 500 meters before the Ashtown Roundabout, after it became apparent gardai were blocking their way.”

“Just after 8.30 p.m., a group of 100 protesters moved towards the uniformed Garda line, chanting slogans.” A second group of around 20 masked protesters moved behind them pushing them at the Garda line

It was all over in less then half an hour.

One was arrested for stealing a garda cap, all others were charred on public order offences (breach of the peace and/or failure to comply with the direction of a Garda – the second in my view is a joke to a democratic way of life), while another arrested said he was only trying to get home by bus.

The names and address were published as they are in any other story about a person or persons being arrested. Nothing unusually about it.

(I am also reposting a rework of the post base on how few people actually approached the garda line in the thread on this subject in the politics board.)

smiaras

This post has been deleted.