Dermot Keyes doesn't take kindly to internet forums

MitchKoobski

The Munster Express, page 10, 'Keyes Side' column by Dermot Keyes this week. He writes about the Penrose Lane incident, and praises the guards (they did a great job) but then blasts a certain internet forum with a 16 page discussion on the matter. I'll agree with him on his point that he couldn't give his official news report without all the facts until he saw fit, but that's all. Obviously with it being a paper I can't link to the article, so I'll give ya a few select quotes here.

"An information vacuum inevitably leads to an absence of facts and the creation of fibs, exaggerations and downright lies, and that's exactly what happened during this particular episode."

"The nature of the initial media response didn't go down well with those contributors to several internet message boards, one of whom branded our efforts as "disgraceful".

You're a reporter in Waterford, you give updates to your story as it progresses. If you wait until the next day, yer gonna fall behind.

"And who among us wouldn't want the sensationalist coverage of such a stand-off? Sadly, quite a few given that there were 16 pages devoted to last week's incident (by noon on Thursday) on one website that shall not be afford the oxygen of branded publicity in this column.

Wonder what forum that could be?

That so many web users on a variety of forums felt what was going on in the heart of the city represented some form of comedic entertainment was pretty appaling.

I think I can speak for everyone here when I saw it was a big news story in Waterford, and this forum provided up to the minute details from the incident as it progressed. It wasn't there as our night's entertainment.

G'way out of it Dermot. This forum was the best place for information last Tuesday, and you won't find anyone here that's gonna take sick pleasure from a sick man having a stand-off with the gardaí. It was up-to-the-minute news and images as we got em.

ziedth

Hi Dermot!!

*Waves

on one website that shall not be afford the oxygen of branded publicity in this column.

Is by far my favourite bit.

MitchKoobski

The Munster will take our stories and then complain, but at least The News and Star likes us!

super_furry

People like him are terrified that they're being rendered obsolete. Who needs to wait on a newspaper to tell you about things that happened yesterday when you can discuss what's happening now on the internet.

Print media is dying and dinosaurs like that oul lad are on their way out.

ziedth

MitchKoobski wrote: »

The Munster will take our stories and then complain, but at least The News and Star likes us!

What did we ever do to them I wonder? Like such an uncalled for attack because one poster seemingly refered to their coverage as disgraceful. I always enjoyed reading the munster. I certainly won't be buying it again (I love the moral highground)

Given how quickly that thread moved I may have missed a few posts but I certainly didn't see(and I wouldn't allow) anyone to make a mockery of the poor man. there may have been a number of jokes but nothing major. we didn't allow any names and we had a big chat about weather we should leave the you tube clip up.

As soon as the situation was resolved the thread was closed and we closed another thread today that wished to discuss it.

Beerholder

To be honest I didn't even know that there was a Waterford City Forum on here until someone sent me a link to that thread last week.

I didn't agree with alot of the stuff that was said in the thread and didn't like that people were having a laugh about a serious incident, but it's a public forum, and anyone logging on here knows that.

If you're not willing to accept that don't log on IMO.

seanybiker

Never heard if him.
He only works for a local paper anyways so his opinion doesn't count. Maybe someday if he gets to work in a proper paper we might take his opinion but then again maybe not.

ziedth

I just read the whole thread with the deleted posts and IMHO there is only one or two posts that flirt with the line a little bit as a joke and the "worst" joke was when the standoff was over. there was certainly nobody taking the piss out of him.

Some of the you tube comments were awful but that has nothing to do with us.

dayshah

As usual, Waterford Whispers is the best for local news.

http://www.waterfordwhispersnews.com/article.php?id=325

Finnbar01

Dead tree press.

old gregg

crikey I was out of the country for nearly a fortnight and have no idea what any of this is about , suppose I'd better go to page 2 of the forum to be informed

deisedave

Well in my opinion if you air your dirty laundry in public, your open for the mick to be taken out of you

seanybiker

dayshah wrote: »

As usual, Waterford Whispers is the best for local news.

http://www.waterfordwhispersnews.com/article.php?id=325

chap that does that site is a legend. Hilarious fella. Sound out aswell. Videos are gonna rule

Beerholder

deisedave wrote: »

Well in my opinion if you air your dirty laundry in public, your open for the mick to be taken out of you

No.

Not if the person in question is suffering from a mental illness or having some kind of breakdown...people should have a bit of sensitivity.

seanybiker

Beerholder wrote: »

No.

Not if the person in question is suffering from a mental illness or having some kind of breakdown...people should have a bit of sensitivity.

didn't know he was suffering from anything.
Anyways I'm sure this thread be locked if we get into a debate about your man so ...............

Beerholder

seanybiker wrote: »

didn't know he was suffering from anything.
Anyways I'm sure this thread be locked if we get into a debate about your man so ...............

No I didn't say he was Seany, my point was that people should think before taking the piss.

ziedth

Exactly Seany. No need to discuss the chap. This is about the article.

seanybiker

Beerholder wrote: »

No I didn't say he was Seany, my point was that people should think before taking the piss.

Ah I get ya now. Don't think there was anything to bad anyways.

Beerholder

seanybiker wrote: »

Ah I get ya now. Don't think there was anything to bad anyways.

Yeah I think you're right thank God.

seanybiker

Wonder how many of us be quoted in your mans article next week. Hello Mam

ziedth

I'm just amazed by it to be honest. It's hard to get the general tone from Mitch's quotes but it just seems crazy to have a pop at us.

seanybiker

ziedth wrote: »

I'm just amazed by it to be honest. It's hard to get the general tone from Mitch's quotes but it just seems crazy to have a pop at us.

He's probably just looking for a reaction from us so he will have something to type about

abouttobebanned

As usual with lazy-ass print journalists...Mr Keyes was just bored and wanted something to write about.

In my opinion, if he had a creative bone in his body he would have seen that the real story was how the story grew so many arms and legs after about 20 minutes. And Facebook was more at fault for this than Boards.

Also, if someone gets on a roof and starts acting the maggot, as long as nobody is hurt, people are always going to start looking for the comic relief, wherever you are.

Mr Keyes, if you're reading this, and I know you are...How about asking Mr. O Connor, the man sitting across from you there, if you can write some stories that might actually enlighten your readers.

Daysha

MitchKoobski wrote: »

You're a reporter in Waterford, you give updates to your story as it progresses. If you wait until the next day, yer gonna fall behind.

He works for a weekly newspaper, it's not his job to give updates on the story as it progresses. His only job is to have the story as best he can for the next edition, he didn't even have to be down there if he didn't want to. Up to date info is the job of RTE and WLR.

super_furry wrote: »

People like him are terrified that they're being rendered obsolete. Who needs to wait on a newspaper to tell you about things that happened yesterday when you can discuss what's happening now on the internet.

Print media is dying and dinosaurs like that oul lad are on their way out.

Certain types of print media is dying. Of all the different formats (national tabloid/broadsheets, evenings etc) local print is the safest of all of them. Certainly for the time being.

seanybiker wrote: »

Never heard if him.
He only works for a local paper anyways so his opinion doesn't count. Maybe someday if he gets to work in a proper paper we might take his opinion but then again maybe not.

If you want to disregard the opinion of every single journalist who works or started working in their local paper, you'll be at it for a while.

Also opinion columns keep many papers ticking over, the Independent for example has steamrolled the Irish Times in readership figures in the last few years because of this change of direction.

seanybiker

Its not just local ones. I don't really care for any journalists opinions. Rather have me own opinion and see where it goes from there

MitchKoobski

Daysha wrote: »

He works for a weekly newspaper, it's not his job to give updates on the story as it progresses. His only job is to have the story as best he can for the next edition, he didn't even have to be down there if he didn't want to. Up to date info is the job of RTE and WLR.

Fair enough, but from reading the article I got the impression he was annoyed that the story broke, developed and pretty much finished here. He was relying purely on what the Gardaí at the scene were telling him.

"Look at it this way: How often has one looked at a 24-hour news coverage of a 'talking head' reporter standing outside a potential crimescene while there is nothing going on?
How often have we seen reporters on location repeating the same details every 15 minutes, i.e. delivering news that isn't new?
Is that what Irish media consumers want our industry to morph into, a morass of speculation amidst the absence of cold, hard, undisputed facts? I sincerely hope not."

From reading the piece it seems to me like he was going to write an article on the incident but when the forums had all the information before the papers he got annoyed.
There was a stand-off between an armed man and the gardaí in Waterford City. People wanted updates and information as soon as it came in, and they got it here from the people who were there. The next day the majority of the papers had just a few words on the story and that was it.
The users here provided information as it came along, they provided images of the scene and videos. Dermot, it seems, would rather we keep quiet and wait for the news to report it with cold hard gardaí approved facts.

MitchKoobski

None of us were in any doubt that the Gardaí did a great job, so I'll give ye he last three sentences of the article.

"Sections of the the media and public alike tend to jump up and down incandescantly when the force makes a cock-up. Isn't it funny how the same such individuals have precious little to say when our Gardaí commendably fulfil their duties in resolve often tense and potentially threatening situations?

Waterford's finest (with assistance from Cork) did their jobs well last midweek. And that's a statement that no online gob****e hiding behind the veil of anonymity can even attempt to counter-argue."

ziedth

I'm hoping he wasn't referring to us with that but I'm beginning to think he didn't read the thread so who knows.

The Gardaí weren't remotely mentioned in a bad light AFAIK.

MitchKoobski

I just don't know of any other forum that had a 16-page discussion on the matter.

dayshah

MitchKoobski wrote: »

I just don't know of any other forum that had a 16-page discussion on the matter.

There was the Youtube video and also facebook. Not quite 16 pages, but we didn't have the web exclusive.

AdMMM

I would imagine the only reason he didn't name us was because of the chance that Boards.ie would take legal action against him.

Now that would have been a turn for the books!