Reliability - Indymedia or Sindo?

JamesSmith

An interesting question was put to me by a pal the other night; which would I consider to be more reliable and thrustworthy source of news - www.Indymedia.ie or the Sunday Independent?

To be honest, I'm stumped! :eek: I think its an excellent question, so any thoughts, please add -

JS

mike65

Surely it depends on ones politics?

Indymedia is open sourse so any old crap could be posted up and taken as accurate until someone better informed tells you otherwise (but then its open to argument just like this place!) the Sindo is more accurate but as a rule biased in a particular diretion.

Mike.

blather

The Indo claims to be objective, but isn't - Indymedia is openly biased!

Interesting choice...

jrey1981

It would depend on the subject of the story I think

monument

mike65 wrote:

Indymedia is open sourse so any old crap could be posted up and taken as accurate until someone better informed tells you otherwise (but then its open to argument just like this place!) the Sindo is more accurate but as a rule biased in a particular diretion.

That's about right. But on accurately, generally, I wouldn’t trust any of them a lot more then Wikipedia.

Nuttzz

indymedia.... write to our principal to get us off detention???

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73840

the sindo has a slightly better quality of story...

JamesSmith

mike65 wrote:

Surely it depends on ones politics?

... the Sindo is more accurate but as a rule biased in a particular diretion.

Mike.

Maybe this is what you mean. Nowhere in the following article from todays Sindo does it mention that Willie Frazer, the leader of FAIR (Families Acting for Innocent Relatives), was apparently refused a gun license by the PSNI. Just an observation / thought.



McDowell to meet victims of the IRA
Unionists to seek Minister's cooperation with investigations into unsolved murders

ALAN MURRAY

THE Minister for Justice has agreed to meet Unionist victims of IRA violence who will take part in a rally in Dublin next month.

Michael McDowell has agreed to open the doors of the Dail to relatives of victims of some of the worst IRA atrocities of the last 30 years immediately after the rally.

The Leinster House meeting will follow a parade from Parnell Square along O'Connell Street and Dawson Street on Saturday, February 25, for a rally outside the Dail.

Over 1,000 Unionists are expected to take part in the event which is being organised by groups representing victims of IRA violence across the North.

Families who lost loved ones in the Kingsmill massacre, the Shankill bombing and the La Mon massacre will be among those who will meet the Minister.

Mr McDowell confirmed the meeting in an email tothe Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson last week after the pair discussed the parade and rally following a BBC Question Time programme.

Mr Donaldson said he appreciated the Minister's gesture and hoped next month's rally in Dublin would pass off peacefully and convey to the public in the south the extent of grief and suffering inflicted by the IRA.

"I am delighted the Minister has agreed to meet the relatives of IRA victims in Northern Ireland after the rally. They have very real concerns about IRA activity in the Republic and the need for the Irish government to cooperate with investigations into the large number of unsolved IRA murders that were planned and executed in the border area. That is the main issue we want to raise with Mr McDowell," the MP said.

Willie Frazer from the Families Acting for Innocent Relatives group, who is one of the main organisers of the rally, said he expected that well over 1,000 people would travel to Dublin for the event.

"We want to restrict the numbers to around the 1,000 mark although I would imagine the number attending will be greater than that because of the interest expressed about the rally," Frazer said.

Eight Loyalist bands from different parts of Northern Ireland will travel with the relatives and details are being worked out with gardai about where coaches can be safely parked near the assembly point in Parnell Square.

"Many more bands wanted to participate in the parade but we have restricted the number to eight and that should provide enough music and colour for the day. We do not want to bring Dublin to a standstill, or cause offence and we hope we will be allowed to walk peacefully in Dublin to convey the message about how our relatives died at the hands of the IRA," the victims spokesman said.

BrianD

Read both and then try and make an informed opinion. That's why we need a diversity of opinion. Both sources have their agendas.

flogen

BrianD wrote:

Read both and then try and make an informed opinion. That's why we need a diversity of opinion. Both sources have their agendas.

True; I think that's the case no matter what you're reading; from Indymedia to the BBC, even if it isn't an 'agenda' certain outlets will either avoid a story or report on it in a certain way because of their editorial policy.

JamesSmith

flogen wrote:

True; I think that's the case no matter what you're reading; from Indymedia to the BBC.

What about me - what box do i fit in (with reference to mike65 "surely it depends onn ones politics") - Im listening to Bbc while reading indymedia, only to then flick back to the sindo web page, to realise that its probably a sinn fein/ ira plot all along:p

Heres another wonderful piece of tosh from todays sindo; at this stage i'm beginning to wonder if there is anything that cant be blamed on sinn fein/ ira...



Cruel smear campaign by rivals won't beat me says gay FF councillor

JEROME REILLY

A GAY Fianna Fail councillor who has been the victim of a vicious hate campaign believes he was cynically "outed" for political gain.

The smear campaign against Cllr Malcolm Byrne involved leaks to his local newspaper "revealing" that his profile was included on a dating website used by gay men called "gaydar.ie".

Cllr Byrne has been touted as an odds-on favourite to be added to the Fianna Fail ticket in the crucial five-seater Wexford constituency, which has also been specifically targeted by Sinn Fein at national level.

It now appears the smear was designed for political gain, to damage the young councillor who is regarded by Fianna Fail HQ as a potential new TD.

Fine Gael has vehemently denied being involved in the smear campaign. Fine Gael councillor Michael D'Arcy condemned the leaking of the story, saying, "This is a step too far. He is entitled to his privacy like any other citizen."

A senior Government source yesterday told the Sunday Independent that the view in Fianna Fail party headquarters is that Sinn Fein-IRA at national level was behind the campaign to damage Cllr Byrne, but they were not in a position to prove this.

Cllr Byrne's Fianna Fail colleague in Dublin, Cllr Garry Keegan, is adamant that Sinn Fein was behind the leaking of the story.

"As one of only two Fianna Fail councillors to publicly stand up to Sinn Fein in recent weeks, I am struck by the fact that both myself and my Wexford colleague, Councillor Malcolm Byrne, have been the subject of smears by the Sinn Fein dirty tricks department in recent weeks.

"In my own case there is a whispering campaign that I am somehow being disloyal to the traditions of Fianna Fail in taking up the Rafferty case," Cllr Keegan said.

Though most of Cllr Byrne's family and friends were aware he was gay, some relatives and friends were not, and he confirmed to the Sunday Independent that he had to tell them personally before the issue was aired in his local newspaper.

"It was not the way I wanted to do it," he said.

Cllr Byrne said he had been approached by a local reporter who had been fed information and he had decided to confront the issue head on.

"Yes I am gay. I don't have a problem with that. I have not, nor have I ever, done anything illegal and I am not a hypocrite in any way.

"My views on gay rights issues are well known. I am not married with four children or anything like that, so there is no suggestion of hypocrisy," he added.

Cllr Byrne said close friends and family, and many of his constituents, are all aware of his orientation and have been for a long time.

"As far as I am concerned it's a personal matter. It just shouldn't be an issue, and most of the time it isn't. It certainly hasn't been an issue within the community in which I live, and which I love an awful lot."

The 31-year-old Councillor Byrne - who is the youngest member of Gorey Town Council, and was just 25 when first elected at the first count in 1999, and again topped the poll in 2004 - still hopes to be added onto the Fianna Fail ticket for the forthcoming general election.

"It is a five-seater, and three candidates have currently been selected. In Wexford there are four electoral districts and the three other candidates have been chosen from the New Ross, Wexford and Enniscorthy areas.

"There is no representative from the Gorey area and it is certainly my hope to be that candidate," he said.

"Part of the rationale is that I am involved in a wide range of community activities and that the north west area of Wexford, where I am based, is the fastest growing area in the whole of the south east and doesn't have a TD of any colour. So the opportunity is there," he added.

He said he was mystified as to how this issue suddenly emerged.

"Someone obviously wanted the newspapers to make a story out of it. My view is that it reflects more on them than it does on me - but obviously I am mindful of the need to protect my family.

"I was asked by a reporter whether I was gay, and if I had a profile contained in the www.gaydar.ie website. Now this is a gay dating website, very similar to dating websites, which are like the personal columns published in newspapers," he said.

"The only difference is that it is for gay men."

He said the editor of the local newspaper had implied that it was someone with a political agenda against him. Asked if it was from within his own party or from others, he would not speculate.

"As far as I am concerned, the story is gone. It reflects more on the people who think there is a story in this."

flogen

Not to go off topic on this, but while the IRA are rumoured to be compiling information to smear just about every member of the Dail etc. it's so easy for people to say that a smear against them is from SF/IRA. I love the way they said they thought it was SF/IRA but weren't in a position to prove it... there's a chance that wasn't even a real source, how is anyone going to come to the defence of that accusation?
It could be the IRA, but who knows? The fact is a journalist could easily come across this information through non-terrorist sources. They could have happened across it themselves while browsing the site or some politically aware gaydar user could have spotted it and felt it was unacceptable behaviour, and so passed it on. Who knows? The Sindo are just making guesses here; seems like sloppy journalism to me.

lostexpectation

flogen wrote:

The Sindo are just making guesses here; seems like sloppy journalism to me.

No infact the Sindo blame everything on SinnFein/IRA whatever it is and whether (you think) they deserve it or not, its not sloppy journalism its a nothing to do with journalism its a corporate vendetta.

flogen

lostexpectation wrote:

No infact the Sindo, blame everything on SinnFein/IRA whatever it is and whether (you think) they deserve it or not, its not sloppy journalism its a nothing to do with journalism its a corporate vendetta.

Well, it's presenting itself as Journalism and so is an example of sloppy journalism, whether it's made out of laziness or a vendetta.

Freelancer

flogen wrote:

Well, it's presenting itself as Journalism and so is an example of sloppy journalism, whether it's made out of laziness or a vendetta.

The obvious point here is that indymedia is a self publishing website so, I'd have to ask who is publishing it. If Indymedia make a claim I'd check, is the indy.ie collective making this claim or just A.N. other poster. Even if they do make a claim, I'd check it and try to independentaly verify it from another website.

Ditto the sindo the shoddy state of journalism is shocking from a major broadsheet.

A better question is, which organisation's interpretation of the facts is more honest, and facts, and which is more honest.