modern media coverage (a charlie haughy addendum)

constitutionus

i was listening to TV3 today circa 5.40 and they were talking to their political expert (think her name allison hannigan, though could be confusing her name with your one from buffy) anyway apparently all day radio and tv shows have been innundated with texts and phone calls from joe public lambasting CJ (some of it really tough, one 80yr old guy said the best thing he did for the country was die !) causing the woman to comment that the level of vitriol was "astonishing". and when asked if a seachange view on haugheys standing in the public eye was in the air she couldnt answer

now weve had a thread going on in several sections filled with average peoples feelings and opinions on charlie and straight off the batt the MAJORITY of feeling on the guy was hes a crook and a gangster (see the poll in one section on weather he deserves a state funeral or not, and bear in mind some voted in favor because of respect for the office not the man) and i have to ask the question, are the modern media so out of touch with reality that they couldnt see this comming?

as per their usual standard procedure all papers this morning had "feel good" stories on haughey on the front page .leaving only a rare few to call a spade a spade in their respective columns (fintan o'toole for instance who basically said he sat at the heart of a criminal empire!) basically running the "ah he was a great fella " line.

all i could think of was the citizenship referendum, when the media insisted it was a two horse race and then looked like eejits when it was a 5 to 1 majority in favor of it. so i have to ask , are the media and their lionising of haughey barking up the wrong tree with this love in? are they in fact, in touch with the common man?

which is why i started this poll to comment on the coverage

Seachange view?

or

media dont have a clue?

P.S this isnt a thread about haughey, just the way the media handled the coverage of this event

DublinWriter

Like it or lump it, the media have an agenda, especially RTE.

Charlie-bashing is effectively FF-bashing.

Why else did you think that advertiser-hungry RTE cancelled Scrap Saturday and Bull Island at their very peek?

Likewise, Newstalk mightn't want to rock the boat too much now with their National licence just starting up.

I'm not bringing this into the relms of conspiracy theory, but Ireland is indeed a very small place, Dublin even smaller. There's a particular class of elite in this country who went to the same colleges, live in the same areas of Killiney and Dalkey, are members of the same golf clubs and socialise in the same trendy eateries.

Most of this ruling class are in politics and business, but a lot are in also broadcasting, mainly RTE and the broadsheet press.

constitutionus

hey its not a conspiracy theory when its true. someone posted in the "haughey dead" thread asking "why didnt the media go after him when he was up to all this stuff" . simple, they'd be blacklisted and their newspaper/tv station would lose advertising and come under preasure to sack whom ever offended the politician. your right ,that is why dermott morgan had to go to chanel four to do father ted. i think i mentioned elsewhere that the only journalist to go after haughey in the 80s ended up fleeing the country. and you only have to look at the other journalist to rock the establishment , frank connolly. regardless of what you think of him his work formed the basis of the morris tribunal and forced all the leaders of the mainstream partied into those selfsame entities. and look what happened to him, vengence is indeed best served cold.

i just think its interesting to note that even with all the saturation "good fella" coverage theres a hell of a lot of people from all demographics not buying it and the media are losing control of their agenda. its a hell of a long way from when people used to believe everything that was wrote in the papers:D and personally i think thats a good thing. theres a lot of smug over educated types out there who thing they can con us with advertising and actually force opinion. theres hope for this little democracy yet:)

DublinWriter

constitutionus wrote:

theres hope for this little democracy yet:)

I completely lost all respect for Vincent Brown this week.

For someone who has built a reputation and career on sniping at the establishment, just read his current 10-page sycophantic eulogy to CJH in his magazine 'The Village'.

It seems that auld Vincent succumbed to the warm, loving embrace of CJH after his retirement and spent many a happy hour down in Abbeville with 'The Boss'.

Considering the lefty-readership the foundling Village has been gathering, I think auld Vincent can kiss-goodbye to a shed-load of readership right about.....now.

constitutionus

really is times like this you get to see the calibre of our media. to my knowledge only 3 people have come out and stuck by their assertation that haughey was a crook. joe higgins, fintan o toole and another politician who looks like michead D without the glasses. sorry i cant remember his name i missed the beginning of the interview, all i know is he fought in the same consituancy as haughy and were bitter rivals (this was on tv3 again, the political party i think,though i was looking at an interview of allison hannigan on the ireland am show where they showed the clip. he went so far to say he didnt deserve the state funeral but he'll get it no matter what. he gave pretty shot brutal answers)

Sad to here about the village, never really bought it but often flicked through it for stories you generally didnt get elsewhere, guess once you get big enough the euros start to look more attractive. look a newstalk, i used to love that station because they werent afraid to give unpopular coverage and if something dramatic happened they dropped the schedual to cover it (the death of liam lawlor was got by them a whole hour earlier than RTE, and they had the best coverage of the O CONNELL street riots hands down) but ever since they put the price of their text mesaging up to thirty cents a go theres been a definete change in the mood of the station. im pretty sure theyve lost all their minimum wage texters cause most of the comments now sound like they come from yummy mommie types and trinnity/ ucd heads. nothing wrong with being that, but not representative of normal society, if i want to listen to a middle class perception of reality i'll listen to RTE

DublinWriter

constitutionus wrote:

really is times like this you get to see the calibre of our media. to my knowledge only 3 people have come out and stuck by their assertation that haughey was a crook. joe higgins, fintan o toole and another politician who looks like michead D without the glasses

Although Joe H. is an auld crazy leftie, the guy has more integrity that the whole of the rest of the Dail put together, and even as capitalist and a small businessman, I always vote for him.

Or to be more specific, I always vote for his local representitive who I went to school with and like me, runs his own small business.

projectmayhem

ignoring the haughy stuff, most news IS out of touch. newstalk and it's ilk (which in ireland, isn't a lot of news services) keep in "touch" as it were by public additions to their coverage via text or phone call... and that, imo, is the only way to keep in touch.

you can't be "with it" (yo, etc.) behind a PC in the newsroom reading reuters

Dyr

As someone pointed out, this is a small country and the media run in the same elite social circles as the politicians, so dont expect them to be in touch with anyone but the people who provide their meal ticket. Example: I just heard Sean Duignan on the radio there on about charlie, this is the same guy who left RTE to work as Albert Reynolds press secretary and then when that gig fell through settled snuggly back into his role in RTE and not an eyebrow was raised. You think the Beeb would have that?


The media in this country have always believed that they know best and joe soap will follow their lead. Its great to see how indignant they become when that doesnt happen eg referendums etc

DublinWriter

Bambi wrote:

I just heard Sean Duignan on the radio there on about charlie, this is the same guy who left RTE to work as Albert Reynolds press secretary and then when that gig fell through settled snuggly back into his role in RTE and not an eyebrow was raised. You think the Beeb would have that?

Not to mention Bryan Dobson setting up his own PR company training politicians on how to respond to the media, and still keeping his job as one of RTE's major political interviewers?

Oh, the Bananna Republic is still alive, me boys.

constitutionus

was just thinking as well how all the security correspondants disappeared off the edge of the planet when all the stuff about gardai corruption came to the fore. up to and including a superintendant admiting perdjury in a tribunal to do with the macbriorty affair. yet stunning silence from the paul williams crowd.

surely this couldnt have anything to do with where these journalists get their leaks from could it ? and keeping them sweet prehaps? after all, no leaks, no job!