How can this be second story on RTE News website???

AYM

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0722/lebanon1.html

So 30 people gathering now constitutes news, does it? Why wasn't my barbecue last weekend news? Laughable - the "what are we protesting about this weekend" crusties used to be ignored and subjects of derision. RTE's news focus is now so ar$eways that when a handful of them gather to create a stink (literally and figuratively) it's news. Unbelievable.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Well when 8 people gather for the G8 meetings, there seems to be somewhat intense media scrutiny.

The importance of the news is to do with the political and social context. There is currently a major political feud going on, and because this protest relates to the feud, it is publicized.

mike65

Is this the Lebannon story?

(me clicks link)

yep, sighs.

Aertel also gave it an undue prominance. No-one should be surprised, if there's a hard-luck/hand wringing tale to bring to the public RTE will do so with enthusiasm.

Mike.

Lump

Seriously WTF is two minutes silence gonna do? Change the world! I hate "Silences"

AYM

sean_keevey wrote:

Well when 8 people gather for the G8 meetings, there seems to be somewhat intense media scrutiny.

The importance of the news is to do with the political and social context. There is currently a major political feud going on, and because this protest relates to the feud, it is publicized.

The 8 people who gather for G8 meetings are the elected representatives of hundreds of millions of people.

The unemployable Socialist Worker rabble walking down the street with their cause of the week are not news: if RTE want to continuously obsess about the Middle East, then cover what's happening in the Middle East (esp at the moment when there's genuine issues and constant developments to cover) -

30 people gathering in silence? If they expected a big protest, fine. When it didn't materialise, drop the story, don't make it second item on the national news. Or if you are covering it, something like: "The major event planned to protest against the Israeli action in Lebanon fell flat today, when only a tiny number of people gathered, all of whom who were clearly unfamiliar with laundromats."

Robbo

Lump wrote:

Seriously WTF is two minutes silence gonna do? Change the world! I hate "Silences"

2 Minutes silence ranks just above an internet petition, down at the bottom of the league of "how to achieve something". Also threatened by relegation from said league are the long, withering letter to a provinincial freesheet newspaper and an article on Indymedia.

Sleipnir

Yeah, nobody should protest because it doesn't do any good. We should all just agree with government policies no matter what they mean, and just keep quiet.

So, what will you guys be doing to end the war in Lebanon?

Robbo

Sleipnir wrote:

Yeah, nobody should protest because it doesn't do any good. We should all just agree with government policies no matter what they mean, and just keep quiet.

So, what will you guys be doing to end the war in Lebanon?

By presenting strawmen in internet fora?

mike65

Sod all, as we know when to not to waste our energy.

As for the protest, it acheived its aim - not to "Stop Teh War!!!!!!!!!!" but to get RTE to spend two minutes on thier two minutes.

Mike.

Sleipnir

Yeah me too but I'm not going to complain if others feels so strongly about something that they actually get up off their arses to at least let their beliefs be known.

Sleipnir

Robbo wrote:

By presenting strawmen in internet fora?

I'll keep my eyes open for you on the six o'clock news!

Ray777

It's not lost on me that the idiots who feel the need to criticise those who are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, always use the same tired old trite phrases ("crusties", "Socialist Worker rabble", etc). I hate to generalise, but it often seems that those of a right-wing persuasion have absolutely nothing to add to any argument, other than childish, dismissive insults. A possible explanation is that those who support Israel's actions know that they're defending the indefensible.

AYM

Ray777 wrote:

It's not lost on me that the idiots who feel the need to criticise those who are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, always use the same tired old trite phrases ("crusties", "Socialist Worker rabble", etc). I hate to generalise, but it often seems that those of a right-wing persuasion have absolutely nothing to add to any argument, other than childish, dismissive insults. A possible explanation is that those who support Israel's actions know that they're defending the indefensible.

I have no problem with anyone standing up for what they believe in, left, right, pro-Hizbollah, pro-Lebanon, pro-Israel or whatever. My problem (as anyone who actually read this thread can see) is that RTE took a gathering of 30 rent-a-protesters and decided that this was worthy of second item in the news. NOT the actual, genuine developments in Israel/Lebanon, but a pitiful gathering of people in Dublin, who gather every weekend to protest about something.

My argument is that this is evidence of a very skewed news agenda in RTE. A genuine mass demonstration of thousands, even hundreds, one can understand. Can you imagine RTE covering a mixtore of 30 Irish right-wingers and Israeli citizens getting together to defend Israel's actions (which, for the record, I believe to be wildly disproportionate and indefensible)? They wouldn't cover it in a fit. Nor should they.

But RTE are in thrall to left-ish protest culture, and Middle East Arab victimhood. So they cover this joke of a gathering as SECOND ITEM IN THE NEWS. Anyone with the slightest ability to step outside their own beliefs for a second, and look at journalism and news values can see that this is a ridiculous item to cover. The issue at the centre of the 'protest' is irrelevant. If 30 Neo-Nazis gathered, they wouldn't be given airtime, they might make lesser commentary and be dismissed, rightly, as an extremist lunatic fringe.

"Standing up for what you believe in" does not confer an automatic worthiness on you - as the neo-Nazi example demonstrates. But for leftist protests, RTE don't seem to get this.

arbeitsscheuer

"Upwards of 30 people...?"

I bet it was 31, but "upwards of 30" makes it sound practically limitless.:rolleyes:

iguana

AYM wrote:

But RTE are in thrall to left-ish protest culture, and Middle East Arab victimhood. So they cover this joke of a gathering as SECOND ITEM IN THE NEWS.

Don't be so ridiculous, what they are doing is called: FINDING A LOCAL ANGLE TO AN INTERNATIONAL STORY. It is one of the main tenants of journalism.

Milktrolley

It's a local angle, but it doesn't warrant the prominence considering how much of a non-event the protest was. In classrooms across the country you'll regularly come across "upwards of 30 people" observing silence.

I reckon that once they went to the bother of sending a team over there, they didn't want to come back and have nothing, so they turned it into a story. Last year when Bus Éireann sent out a fake notice about a bus crash just to test their publicity department, a whole package was done about it with interviews and everything, despite this being the ultimate non-story. In that case, a simple LVO explaining the situation would have done to reassure viewers that heard what they believed to be an actual crash earlier in the day.

Similarly here, a mention to the protest at the end of the article would have sufficed, ahead of Diarmuid Martin's comments. Granted, there's more to the piece than the protest, but the writers seemingly considered it more important than the UN's efforts.