Irish media bias?

Ponster

Over the course of the US elections this year you can't help but hear about of the media bias. FoxNews and Drudge leaning right and almost everyone else claimed to be leaning left.

Is it the same way in Ireland? Are there some newspapers which tend to have a more favourable slant towards FF or others towards FG ? Are some papers decidedly left or right ?

Does RTE have the apparent impartiality of BBC (besides their views on the Iraq war) ?

irish_bob

Ponster wrote: »

Over the course of the US elections this year you can't help but hear about of the media bias. FoxNews and Drudge leaning right and almost everyone else claimed to be leaning left.

Is it the same way in Ireland? Are there some newspapers which tend to have a more favourable slant towards FF or others towards FG ? Are some papers decidedly left or right ?

Does RTE have the apparent impartiality of BBC (besides their views on the Iraq war) ?

rte doesnt influence one single voter in the usa , fox news was set up to influence voters to vote republican , thier is a big difference

djpbarry

Ponster wrote: »

Over the course of the US elections this year you can't help but hear about of the media bias. FoxNews and Drudge leaning right and almost everyone else claimed to be leaning left.

Is it the same way in Ireland? Are there some newspapers which tend to have a more favourable slant towards FF or others towards FG ? Are some papers decidedly left or right ?

Does RTE have the apparent impartiality of BBC (besides their views on the Iraq war) ?

I think RTE is reasonably impartial and a pretty reputable organisation. I would consider most of their news pretty trustworthy.

The only Irish papers I have read over the last few years are the Indo and the Times. I still read the Times, but the Indo is a rag that has unquestionably become more and more right-wing, with more of their stories being syndicated from the likes of the notoriously Euro-skeptic Daily Telegraph.

Breezer

My perception is that RTE and most non-tabloid papers are fairly balanced overall. Certain writers tend to be more partisan: John Waters in the Times is very pro-FF and anti-FG, and Kevin Myers in the Indo is very anti-SF, for example. A platform is also given to the politicians themselves to air their views: letters to the editor from TDs on both sides regularly appear, Garrett Fitzgerald frequently writes opinion pieces in the Times, and Brian Cowen had one the other week too.

Overall the media seems to be very slightly pro-Opposition, but I'm too young to remember if it was also more pro-Opposition when the current Opposition was in power. My suspicion is that it was, and the slight bias is simply because it makes more sense to debate the decisions being taken by those in power rather than by those without power.

Mr.Micro

What about the Sunday Indo and when it frequently allowed Bertie Ahern to use its pages to vent his opinions and his spin, and rebuttal of allegations unopposed or challenged? Now that was bias in the media. Think of all the older generation who believe every word that the Sunday Indo printed.

RTE was well anti Government IMO for a long time but in recent years it appeared to fall under Berties charisma. The love- in interview with Brian Dobson when Bertie produced the odd tear. No hard nosed journo would have bought that, but Dobbo did. The debate between Ahern and Kenny before the last election, the fragrant Miriam O Callaghan was definitely moe sympathetic to Bertie.

Erin Go Brath

The (S)indo in particular is extremely anti-republican. Kevin Myers, and Eoghan Harris, and Brendan O'Connor et al are continuously writing anti-SF bile. The Sindos 'political party polls' and i use the term loosely reflect this attitude. They continuously put support for Sinn Féin at about 2%, where as other more reputable polls such as the Sunday Business Post/RED C poll put support for the party in or about 10%. Coincidence or otherwise. :rolleyes: The Sindos polls are constantly way outside the accepted margin of error and cannot be taken seriously, nor can this excuse of a rag.
A paper ideally should be unbiased and tell the story as factual as possible. Papers such as the indo annoy me with their constant opinion pieces (whatever opinion sir anto wants propogated) and trying to ram said opinions down the publics throats.

Erin Go Brath

Mr.Micro wrote: »

What about the Sunday Indo and when it frequently allowed Bertie Ahern to use its pages to vent his opinions and his spin, and rebuttal of allegations unopposed or challenged? Now that was bias in the media. Think of all the older generation who believe every word that the Sunday Indo printed.

RTE was well anti Government IMO for a long time but in recent years it appeared to fall under Berties charisma. The love- in interview with Brian Dobson when Bertie produced the odd tear. No hard nosed journo would have bought that, but Dobbo did. The debate between Ahern and Kenny before the last election, the fragrant Miriam O Callaghan was definitely moe sympathetic to Bertie.

Absolutely, Bertie was certainly flavour of the month with Sir Anthony. He seems less keen on the Biffo though.

gurramok

Mr.Micro wrote: »

What about the Sunday Indo and when it frequently allowed Bertie Ahern to use its pages to vent his opinions and his spin, and rebuttal of allegations unopposed or challenged? Now that was bias in the media. Think of all the older generation who believe every word that the Sunday Indo printed.

RTE was well anti Government IMO for a long time but in recent years it appeared to fall under Berties charisma. The love- in interview with Brian Dobson when Bertie produced the odd tear. No hard nosed journo would have bought that, but Dobbo did. The debate between Ahern and Kenny before the last election, the fragrant Miriam O Callaghan was definitely moe sympathetic to Bertie.

Just watch Miriam involved in debates especially on Prime Time. She has a tendency to speak over and interrupt a speaker from whatever walk of life who is critical of FF, especially when said speaker goes in for the kill.

After all, her bro is a senior FF man.

jmayo

djpbarry wrote: »

I think RTE is reasonably impartial and a pretty reputable organisation. I would consider most of their news pretty trustworthy.

The only Irish papers I have read over the last few years are the Indo and the Times. I still read the Times, but the Indo is a rag that has unquestionably become more and more right-wing, with more of their stories being syndicated from the likes of the notoriously Euro-skeptic Daily Telegraph.

Well you can't ever accuse the Sindo of being right leaning, sure didn't they lick the ar** off one of the only two socialists in the last Dáil
Any newspaper that can continue to put forth that gobsh*** harris could not be seriously considered a newspaper, it ranks down there with the rest of the gutter press that does the bidding of it's rich power brokering owners.

gurramok wrote: »

Just watch Miriam involved in debates especially on Prime Time. She has a tendency to speak over and interrupt a speaker from whatever walk of life who is critical of FF, especially when said speaker goes in for the kill.

After all, her bro is a senior FF man.

She ain't no Brian Farrell or Olivia O'Leary, nevermind a Paxman.
She is lightweight in comparison and it shows the dirth of talent within RTE when she is lauded as the great serious political interviewer.
As ever with RTE it is all about connections :rolleyes:
One thing I will say she does look good when comapred to the controllers on the US presidential/vice presidential debates :eek:

dresden8

Don't forget the late late show just before the last election. Three talking heads going on about what a great bloke Bertie was. The only one who sometimes took a contrary view was Dunphy, one of the most hated men in the country.

Fair and impartial journalism me *rse.

Mr.Micro

gurramok wrote: »

Just watch Miriam involved in debates especially on Prime Time. She has a tendency to speak over and interrupt a speaker from whatever walk of life who is critical of FF, especially when said speaker goes in for the kill.

After all, her bro is a senior FF man.

Yes I noticed that and it was Mrs. Micro who informed me that her bro was senior FF. It is rare that people in the high profile jobs go against the establishment especially if they have done well during the tenure. Why rock the boat. Its a pity there is no Paxman here who does not care who he offends, and is fair or offensive equally to all, if he is after an answer. As JMAYO said RTE is all about connections, cosy connections, certainly not tansparent enough for my money or liking.

nesf

Mr.Micro wrote: »

RTE was well anti Government IMO for a long time but in recent years it appeared to fall under Berties charisma.

Would you agree that it being anti-Government was a bad thing though? Our public broadcaster really should be striving to be as neutral as it can be in its coverage of politics simply because it is such a major news source for so many of the voting public.

nesf

jmayo wrote: »

She is lightweight in comparison and it shows the dirth of talent within RTE when she is lauded as the great serious political interviewer.

Prime Time is considered a serious political show now?

Q&A and The week in Politics would be the pretty neutral and well handled serious political shows (imho) but then, they wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea for that reason.

dave-higgz

Hey I just wondered if anyone watches Nightly News with Vincent Browne?

He's very anti-FF, PD's, this government.

He belives that the "D4 PD's" are responsible for the rich property developers and the bad distribution of wealth.

Also if anyone saw it lastnight he was very critical of the Greens lack of impact in government and their failure to speak out against the education cuts.

Slightly bias however I sort agree with him most of the time :pac:

jmayo

nesf wrote: »

Prime Time is considered a serious political show now?

Q&A and The week in Politics would be the pretty neutral and well handled serious political shows (imho) but then, they wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea for that reason.

I have a problemwith Q & A in that the audience seems to be sometimes stacked with the party lackies. I know Bowman does sometimes flag this but on occassions he doesn't bother.

Mr.Micro

nesf wrote: »

Would you agree that it being anti-Government was a bad thing though? Our public broadcaster really should be striving to be as neutral as it can be in its coverage of politics simply because it is such a major news source for so many of the voting public.

Yes of course, neutral is the right and correct way for a broadcaster to be. Alas,that is not the case with RTE. Primetime on occasion gets to issues that need to be exposed but generally I feel it is lightweight and merely a vehicle for O'Callaghan and Little, both conserative nice people I am sure. As for Q&A its just all hot air that gets nowhere in the end avhicle for Bowman who is a law onto himself. No all to cosy and predictable for me.

Liam Byrne

Mr.Micro wrote: »

What about the Sunday Indo and when it frequently allowed Bertie Ahern to use its pages to vent his opinions and his spin, and rebuttal of allegations unopposed or challenged? Now that was bias in the media. Think of all the older generation who believe every word that the Sunday Indo printed.

It's an AWFUL long time since the Sindo was a reputable newspaper; and if you pull them up on it with a letter then it doesn't get printed and you don't get a reply.

As a result it hasn't darkened my door in YEARS, and it's a pain coz when I was growing up Sunday used to be the day we got 3 papers and now there's none worth getting....

While the daily equivalent never appeared to be as bad, it's rubbed off on me that they're sister papers and now I couldn't be bothered buying that; what's the point if you can't be sure whether to believe what they print ? So it's the Irish Examiner for me most days.

But the day with the most time to relax and read a paper = no worthwhile paper. :P

pigeonbutler

gurramok wrote: »

After all, her bro is a senior FF man.

I wouldn't go so far as to call him senior. He's a failed general election candidate and i think he's now a city councillor

irish_bob

dave-higgz wrote: »

Hey I just wondered if anyone watches Nightly News with Vincent Browne?

He's very anti-FF, PD's, this government.

He belives that the "D4 PD's" are responsible for the rich property developers and the bad distribution of wealth.

Also if anyone saw it lastnight he was very critical of the Greens lack of impact in government and their failure to speak out against the education cuts.

Slightly bias however I sort agree with him most of the time :pac:

vincent browne is a champagne socilist who represents a demoraphic that numbers about 10 , mostly academic types who never lived a day in the real economy

Crash

Wasn't there some background dealing between FF and independent newspapers pre election? or is my memory playing tricks on me?

dresden8

Going Forward wrote: »

Wasn't there some background dealing between FF and independent newspapers pre election? or is my memory playing tricks on me?

http://www.village.ie/Media/People/Irish_public_life:_coarsened_and_dishonoured/

Then there was the secret meeting at the outset of the recent election campaign between Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen and Tony O’Reilly. Brian Cowen has refused to say what was discussed but coinciding with that meeting there was a remarkable shift in the nature of the coverage given to Bertie Ahern by the Sunday Independent (see story later in this issue of Village). From being questioning about Bertie Ahern’s financial arrangements at the time he was Minister for Finance in 1994, the paper closed down its skepticism and wholeheartedly backed the Taoiseach, scorning others who continued to question.


Again this too could be just a coincidence but isn’t that demanding a lot of our credibility?

Good old Vincent, you can always rely on him.

Vincent, of course who was sacked shortly after making a show of Bertie at a news conference. (Fixes Grassy Knollington glasses)

ilkhanid

Funny how everybody here thinks that RTE and the papers are biased towards the Government when no less a mind than Sean Tracy accuses the media of being anti-government left-wingers.
As for the Sindo..."The (S)indo in particular is extremely anti-republican. Kevin Myers, and Eoghan Harris, and Brendan O'Connor et al are continuously writing anti-SF bile." Well there's that to be said for it.When Gerry was pulling the wool over everybody eyes, the Sindo was'nt fooled for a moment. Furthermore, it actually has some intelligent journalists..,I'd buy the paper for Gene Kerrigan alone.

Nodin

djpbarry wrote: »

The only Irish papers I have read over the last few years are the Indo and the Times. I still read the Times, but the Indo is a rag that has unquestionably become more and more right-wing, with more of their stories being syndicated from the likes of the notoriously Euro-skeptic Daily Telegraph.

Aye. The Sunday Indo in particular became a particularily noxious rag.

ilkhanid wrote:

Kevin Myers, and Eoghan Harris, and Brendan O'Connor .

Yep, noxious rag.

Nodin

And does anyone know why the Indo turned off all comments on its website a few months back?

Biggins

Nodin wrote: »

And does anyone know why the Indo turned off all comments on its website a few months back?

I asked that in an email to them, they have not bothered to reply.
I suspect that there was too many anti-Lisbon posters and pressure was brought to bear.

He who controls the media, controls the masses!

Free speech in Ireland is dead.

Nodin

Biggins wrote: »

I asked that in an email to them, they have not bothered to reply.
I suspect that there was too many anti-Lisbon posters and pressure was brought to bear.

He who controls the media, controls the masses!

Free speech in Ireland is dead.

Personally, I think they just couldn't take the heat, on any subject. However I've no idea what excuse they did use, or what reasoning was, or was claimed to be, behind it.

irish_bob

the only problem i have with the sindo is thier property whore john o keefe ,
o keefe will pimp any kind of dive for any developer or agency no matter how dodgy , thier is one particular developer in this country right now who are up to thier necks in shady dealings , i know for a fact that o keefe will not discuss it , nor will he discontinue promoting this particular companys projects

djpbarry

Biggins wrote: »

I asked that in an email to them, they have not bothered to reply.
I suspect that there was too many anti-Lisbon posters and pressure was brought to bear.

The Indo complaining about ANTI-Lisbon comments?!? Have you ever read the damn thing?

Biggins

djpbarry wrote: »

The Indo complaining about ANTI-Lisbon comments?!? Have you ever read the damn thing?

I have. I guess they took off the ability to post comments then for legal reasons additionally if someone high up voiced a concern.
We will never really know till answers are given by themselves at the paper.

Donnaghm

VB is just a lefty. He hates FF, FG and the PDs in equal measure so he's not just anti-governemt. Read the village and you'll know what I mean. Also, I think he is bitter at FG for not running him as a candidate in the 80s when the party experimented with social democracy.

The Sindo is sinister piece of garbage. Nuff said.
The Daily mail appears to be anti Sindo and anti government.

Nodin

VB is an intelligent, occassionally witty, narky oul git, tbh. Read something on him once where he was described as 'having the editorial manner of JR Ewing, with the Business sense of Cliff Barnes', or words to that effect.

Acacia

The tabloids and the Irish Independent seem to have a very right-wing bias (particularly Kevin Myers and Ian o' Doherty's columns).

RTE seems fairly non-biased from what I see.

lostexpectation

there's right wing bias and then there's establishment bias, ie rte and irish times

AIR-AUSSIE

djpbarry wrote: »

I think RTE is reasonably impartial and a pretty reputable organisation. I would consider most of their news pretty trustworthy.

You're joking right?

djpbarry

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

You're joking right?

No. Why?