RTÉ coverage of economic crisis.

endakenny

The murders of two men at a petrol station forecourt was pushed into the second half of the 9 o'clock news by coverage of the EU-IMF bailout. Does RTÉ regard money as more important than the sanctity of human life?

Minstrel27

I would consider the financial meltdown of this country as being more important than the murder of someone I never heard about. I imagine most would be the same. Which one affects more people?

Mike 1972

Not even sure if this is the right forum for this but Id go along with the previous poster and add that economic issues are going to lead to far more loss of life (albeit usually difficult to attribute individual cases directly) through health cutbacks, Stress, addiction, suicide and many other factors. By international standards the chances of being murdered in Ireland are quite low if one isint involved in any gangland activity but the more its reported on and hyped by the media the more people become immunised and resigned to it psychologically.

The quality of media reporting is low enough already without going down the emotive, kneejerk road of US style "If it bleeds it leads" coverage.

watty

A lot of crime and accident reporting is just invasive voyurism. Because it concentrates on the horror and not on the background issues such as Drug & Drink driving, Poor driving skills, agression, Garda Community involvment and "on the beat" to combat Anti-social behaviour and Drug Gangs, past creation of "Ghetto areas" by housing policies and Urban (lack of) Design.

BrianD

Would this not be more a "News & Media" issue? Sorry for the backseat modding!

Monty Burnz

endakenny wrote: »

The murders of two men at a petrol station forecourt was pushed into the second half of the 9 o'clock news by coverage of the EU-IMF bailout. Does RTÉ regard money as more important than the sanctity of human life?

How many human lives will be lost due to the financial crisis? How many people will die on trollies in hospitals? How many people will never get the treatment they need? How many more people will commit suicide (probably hundreds, sadly).

A helluva lot more than 2 lives will be lost I'm afraid.

endakenny

Monty Burnz wrote: »

How many human lives will be lost due to the financial crisis? How many people will die on trollies in hospitals? How many people will never get the treatment they need? How many more people will commit suicide (probably hundreds, sadly).

A helluva lot more than 2 lives will be lost I'm afraid.

Where's the evidence of this? The right to life is enshrined in the Constitution. Therefore, anyone who needs life-saving treatment cannot be turned away. Being unemployed is unfortunate but hardly on the same level as being the victim of a paedophile. I acknowledge that this may be diverging from the relevance of this forum. By the way, the two men murdered in the petrol station forecourt were innocent. They were the victims of mistaken identity.

Monty Burnz

endakenny wrote: »

Where's the evidence of this? The right to life is enshrined in the Constitution. Therefore, anyone who needs life-saving treatment cannot be turned away.

No they won't be turned away. But they will be told there is a 2 year waiting list. Or the early-detection programme that should have picked up their disease will have been cancelled. Or their operation will be cancelled due to lack of theatre staff, or ward space for recuperation. I know for a fact that there is something like an 8-year waiting list to see a dermatologist in Limerick right now.

BrianD

With no disrespect to those two innocent guys who were murdered, it's really a matter of what is more newsworthy at that point in time. That's the decision of the editor. The murders may have been covered earlier in the day and stories slip down the agenda as time passes. Unfortunately, that's life. If we were to take the sanctity of life approach the 9 O'Clock News would be a never ending litany of deaths, natural or unnatural, from around the world.

Fighting Irish

endakenny wrote: »

The murders of two men at a petrol station forecourt was pushed into the second half of the 9 o'clock news by coverage of the EU-IMF bailout. Does RTÉ regard money as more important than the sanctity of human life?

:rolleyes:

Mike 1972

Surely murders which take place in far flung lands are just as terrible as any which may be committed in Ireland. Should RTE be obliged to report on all of these too before being allowed to discuss the economy ? And surely RTE should remove all entertainment programming from their channels since such its pretty insensitive for them to be carrying such trivial frivolity when theres murders they need to be telling us about................:rolleyes: