What do you hate about Irish Media - Papers / TV / Radio

JustAThought

Most of the papers take the standard issue press releases & re-print without any editorial changes at all. A typical big media outlet will get about a thousand press releases emailed in a week . No effort required. Buy copies of the times, Indo, examiner, -most of the written articles will be word for word identical copy & pastes from the same press release.

TV & radio then take the papers & use them every day to form the content of their news/chatshows.

You get the same material across all medium & programmes .

There is almost no investment in day-to day investigative journalism or on independent selection & reportage of issues.

Most media is in the thrall of government & agency issued press releases that they regurgitate directly & without researching statistics or alternative perspectives as " news".

The government recently issued instructions to " chat show hosts & radio presenters" NOT to talk about or comment on " important issues" or there would be big fine and station licenses revoked.
This was done by a government committee, and instructions issued by the state broadcasting license body the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to ALL radio stations & TV stations.

The BAI also are the ines that control & issue the licenses to broadcast, and who give out millions of euro in grants to beoadcasters to develop programmes. ( TV License Money -much of which goes to tv productions for " independant programme makers -hundreds of thousands per programme for showing on RTE & TV3 & radio . Very few will risk these grants & the money that comes from them to their stations directly ( studio hire costs to " make/edit " the programme usually 20-30% of the grant)( " consultancy" fees to write the letter of support without which your application will it be considered) ( savings in overheads on not having to directly fund & make programme ) etc.

Everyone seems to have just glossed over this direct government ban on free speech -on pain of loosing their license/job/big salary/programme development funding.


And now they want to tax Internet usage & bring in curbs on online social media .

Unbelievable.

It's not just the poor slovenly " journalism" & RTE nepotism we should be cringing at ; it's the steady control and censorship of the media by the government that is most disturbing.

& this was only brought in, in March of 2013 - not 1913.

Deeply disturbing.

gramar

The árse licking that you see almost every single day in the independent about Brian o' Driscoll and his missus. Not a day goes by without some inane article about them.

colossus-x

JustAThought wrote: »

Most of the papers take the standard issue press releases & re-print without any editorial changes at all. A typical big media outlet will get about a thousand press releases emailed in a week . No effort required. Buy copies of the times, Indo, examiner, -most of the written articles will be word for word identical copy & pastes from the same press release.

TV & radio then take the papers & use them every day to form the content of their news/chatshows.

You get the same material across all medium & programmes .

There is almost no investment in day-to day investigative journalism or on independent selection & reportage of issues.

Most media is in the thrall of government & agency issued press releases that they regurgitate directly & without researching statistics or alternative perspectives as " news".

The government recently issued instructions to " chat show hosts & radio presenters" NOT to talk about or comment on " important issues" or there would be big fine and station licenses revoked.
This was done by a government committee, and instructions issued by the state broadcasting license body the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to ALL radio stations & TV stations.

The BAI also are the ines that control & issue the licenses to broadcast, and who give out millions of euro in grants to beoadcasters to develop programmes. ( TV License Money -much of which goes to tv productions for " independant programme makers -hundreds of thousands per programme for showing on RTE & TV3 & radio . Very few will risk these grants & the money that comes from them to their stations directly ( studio hire costs to " make/edit " the programme usually 20-30% of the grant)( " consultancy" fees to write the letter of support without which your application will it be considered) ( savings in overheads on not having to directly fund & make programme ) etc.

Everyone seems to have just glossed over this direct government ban on free speech -on pain of loosing their license/job/big salary/programme development funding.


And now they want to tax Internet usage & bring in curbs on online social media .

Unbelievable.

It's not just the poor slovenly " journalism" & RTE nepotism we should be cringing at ; it's the steady control and censorship of the media by the government that is most disturbing.

& this was only brought in, in March of 2013 - not 1913.

Deeply disturbing.

Thank you very much for your highly educational post. I've always wondered why the big tv news broadcasters would run the same "top" stories. Caused me all sorts of confusion for years

On your statement that government dictates to the media - is it really that bad ? Or were you exaggerating maybe ?

Just out of curiosity can I have your opinion on "investigative journalism".
The freedom of the press has become a huge issue. I wouldn't argue with the press having freedom - what I do worry about is anybody having freedom of the press i.e I'll just start a publication tomorrow spouting my religious views - for example.

KyussBishop

JustAThought wrote: »

The government recently issued instructions to " chat show hosts & radio presenters" NOT to talk about or comment on " important issues" or there would be big fine and station licenses revoked.
This was done by a government committee, and instructions issued by the state broadcasting license body the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to ALL radio stations & TV stations.

The BAI also are the ines that control & issue the licenses to broadcast, and who give out millions of euro in grants to beoadcasters to develop programmes. ( TV License Money -much of which goes to tv productions for " independant programme makers -hundreds of thousands per programme for showing on RTE & TV3 & radio . Very few will risk these grants & the money that comes from them to their stations directly ( studio hire costs to " make/edit " the programme usually 20-30% of the grant)( " consultancy" fees to write the letter of support without which your application will it be considered) ( savings in overheads on not having to directly fund & make programme ) etc.

Everyone seems to have just glossed over this direct government ban on free speech -on pain of loosing their license/job/big salary/programme development funding.

That's really disturbing alright; is there further info on that anywhere?

my friend

Radio producers inability to immediately drop callers on a poor quality connection

Drop them , we don't need the host to state the obvious, call them back without once again having the host state the obvious ( producer/researcher should take the line off air and explain to the caller what they are attempting )

When a quality line is established resume segment or conversation

It's amazing that in 2013 Irish radio still hasn't got up to speed with this issue.

PopePalpatine

iDave wrote: »

David Quinn

Don't forget his reactionary friends, the barely-better-than-Donal-Walsh-at-understanding-psychiatry Patricia Casey, the insidious Breda O'Brien and various other Catholic fundamentalist hacks.

Oh, and tabloids. The only good thing about Irish tabloids is you might see Georgia Salpa in lingerie every once in a while.

barneysplash

Doonesbury in the Irish Times. It just doesn't work this side
of the Atlantic. It thinks it's being clever and high-brow but comes across
as unfunny, overly complicated and annoyingly smug, just like a lot of the
Irish Times.

I bet they think they're being clever and cosmopolitan by printing it.
In addition to imagining their captivated readers chuckling at the cartoon
over a €6 coffee, I imagine they also wish it was still 2006, and there was
no such thing as smartphones or free wi-fi.

No wonder papers are in trouble if all they do is reprint stuff from overseas, oh wait
that's what they all do. Ah well, as Malcolm Tucker said In the Thick of it:

"I know that these are hard times for print journalists, yeah? I read that on the internet.
One day you're writing for the papers, and the next your sleeping under them."

Wacker The Attacker

Ryan Tubridy.

bus_driver

left wing views are completely over represented

darkdubh

Those pictures of the Journalists they use next to their articles in The Sindo.They've been using the same one of Eilis O Hanlon for the last 15 years or so the one where she's craning her neck forward towards the camera.

darkdubh

CaraMay wrote: »

Oh and everytime there is a murder or shooting in a neighbourhood, the residents interviewed always say 'we are so shocked, nothing like this ever happens around here' every single time.

And on the same subject those people who can't help smiling when they're being interviewed on camera.You know "It was awful,I heard shots and went outside and there was blood everywhere".All the while with a big"I'm on telly!" smirk.

barneysplash

darkdubh wrote: »

Those pictures of the Journalists they use next to their articles in The Sindo.They've been using the same one of Eilis O Hanlon for the last 15 years or so the one where she's craning her neck forward towards the camera.

If you think they're bad look at the new ones in the Irish Times.
They are posed like:

"We're here, ready for action"

"Who knows what I might say in my column"

hfallada

I find it kinda of ridiculous that you go onto the irish independent site and they have a huge amount of "celebrity news". I know give people want they want. But if we want to know about amanda bynes I would go onto TMZ.com

Omackeral

One Direction hunk Niall Horan doing something or other. Who cares. And 'hunk'? He looks like a pre pubescent Ellen DeGeneres..

BuilderPlumber

KyussBishop wrote: »

That's really disturbing alright; is there further info on that anywhere?

I take it this is Ireland missing the e, l and d you are talking about!!

If it is Ireland with the e, l and d, then the e, l and d don't really make a difference !!

BuilderPlumber

bus_driver wrote: »

left wing views are completely over represented

There is way too much opinion/propaganda and less fact often in papers. I don't differentiate between overtly left or right wing junk as it is all dangerous extremism if taken too far. Leftwingers will defend evil dictatorships such as Mohammed Jafari (the real leader by the way) of Iran and the messy Kim dynasty of North Korea and even terrorism at times whereas rightwingers could see absolutely nothing wrong with the Iraq war and Bush's aggressive policies. Both sides are the same here and no dictator, terrorist or warmonger of any description should be supported.

Besides this, we get other junk that criticises everything and cannot say anything positive about anything. Everyone has an opinion but some get paid for them. Newspapers should be objective, fact reporting things and not spouting right, left, church or party political propaganda of any kind.

BuilderPlumber

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

There is way too much opinion/propaganda and less fact often in papers. I don't differentiate between overtly left or right wing junk as it is all dangerous extremism if taken too far. Leftwingers will defend evil dictatorships such as Mohammed Jafari (the real leader by the way) of Iran and the messy Kim dynasty of North Korea and even terrorism at times whereas rightwingers could see absolutely nothing wrong with the Iraq war and Bush's aggressive policies. Both sides are the same here and no dictator, terrorist or warmonger of any description should be supported.

Besides this, we get other junk that criticises everything and cannot say anything positive about anything. Everyone has an opinion but some get paid for them. Newspapers should be objective, fact reporting things and not spouting right, left, church or party political propaganda of any kind.

Forgot to say: the Sunday indo is full of ex politicians like yer man Willie ODea spouting Fianna Fail agenda and John Bruton spouting Fine Gael agenda. Before, Bertie was featured and Eoghan Harris eulogising about Bertie when Harris was a senator. Fionnan Sheehan is also married to a Fianna Fail politician as well and tries to hide his leanings towards that party but fails!

bgrizzley

JustAThought wrote: »

The government recently issued instructions to " chat show hosts & radio presenters" NOT to talk about or comment on " important issues" or there would be big fine and station licenses revoked.
This was done by a government committee, and instructions issued by the state broadcasting license body the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to ALL radio stations & TV stations.

have you sauce for this? you have some of it in commas like it was in print or somebody told you.

Peter The Pedo

I hate the ads on the tv so annoyin havin to change them

Luxie

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Paul Williams.

All the stupid names they come up with for the gangsters.

Irish media in general is fairly annoying.

Buckets of Blood. (Well that's out of Ross O' Carroll Kelly.)

sligojoek

The Indo and Sindo and their obsession with Claire Byrne and her pregnancy.

RATM

JustAThought wrote: »

Most media is in the thrall of government & agency issued press releases that they regurgitate directly & without researching statistics or alternative perspectives as " news".

The government recently issued instructions to " chat show hosts & radio presenters" NOT to talk about or comment on " important issues" or there would be big fine and station licenses revoked.
This was done by a government committee, and instructions issued by the state broadcasting license body the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to ALL radio stations & TV stations.


Everyone seems to have just glossed over this direct government ban on free speech -on pain of loosing their license/job/big salary/programme development funding.


And now they want to tax Internet usage & bring in curbs on online social media .

Unbelievable.

It's not just the poor slovenly " journalism" & RTE nepotism we should be cringing at ; it's the steady control and censorship of the media by the government that is most disturbing.

& this was only brought in, in March of 2013 - not 1913.

Deeply disturbing.

Couldn't agree more with this. The media is by and large just a mouthpiece for the government in a way that communist Russia would have been proud. Denis O'Brien made €400 million when he sold Esat to O2, off the back of a mobile phone license gained via corrupt practices with Michael Lowry. Now that FG are back in government it is payback time and Denis is stepping up to the plate.

We have already seen Sam Smyth quit O'Briens media citing reasons about his questioning O'Brien's behaviour at the Moriarty tribunal. Then Eamon Dunphy quit saying that the reason being is that Denis has instigated a policy of "happy clappy radio" to help boost the economy. So reporters weren't allowed to report job losses but they were allowed to have an organsm over the creation of jobs. The same applies to RTE, unless 200+ people are being made redundant then it isn't news, but if 30+ people are being employed then it is news.

It gets worse than that though. Denis O'Brien has effectively muzzled and gagged the entire Irish media. With the exception of Vincent Browne and Sam Smyth every journalist in Ireland is scared ****less of O'Brien and they know he has a litigious nature and very deep pockets. To date O'Brien has sent solicitors letters to 70 Irish journalists threatening them legally over some issue or other. Seventy journalists, that is practically all of them. If you get a letter from someone as wealthy as O'Brien threatening you with legal action then you can be dam sure you'll go into self-preservation mode and stop writing articles about him. Thus he has managed to suppress dissent against his ownership of large parts of Irish media. The new younger journalists see this and they know that either they tow the O'Brien line or they get fired so they don't even attempt any investigative journalism into his business. At the moment O'Brien (through his company Siteserve) is bidding to secure the installation of 1.6m water meters. It is a multi-billion euro contract yet no-one is asking any questions in the media about his connections with Fine Gael and the tendering for the contract. Similarily O'Brien got a €400m debt write off from Anglo, the taxpayer bailed him out to the tune of half the price of the new Childrens Hospital yet not one single journalist in Ireland has the balls to write about this scandal. Now last week he has secured a €140m debt write off for Independent News and Media, it came from AIB so again it was taxpayers money to bail him out. Yet he doesn't even need bailing out because according to the Sunday Times Rich List he is a multi billionaire. Why is the Irish taxpayer subsidising his businesses and why are no journalists writing about it ?

I despair because from where I'm looking it seems like O'Brien has well and truly won the battle to control Irish media. RTE aside he has huge control in Irish print media and radio. And now that he has shut down any chance of dissent by threatening journalists legally the game is truly up for any chance of a fair and impartial Irish media.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/11/04/a-boy-named-sue/

markesmith

The Sindo is a joke, a glorified newsletter for an 'aspirational' D4 set.

Think this link needs to be shown again. It's just a crap newspaper, full stop.

whiteandlight

Is that real? Wtf! That's just disgraceful

Wanderer2010

Irish TV-Sinead Kennedy on Two Tube. YOU ARE TOO OLD TO STILL BE PRETENDING YOU ARE DOWN WITH THE KIDS AND A TEENYBOPPER. :mad:
Its cringe worthy watching her and those other 2 gimps on that show. Get a real serious acting/presenting role, love.

stretchdoe

markesmith wrote: »

The Sindo is a joke, a glorified newsletter for an 'aspirational' D4 set.

Think this link needs to be shown again. It's just a crap newspaper, full stop.

Fcukin' 'ell.
That sh*t's beyond parody.

Allyall

markesmith wrote: »

The Sindo is a joke, a glorified newsletter for an 'aspirational' D4 set.

Think this link needs to be shown again. It's just a crap newspaper, full stop.

Why don't they name the "Journalist" who wrote that tripe...
That is possibly the best example of everything that is wrong with the Media in General. It is so blatant, in-your-face.. :mad:

I feel like quoting parts, but where to start, and it's not worth it..

They name her full name, her mothers, the dress designers, but not his...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/chloes-burning-ambition-and-dedication-to-her-tragic-boyfriend-rory-26737425.html

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056285702

PopePalpatine

What I couldn't stand over the last 2 weeks was this constant veneration of Donal Walsh. The media - especially outlets owned by Denis O'Brien - treated him as if he was infallible. The dissenting voices couldn't be heard over the undue praise heaped upon his tirade which resorted to all of the lazy clichés about suicidal and/or depressed people.

Yes, it is tragic to see a 16-year-old lose a 4-year-long fight against cancer. Yes, we should do something to help those who suffering with depression and suicidal ideation. Telling them to pretty much "get over it" because someone else has a terminal illness is NOT how to do that.

a0ifee

the fact that every irish-made TV show is so cheap looking, with subpar at best acting.

mick kk

The Sunday Independents obsession with a former presenter of exposé.