Why does RTE have such a pro-SF bias?

Fred Cryton

Watching the six news yesterday, Ingrid Miley (a.k.a the Trade Union spokeswoman) had a piece about the €6bn government deficit we now find ourselves in.


In the first 60 seconds, we see the face of that economic illiterate Pearse Doherty, sprouting the usual lefty populist nonsense. Only at the very end of the piece does Ingrid care to summarize what Paschal Donohoe, the actual Minister who knows what he's talking about, has to say. And we don't see him speak, it's just Ingird's brief summary of what he said, even though he had a news conference.



Am i the only one who notices how blatantly obvious the bias is? This happens every time....SF, PBP views are first, right at the top of the news. Often no view aired from anyone at FG or FF.



It's also noticeable when they say "Opposition parties voiced their frustration with X"...and they cut to SF first, then FF second. Every darn time.

osarusan

I think people see whatever biases they want to see on RTE.

Fred Cryton

osarusan wrote: »

I think people see whatever biases they want to see on RTE.

Well point me to concrete evidence of bias in the other direction then.

osarusan

osarusan wrote: »

I think people see whatever biases they want to see on RTE.

Absolutely.

Same with the Irish Times, you often hear it called the right wing rag and the left wing rag in the same conversation.

BloodyBill

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Watching the six news yesterday, Ingrid Miley (a.k.a the Trade Union spokeswoman) had a piece about the €6bn government deficit we now find ourselves in.


In the first 60 seconds, we see the face of that economic illiterate Pearse Doherty, sprouting the usual lefty populist nonsense. Only at the very end of the piece does Ingrid care to summarize what Paschal Donohoe, the actual Minister who knows what he's talking about, has to say. And we don't see him speak, it's just Ingird's brief summary of what he said, even though he had a news conference.



Am i the only one who notices how blatantly obvious the bias is? This happens every time....SF, PBP views are first, right at the top of the news. Often no view aired from anyone at FG or FF.



It's also noticeable when they say "Opposition parties voiced their frustration with X"...and they cut to SF first, then FF second. Every darn time.

RTE is the quintessential home of the Guardian/Irish Times liberal elite. So any crackpot will get airtime once they are a leftie. It's common knowledge. Theres a big problem in journalism in the west with most of them being left wing. About 80% according to one American study...so I'd say about 95% here. So the Boycott Israel, Pro Palestinian, Anti Boris,Anti Trump ...pro Greta..pro LGBT people have a friend in RTE. If your not one of these people, forget it.

Richard Hillman

I wouldnt say they have a Pro Sinn Fein bias. They are pretty much anti-Sinn Fein but would agree with everything they say. Their social and economic ideology is the same as Sinn Fein, they just don't like the messenger.

BloodyBill

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Absolutely.

Same with the Irish Times, you often hear it called the right wing rag and the left wing rag in the same conversation.

No body calls the Irish Times right wing. Nobody ever.

James Brown

Of The Times, Indo, Newstalk etc. I'd say RTE are the fairest, but that isn't saying much.

Fr Tod Umptious

Certainly when it comes to NI Tommy Gorman often manages to editorialize with a bias towards SF.

Have not noticed it as much with regards to news stories in the republic though.

Fann Linn

Really biased alright.
So biased in fact that they wanted to exclude SF from a leaders debate only 4 months ago.

RandomViewer

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Watching the six news yesterday, Ingrid Miley (a.k.a the Trade Union spokeswoman) had a piece about the €6bn government deficit we now find ourselves in.


In the first 60 seconds, we see the face of that economic illiterate Pearse Doherty, sprouting the usual lefty populist nonsense. Only at the very end of the piece does Ingrid care to summarize what Paschal Donohoe, the actual Minister who knows what he's talking about, has to say. And we don't see him speak, it's just Ingird's brief summary of what he said, even though he had a news conference.



Am i the only one who notices how blatantly obvious the bias is? This happens every time....SF, PBP views are first, right at the top of the news. Often no view aired from anyone at FG or FF.



It's also noticeable when they say "Opposition parties voiced their frustration with X"...and they cut to SF first, then FF second. Every darn time.

Must be watching different RTE than everyone else, how's Noodles coming on Fiscal space?

RandomViewer

Poor Freddy is stuck in the wrong country, some redneck burg in Arkansas would be more suiting

Edgware

Well when you have FG FF and Greens about to hop in to bed theres no point pretending that they are in opposition. That just leaves SF and the gob****es in PBP etc available to give the oppisition view

RandomViewer

Bowie wrote: »

Of The Times, Indo, Newstalk etc. I'd say RTE are the fairest, but that isn't saying much.

Indo makes Fox news look impartial

RandomViewer

Edgware wrote: »

Well when you have FG FF and Greens about to hop in to bed theres no point pretending that they are in opposition. That just leaves SF and the gob****es in PBP etc available to give the oppisition view

On about a stop- gap government, pass legislation and then call election Sep/Oct

Mad_maxx

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I wouldnt say they have a Pro Sinn Fein bias. They are pretty much anti-Sinn Fein but would agree with everything they say. Their social and economic ideology is the same as Sinn Fein, they just don't like the messenger.

quite correct , RTE are not pro SF unless your,e eoghan harris but hes mad as a brush

seriously though , RTE did contribute to the enormous SF vote earlier this year , they spent the previous four years rabbiting on about homelessness and ignored the incredible economic recovery , nothing but doom and gloom , RTE traditionally always supported the labour party but since they are effectively dead , they have now placed their hopes on the soc dems and the greens and while both those middle class left wing parties had a good election , it was SF who were the obvious winners

SF are too rough around the edges for the champagne socialists in montrose but economically and socially the national broadcaster shares their outlook

Jinglejangle69

People have the idea that the media in this country is pro government.

Couldn't be further from the truth.

Every day the same shock homeless stories like Erica Fleming and Margaret Cash.

Prime time constantly doing programmes slating the government.

All the talk shows at night are just a bunch in a studio ganging up on the one government rep in the studio.

Its ridiculous how bias they actually are against the government.

Jinglejangle69

Mad_maxx wrote: »

quite correct , RTE are not pro SF unless your,e eoghan harris but hes mad as a brush

seriously though , RTE did contribute to the enormous SF vote earlier this year , they spent the previous four years rabbiting on about homelessness and ignored the incredible economic recovery , nothing but doom and gloom , RTE traditionally always supported the labour party but since they are effectively dead , they have now placed their hopes on the soc dems and the greens and while both those middle class left wing parties had a good election , it was SF who were the obvious winners

SF are too rough around the edges for the champagne socialists in montrose but economically and socially the national broadcaster shares their outlook

Spot on.

Shefwedfan

RTE are f**king useless. SF are the shiny new thing that RTE think if they shove onto everything people will watch. Every section now about the government on the news has to include a SF spokesperson. Unfortunately the more SF are put on the news the better it is for the other parties.

Look at the LLS show interview with that numptie Tubs, fawning all over Mary Lou and didnt even pick her up on the stupidity when asked about "Up da Ra" comment

Next week MM is on and Tubs trying to jump off his seat to be critical. Idiot.

BloodyBill

RandomViewer wrote: »

Poor Freddy is stuck in the wrong country, some redneck burg in Arkansas would be more suiting

See this post is part of the problem. 'Redneck burg' is ok apparantly because it's where poor whites live. So that's fair game.. Now substitute in 'Blackburg ' and it isnt ok. Both are bad...but you've got middle class irish lefties slagging poor white Americans. Or at least denigrating them..its a whole lot of wrong.

Fann Linn

Shefwedfan wrote: »

RTE are f**king useless. SF are the shiny new thing that RTE think if they shove onto everything people will watch. Every section now about the government on the news has to include a SF spokesperson. Unfortunately the more SF are put on the news the better it is for the other parties.

Look at the LLS show interview with that numptie Tubs, fawning all over Mary Lou and didnt even pick her up on the stupidity when asked about "Up da Ra" comment

Next week MM is on and Tubs trying to jump off his seat to be critical. Idiot.

Well they are the largest party on the island.

Shefwedfan

Fann Linn wrote: »

Well they are the largest party on the island.

Who is? Sinn fein

Before you answer, remind me how they done in local elections last years :-)

RandomViewer

BloodyBill wrote: »

See this post is part of the problem. 'Redneck burg' is ok apparantly because it's where poor whites live. So that's fair game.. Now substitute in 'Blackburg ' and it isnt ok. Both are bad...but you've got middle class irish lefties slagging poor white Americans. Or at least denigrating them..its a whole lot of wrong.

Don't do class and wouldn't be that left, Freddie on the other hand would be so far right I'd be guessing he's already calling himself Grand Dragon or Wizard and has the bedsheets destroyed.

rodDaly69

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Who is? Sinn fein

Before you answer, remind me how they done in local elections last years :-)

Well let's just say our first count TD was a shinner, who 9 months previously wasn't deemed good enough to fix a f*cking pothole.

Mostly piss poor candidates voted for by the ignorant, angry, and everyone between.

Hamsterchops

Leaving RTE aside, I ask myself why there are so many Sinn Fein threads on Boards.ie?

So many "anti" SF threads, and many more Pro SF threads amounts to a whole lot of Sinn Fein threads of all types :cool:

I've counted approx twenty five Sinn Fein related threads, just within the last twenty pages of this forum alone!

It's like there's a Sinn Fein thread started on a regular basis by design, just to keep the spotlight on their profile?

Massive Sinn Fein surge on here in After Hours, Current Affairs, Politics Cafe, and why was this particular SF thread really started, except to maintain talk about SF and to keep the buggers high profile.

You watch, they'll be another Sinn Fein thread started tomorrow or the next day, for whatever reason.

BloodyBill

BloodyBill wrote: »

No body calls the Irish Times right wing. Nobody ever.

The Irish Times' editor between 2002 and 2011 was a former Progressive Democrats TD very much in tune the era's leading right-wing voices of Des O'Malley, Michael McDowell and Mary Harney and was a key figure in the culture of the Celtic Tiger.

The chairman of The Irish Times called his own editor a "white N**ger" for portraying the 1969 civil rights marches in Derry as being an understandable reaction to the ole RUC beatings, not having an equal vote on the local council, a rural town being given a university instead of the second-largest city, and one's neighbours being given council houses for being Protestant.

Before then, when the paper began to rface up to the reality of an independent Ireland with a constitution and a president instead of a king or queen, The Irish Times had been the mouthpiece of the Anglo-Irish Protestant establishment and the official journal of the British Empire as it was experienced in Ireland.

I'd personally hazard a guess that at least one person, at some stage in the paper's 161-year history, has called The Irish Times right-wing. And that's worth thinking about before you post any more of this stuff.

Jinglejangle69

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Leaving RTE aside, I ask myself why there are so many Sinn Fein threads on Boards.ie?

So many "anti" SF threads, and many more Pro SF threads amounts to a whole lot of Sinn Fein threads of all types :cool:

I've counted approx twenty five Sinn Fein related threads, just within the last twenty pages of this forum alone!

It's like there's a Sinn Fein thread started on a regular basis by design, just to keep the spotlight on their profile?

Massive Sinn Fein surge on here in After Hours, Current Affairs, Politics Cafe, and why was this particular SF thread really started, except to maintain talk about SF and to keep the buggers high profile.

You watch, they'll be another Sinn Fein thread started tomorrow or the next day, for whatever reason.

Pretty obvious to anyone with an ounce of cop on.

Shefwedfan

rodDaly69 wrote: »

Well let's just say our first count TD was a shinner, who 9 months previously wasn't deemed good enough to fix a f*cking pothole.

Mostly piss poor candidates voted for by the ignorant, angry, and everyone between.

Same in my area, a useless person has been voted in just because a revolt vote. Has done nothing in the area prior to the election and hasn't been seen since.


We now have to deal with this cr*p for 5 years. Sinn Fein apart from 1-2 of them are terrible politicians. Something RTE are trying to hide from what I can see so far


A FF/FG/Green or any other party go off on a rant against people on facebook and they would be all over the news Twice so far the lovely Violet Anne has done this and not a word on RTE, nothing on website either even if not reporting on the TV....seems double standard.

Shefwedfan

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Leaving RTE aside, I ask myself why there are so many Sinn Fein threads on Boards.ie?

So many "anti" SF threads, and many more Pro SF threads amounts to a whole lot of Sinn Fein threads of all types :cool:

I've counted approx twenty five Sinn Fein related threads, just within the last twenty pages of this forum alone!

It's like there's a Sinn Fein thread started on a regular basis by design, just to keep the spotlight on their profile?

Massive Sinn Fein surge on here in After Hours, Current Affairs, Politics Cafe, and why was this particular SF thread really started, except to maintain talk about SF and to keep the buggers high profile.

You watch, they'll be another Sinn Fein thread started tomorrow or the next day, for whatever reason.

https://www.sinnfein.ie/sfos

Check the FF and FG facebook pages. THey release anything on them and the first 20 or more comments are from Sinn Fein supporters. Even if someone ask a question they will be attacked by this group. It's clear from this forum it is full of them. Some posters are on here 24 x 7 everyday of the week on all of the political threads discussing how s**t every other party is and how great SF is. About 5-10 of them, all on message. Seemingly all been feed the same propaganda.

No political party has supporters like that unless they are getting paid

is_that_so

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Leaving RTE aside, I ask myself why there are so many Sinn Fein threads on Boards.ie?

So many "anti" SF threads, and many more Pro SF threads amounts to a whole lot of Sinn Fein threads of all types :cool:

I've counted approx twenty five Sinn Fein related threads, just within the last twenty pages of this forum alone!

It's like there's a Sinn Fein thread started on a regular basis by design, just to keep the spotlight on their profile?

Massive Sinn Fein surge on here in After Hours, Current Affairs, Politics Cafe, and why was this particular SF thread really started, except to maintain talk about SF and to keep the buggers high profile.

You watch, they'll be another Sinn Fein thread started tomorrow or the next day, for whatever reason.

It's the profile of the users, demographics overall are at the lower end IIRC and you would expect more interest and support in such groups plus sites like Boards attract a good level of malcontents anyway, which fits into their anti-establishment stance. They are a strongly polarising entity so there is the magnetic attraction of such threads and those support SF will not let anything pass and those who dislike them will do likewise. You also tend to find current members active on sites like this.

As to the original question I think RTE go down the middle and largely leave the polemics to other media outlets.

High-end journalists like to see themselves as holding up a mirror to society

The Fourth Estate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate#:~:text=The%20term%20Fourth%20Estate%20or,wields%20significant%20indirect%20social%20influence.

Not defending RTE as such buy why should there only be one message, multiple voices should be heard.

Mad_maxx

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The Irish Times' editor between 2002 and 2011 was a former Progressive Democrats TD very much in tune the era's leading right-wing voices of Des O'Malley, Michael McDowell and Mary Harney and was a key figure in the culture of the Celtic Tiger.

The chairman of The Irish Times called his own editor a "white N**ger" for portraying the 1969 civil rights marches in Derry as being an understandable reaction to the ole RUC beatings, not having an equal vote on the local council, a rural town being given a university instead of the second-largest city, and one's neighbours being given council houses for being Protestant.

Before then, when the paper began to rface up to the reality of an independent Ireland with a constitution and a president instead of a king or queen, The Irish Times had been the mouthpiece of the Anglo-Irish Protestant establishment and the official journal of the British Empire as it was experienced in Ireland.

I'd personally hazard a guess that at least one person, at some stage in the paper's 161-year history, has called The Irish Times right-wing. And that's worth thinking about before you post any more of this stuff.

That was then, different publication altogether now

RandomViewer

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Certainly when it comes to NI Tommy Gorman often manages to editorialize with a bias towards SF.

Have not noticed it as much with regards to news stories in the republic though.

What? He won't even report on good news stories in the North, the other guy does all that, Gorman is smitten with the DUP and the English Queen, only reports on SF if it's in a bad light, some of his written news reports on the RT E website are bizarre

nigeldaniel

RTE has a few closet sinners in its ranks. That's my take on it.

tdf7187

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Watching the six news yesterday, Ingrid Miley (a.k.a the Trade Union spokeswoman) had a piece about the €6bn government deficit we now find ourselves in.


In the first 60 seconds, we see the face of that economic illiterate Pearse Doherty, sprouting the usual lefty populist nonsense. Only at the very end of the piece does Ingrid care to summarize what Paschal Donohoe, the actual Minister who knows what he's talking about, has to say. And we don't see him speak, it's just Ingird's brief summary of what he said, even though he had a news conference.



Am i the only one who notices how blatantly obvious the bias is? This happens every time....SF, PBP views are first, right at the top of the news. Often no view aired from anyone at FG or FF.



It's also noticeable when they say "Opposition parties voiced their frustration with X"...and they cut to SF first, then FF second. Every darn time.

Drivel.
SF are the largest party. RTE are historically very anti-SF but have been dragged kicking and screaming into giving them a fair hearing.

RandomViewer

tdf7187 wrote: »

Drivel.
SF are the largest party. RTE are historically very anti-SF but have been dragged kicking and screaming into giving them a fair hearing.

Freddie's a caricature ,sort of a cross between Alan B'stard and John Wayne Gacy.

James Brown

Is this the right wing Irish version of 'all the media is out to get us, except all the ones we own'?

Shefwedfan

tdf7187 wrote: »

Drivel.
SF are the largest party. RTE are historically very anti-SF but have been dragged kicking and screaming into giving them a fair hearing.

SF have zero power. In the North they have done nothing for years and the excuse is the DUP stop them. No power

In the south they ran under the “change” banner and have done nothing. All that is left is communities with a shower of useless politicians that can’t even tie their own shoe lace and are better at slagging off people on Facebook

No idea how anyone could call them largest party in Ireland.

Chinasea

Wasting their time anyway. Not many Sinn Feiners even look at RTE.

1 sheep2

I think they're obviously not biased towards SF, but they're keen to avoid being seen as pro-establishment so often seem to be quite lenient with them. And opposition parties will normally get an easier ride anyway.

olestoepoke

Shefwedfan wrote: »

SF have zero power. In the North they have done nothing for years and the excuse is the DUP stop them. No power

In the south they ran under the “change” banner and have done nothing. All that is left is communities with a shower of useless politicians that can’t even tie their own shoe lace and are better at slagging off people on Facebook

No idea how anyone could call them largest party in Ireland.

I'm guessing you are still traumatised by their recent success in the election.

Shefwedfan

olestoepoke wrote: »

I'm guessing you are still traumatised by their recent success in the election.

Not really....


The Greens are going into government with FF, sorted on both fronts

suicide_circus

RTE's bias mirrors the bias in the BBC - staffed mainly by wealthy city centric bourgeois left leaning progressives.

sameoldname

suicide_circus wrote: »

RTE's bias mirrors the bias in the BBC - staffed mainly by wealthy city centric bourgeois left leaning progressives.

So you want it staffed by poor, rural centric, proletarian, right leaning regressives?

suicide_circus

sameoldname wrote: »

So you want it staffed by poor, rural centric, proletarian, right leaning regressives?

no i'd just like a bit of objectivity. Tell me what's happening in the world but don't tell me what to think about it and don't have an agenda, that's not the function of a national broadcaster in receipt of a licence fee.

olestoepoke

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Not really....


The Greens are going into government with FF, sorted on both fronts

You forgot FG:D

Shefwedfan

olestoepoke wrote: »

You forgot FG:D

Not a fan of FG :p they are just in to make up the numbers

olestoepoke

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Not a fan of FG :p they are just in to make up the numbers

So Monty Burns for Taoiseach it is then. We should be ok, FF did such a great job the last time they were in power so what could go wrong eh.:D

Shefwedfan

olestoepoke wrote: »

So Monty Burns for Taoiseach it is then. We should be ok, FF did such a great job the last time they were in power so what could go wrong eh.:D

Celtic Tiger, yeah it wasn't too bad!!

olestoepoke

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Celtic Tiger, yeah it wasn't too bad!!

You must have missed the train wreck, were you one of the thousands that emigrated?

maccored

really, is this another SF thread started by someone who claims to not support them?

really?