Relaxation of Restrictions, Part IX Read OP For Mod Warnings

ArthurDayne · 01-03-2021 06:34PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Absolutely. It's very very sad that the horribly polarised nature of partisan politics has engulfed the media to the same extent, in which it's literally all-or-nothing with every issue.

There are plenty of media organisations that I have serious, serious issues with, but a scoop is still a scoop. The Guardian massively pissed me off in the early 2010s by fuelling the fledging culture war in its infancy, and along with Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post, elevating it from the kind of sh!te which was talked about on moronic corners of the internet into the mainstream of society. That doesn't mean I ignored the Edward Snowden scoop just because the documents were given to a Guardian journalist and published initially on their website. Hell, I've always despised Fox News for obvious reasons, but on election night in 2016 they were the only channel which wasn't in denial about the unexpected result for the entire night. It took the other big US news channels so long to admit that the tide had unexpectedly turned, and finally to call the election, that it was almost comical - and that's really, really not good for the idea of the public having an unbalanced viewpoint.

Similarly, at home, the Irish Times and Indo have repeatedly pissed me off in recent years with their barely-disguised political bias, but if one of them breaks a story about a new scandal, you can bet your ass I'm going to read it and engage with it as a political activist and voter.

It's very sad that the polarisation of the internet into left and right spaces (Facebook vs Parler, Twitter vs Gab, Reddit vs Voat etc) now extends fully into journalism itself, such that a story broken by a source commonly contributed to by one side of the left/right cultural divide will be dismissed out of hand by people on the other side of it.

It's a genuine shame. I long for the day when somebody creates a media platform which hosts opinion pieces from people all the way along the spectrum from far left to far right and everything in between, on the same platform, and sharing the same publication title. Something neither side could sidestep the content of a story published by, because they wouldn't be able to say "this site only published right/left wing crap (delete as appropriate) so I'm going to assume this story is a lie".

Discussion for another thread, for sure. This particular story needs to be seen far and wide as far as I'm concerned. Yes, it may be false or misleading as others have stated, but at least for me personally, it lines up so well with so many questions I've had about RTE's bizarre conduct since the middle of last summer that I'm inclined to lean towards believing it until anyone actively refutes it.

Out of interest — one of the few and perhaps the only case I have seen of Dr McConkey being rigorously challenged was by Dr Martin Feeley (link here: https://www.broadsheet.ie/2020/09/30/the-dam-breaks/).

Has he ever been invited back on or interviewed subsequently anywhere? I wondered when watching it whether they had sort of expected McConkey to make absolute mincemeat of him and ‘expose’ him as an eccentric — instead Feeley came across rather moderate and spoke with reason (whether one agrees with him or not).

I remember at the time thinking how refreshing it was to finally see proper debate rather than the usual procession of RTÉ parroting instead of scrutinising. It was, at the very least, a demonstration that there exists some range in viewpoints even among medical professionals — rather than the narrative that anything other than utter conformity to the government messaging is akin to being an eccentric extremist.

aidoh · 01-03-2021 06:45PM

Pointed out by another poster in another thread but perhaps worth reposting here for perspective around discussions of reopening...

Today the schools go back and RTÉ website leads with a completely pointless report of approx. 2,500 coronavirus cases have been detected in Jan / Feb.
I can only interpret this as fear porn for the sake of fear porn.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0301/1199998-covid19-ireland/

Our media are absolutely outrageous.

endacl · 01-03-2021 06:48PM

bluelamp wrote: »

A growing issue now is that the most vocal viewpoints are on the extremes of either side of the argument. I guess it makes for good TV etc.

ISAG / Tomas Ryan / McConkey etc give the impression that lockdown supporters are all unrealistic zero covid fanatics.

People who are in anyway disagreeing with the severity of restrictions are now lumped in with the troublemakers in town.

I'm pro vaccine, pro masks etc - but very much of the opinion that our current restrictions are way over the top and a level of personal risk must be accepted.

As always the majority fit somewhere in the middle - these extremes on both sides undermine us all.

I would tend to agree in the main, but I keep having to remind myself that the risk isn't personal. I wouldn't be only assuming a measure of risk to my own health. If I did pick up an infection I'd likely pass it on to the two people I live with. I don't have the right to accept risk on their behalf.

hatrickpatrick · 01-03-2021 06:57PM

aidoh wrote: »

Pointed out by another poster in another thread but perhaps worth reposting here for perspective around discussions of reopening...

Today the schools go back and RTÉ website leads with a completely pointless report of approx. 2,500 coronavirus cases have been detected in Jan / Feb.
I can only interpret this as fear porn for the sake of fear porn.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0301/1199998-covid19-ireland/

Our media are absolutely outrageous.

Absolutely. And as stated in the other thread, nobody is suggesting they shouldn't report stories like this when they get them, but presentation is important and that's being lost on a lot of media orgs lately. It's similar to that ridiculous issue last week in which the Indo reported TDs getting a pay rise and ran with a photo of Mary Lou on the front page, when in fact the mention of her in the article was about her refusing to accept the rise.

I think we should be allowed to point out when the media tells the truth, but tells it in a misleading, sensationalist or manipulative manner based on timing or presentation, without being labelled far right "fake news" types as has happened here before. For RTE to run that particular story as the biggest item on the page earlier this morning on the day kids finally go back to school was, in my view, utterly trashy. There's no other way to describe it.

LuckyLloyd · 01-03-2021 06:58PM

Lundstram wrote: »

That’s the problem we don’t have an exit strategy.

“Sure we’ll see what happens” is the stock response from a government terrified of committing to dates.

We have by some distance the longest shut down of businesses in the world and also we have more types of businesses closed that any other country in the world.

Clean exit strategy my arse.

Well you and others claim to be independent thinkers and people who can analyse and interpret beyond the headlines.

We have a clear vaccine distribution strategy that will see 80% of Irish adults in receipt of their first dose by the end of June. You can listen to the head of the task force here:

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21915427

By that stage, I expect we’ll have been able to move down to lower levels in terms of internal restrictions with many of the service and hospitality sector business that are currently closed open, and the EU wide vaccination passport will allow those who have been vaccinated the ability to travel, etc. From there it’s a matter of time until we return to “normal”, based on how the world around us is getting on with their rollouts and whether variants have reduced vaccine efficacy to any significant degree.

If the government aren’t saying this it is only because many of the posters on this thread demonstrate a very short term and reactive mindset, and it is prudent to under promise and ultimately over deliver. In the meantime, little stunts like Saturday are the kind of things that only serve to allow community transmission numbers to range higher and ultimately leave us more dependent on the vaccine rollout in order to exit this mess.

I think you know most of this of course, but it’s always worth reminding us all that we truly are in the home stretch.

LuckyLloyd · 01-03-2021 07:02PM

endacl wrote: »

I would tend to agree in the main, but I keep having to remind myself that the risk isn't personal. I wouldn't be only assuming a measure of risk to my own health. If I did pick up an infection I'd likely pass it on to the two people I live with. I don't have the right to accept risk on their behalf.

Yea the usual tenants of personal responsibility and ‘do as you please so long as you aren’t hurting anyone else’ don’t apply to a pandemic, unfortunately.

normanoffside · 01-03-2021 07:08PM

Forget about easing restrictions in April, It'll be 'at least' May according to latest leaks.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1366435971349282819

JMNolan · 01-03-2021 07:11PM

normanoffside wrote: »

Forget about easing restrictions in April, It'll be 'at least' May according to latest leaks.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1366435971349282819

Time to relax the restrictions ourselves. Wonder if Leo is trying to stir up some anger towards the government, did I see FG go up in a recent poll?

Tork · 01-03-2021 07:23PM

JMNolan wrote: »

Time to relax the restrictions ourselves. Wonder if Leo is trying to stir up some anger towards the government, did I see FG go up in a recent poll?

That makes no sense. Both government parties are suffering because of the way they're handling Covid in this phrase of it. FF have been brutal but Leo is doing himself no favours either. Everyone wants this ****show to end but unfortunately the numbers are still high and the vaccine will take time to take effect. I agree that it's frustrating as fck.

Lundstram · 01-03-2021 07:34PM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I think you know most of this of course, but it’s always worth reminding us all that we truly are in the home stretch.

normanoffside wrote: »

Forget about easing restrictions in April, It'll be 'at least' May according to latest leaks.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1366435971349282819

Our second most powerful leader hasn't a clue when this ends yet you claim "we're truly on the home stretch".

Couldn't make it up.

Archeron · 01-03-2021 07:37PM

Over the course of today I've heard interviews with no less than four different disinformation analysts, or similar titles. I have also heard the word disinformation about eleven million times.

Until today, I didn't even know there were such studies.
Literal bolloxology

LuckyLloyd · 01-03-2021 07:40PM

Lundstram wrote: »

Our second most powerful leader hasn't a clue when this ends yet you claim "we're truly on the home stretch".

Couldn't make it up.

Yes, underpromise and overdeliver. Politics 101. Certainly the right approach when so many of the posts in this thread are so incredibly reactive and short sighted.

Lundstram · 01-03-2021 07:47PM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Yes, underpromise and overdeliver. Politics 101. Certainly the right approach when so many of the posts in this thread are so incredibly reactive and short sighted.

You are so naive it's actually funny.

Calling posters reactive and short sighted for wanting to leave the EU's longest and harshest lockdown is just down right funny.

In two weeks time, a year of this will be upon us.

Short sighted indeed.

01-03-2021 07:51PM

Lundstram wrote: »

You are so naive it's actually funny.

Calling posters reactive and short sighted for wanting to leave the EU's World's longest and harshest lockdown is just down right funny.

In two weeks time, a year of this will be upon us.

Short sighted indeed.

Fixed.

Klonker · 01-03-2021 07:53PM

aidoh wrote: »

Pointed out by another poster in another thread but perhaps worth reposting here for perspective around discussions of reopening...

Today the schools go back and RTÉ website leads with a completely pointless report of approx. 2,500 coronavirus cases have been detected in Jan / Feb.
I can only interpret this as fear porn for the sake of fear porn.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0301/1199998-covid19-ireland/

Our media are absolutely outrageous.

This was the top article on RTE News app most of today. They knew a lot of parents would be nervous about their children going back to school today. They knew exactly what they were doing and it was absolutely disgraceful behaviour.

Lundstram · 01-03-2021 07:58PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Fixed.

How poster's on here justify it is quite amusing.

"look at what happened at Christmas"

Why did we go mental in December?

Look at what happened in the Summer when Europe was out playing but the Irish knew better, severly restricting people because of 5-20 cases a day and 17 consecutive days without a death

Kildare was the most restricted place in Europe in 2020. Meat factories and DP centres caused that. Guess who paid for it with their livelihoods and freedoms? 225k people within the county.

We're on the home stretch though says your man so it grand.

2ndcoming · 01-03-2021 08:04PM

Bunch of whiney little gimps. Suck it up, buttercup.

paddyisreal · 01-03-2021 08:05PM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well you and others claim to be independent thinkers and people who can analyse and interpret beyond the headlines.

We have a clear vaccine distribution strategy that will see 80% of Irish adults in receipt of their first dose by the end of June. You can listen to the head of the task force here:

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21915427

By that stage, I expect we’ll have been able to move down to lower levels in terms of internal restrictions with many of the service and hospitality sector business that are currently closed open, and the EU wide vaccination passport will allow those who have been vaccinated the ability to travel, etc. From there it’s a matter of time until we return to “normal”, based on how the world around us is getting on with their rollouts and whether variants have reduced vaccine efficacy to any significant degree.

If the government aren’t saying this it is only because many of the posters on this thread demonstrate a very short term and reactive mindset, and it is prudent to under promise and ultimately over deliver. In the meantime, little stunts like Saturday are the kind of things that only serve to allow community transmission numbers to range higher and ultimately leave us more dependent on the vaccine rollout in order to exit this mess.

I think you know most of this of course, but it’s always worth reminding us all that we truly are in the home stretch.

This government and nphet are incapable of doing anything properly and have been a disaster during the last year so home stretch my arse. Everything they have done is done backwards and implemented with . masks , antigen testing , travel quarantine all a total disaster and people are expected to listen to more false promises concerning vaccines and trust nphet and this government ? - what will change in the next 2 months is the weather and the same as last year the numbers will fall naturally - nothing to do with the inept government/nphet and the vaccine rollout because they will mess that up as also. Guaranteed even when the vaccine are freely avaialble we will manage to mess it up. They cannot be trusted to run anything correctly and the last year has proven it.

PTH2009 · 01-03-2021 08:12PM

normanoffside wrote: »

Forget about easing restrictions in April, It'll be 'at least' May according to latest leaks.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1366435971349282819

FFS

Lundstram · 01-03-2021 08:14PM

2ndcoming wrote: »

Bunch of whiney little gimps. Suck it up, buttercup.

This is why we need the schools back ASAP.

01-03-2021 08:16PM

It's this biweekly NPHET conference that bugs me.

Why are the Irish doing it, when most other countries do not?

It's a biweekly diet of negativity and abject misery, an absolutely awful spectacle - coupled with questions engineered by 12-year olds who call themselves "journalists", such as folks from TheJournal.ie, God help us and save us.

Sooner these misery meetings are canceled, the better!

pjohnson · 01-03-2021 08:16PM

Lundstram wrote: »

This is why we need the schools back ASAP.

Surprised to see you.

Seems like your own exit strategy changed. Thats why people/governments need to be careful with making big statements they can't follow through with.

Gael23 · 01-03-2021 08:18PM

It’s my 30th birthday the last week of April and I’m having some sort of celebration with my family

Lundstram · 01-03-2021 08:19PM

Deleted User wrote: »

It's this biweekly NPHET conference that bugs me.

Why are the Irish doing it, when most other countries do not?

It's a biweekly diet of negativity and abject misery, an absolutely awful spectacle - coupled with questions engineered by 12-year olds who call themselves "journalists", such as folks from TheJournal.ie, God help us and save us.

Sooner these misery meetings are canceled, the better!

Seen some dopey journalist asking Glynn earlier what was the idea behind the 5km limit.

"because we felt last year's 2km limit was overly restrictive".

Unbelievable.

01-03-2021 08:19PM

Lundstram wrote: »

Seen some dopey journalist asking Glynn earlier what was the idea behind the 5km limit.

"because we felt last year's 2km limit was overly restrictive".

Unbelievable.

Shocking stuff, even by the low standards of NPHET.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000 · 01-03-2021 08:23PM

The sooner NPHET is disbanded the better.

FintanMcluskey · 01-03-2021 08:24PM

pjohnson wrote: »

Anywho its often raised here so thought I should drop this here.

https://www.activelink.ie/community-exchange/fundraisers/80321-aware-paddys-day-walk

It clashes with the date of the next riot which may stop some participating unfortunately.

How you avoid moderation is beyond me

Almost every post is inflammatory

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000 · 01-03-2021 08:25PM

Gael23 wrote: »

It’s my 30th birthday the last week of April and I’m having some sort of celebration with my family

Careful now, curtain twitchers are always watching. You know it's a death sentence for you and your friends if you have that gathering. Make sure you put on a garda costume or some islamic style clothes so you're ok.

retro:electro · 01-03-2021 08:26PM

Archeron wrote: »

Over the course of today I've heard interviews with no less than four different disinformation analysts, or similar titles. I have also heard the word disinformation about eleven million times.

Until today, I didn't even know there were such studies.
Literal bolloxology

RTE had one on and Caitriona Perry was interviewing him. It was actually quite ironic that he was imploring the public to seek out measured and factual news outlets and avoid those who want to induce panic or fear, considering the constant pumping of fear RTE have been doing recently as well as having McConkey and the likes on who openly admitted to wanting to spike worry and anxiety amongst the public

Silentcorner · 01-03-2021 08:28PM

Deleted User wrote: »

It's this biweekly NPHET conference that bugs me.

Why are the Irish doing it, when most other countries do not?

It's a biweekly diet of negativity and abject misery, an absolutely awful spectacle - coupled with questions engineered by 12-year olds who call themselves "journalists", such as folks from TheJournal.ie, God help us and save us.

Sooner these misery meetings are canceled, the better!

It is the fault of our elected leaders, they are not in control of this in any way shape or form...we shouldn't know who these people are yet they are house hold names. Our politicians can't seem to see what is happening, imagine if it was made public what this whole committee are earning a week!!!

Who all only have one gear, total lock down!!!

By the time this ends we will have the longest strictest lock down in the world...way to go Paddies!!!!

Relaxation of Restrictions, Part IX *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

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Relaxation of Restrictions, Part IX Read OP For Mod Warnings