SKY News - Judge, Jury & Executioner ?

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Niallymac

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Like everyone in the country, I am deeply touched by the Maddie McCann case. But I have to take issue with Sky News tabloid journalism.

I appreciate that the level of coverage being afforded by Sky is viewed by many as a positive, as it keeps the case very much in the headlines, which as a parent myself, I would encourage. However, some of the sensationalism around "breaking news" really takes the biscuit. And then last night, they broke new ground.

News of the questioning of this Robert guy broke, and within half an hour, SKy were interviewing red top journo's and their own reporters, who gradually started to paint a picture of this guy who was unusually helpful to them and was hanging around doing some free interpretation for both the media and the police. One reporter from the Mirror, clearly overjoyed with her scoop, reported in her interview with Sky that she had reported this guy to the local police. Then they blasted his name, his mothers name, and then pictures of the pair all over the screens. They kept interviewing people who started making comparisons with the Soham murderer who had similarly hung around the scene etc........

They were vilifying this man, destroying his character, naming and shaming him, identofying the location in the Uk of his ex wife and 4 year old child.....and then, they started to row back a bit, as a lot of locals/family/friends came to his defence.

Now, he may end up being guilty of something, and if so, deserves what ever comes his way, but if he is just an innocent witness, then Sky have utterly destroyed this man's life. Needless to say, he won't have any course to redress to this appalling trial by media and public character assasination.

As I say, he may well be guilty of something, and in that case he will get his justice by the law of the land. But if he hasn't done anything, Sky have a lot to answer for.
 
When I ever I tried to get some news from Sky (ah well, I have hopes) I got the same story about this guy. No mentioning of the fact that for example RTE or the BBC reported, that actualy 3 people were taken to the Police station for questioning. They were completly focusing on this guy.

SKY News is not News, Sky News is infotainment!

What even happend to inocent until proven guilty or even that fact of respecting local law. In Portugal it is against the law to provide information about an ongoing police investigation and still they speculate the hell out of everything. Arrest them all for hindering a police investigation.

I liked it when the blond one in Portugal called the studio to talk to an "EX" police detective to get more trash talk and he said, that he will not engage in speculation and not comment on any conversations he had with the gentlemen in the center of the speculation. She was totally thrown out by that, she got so anoyed, I liked that one.

Now, I hope that Maddie is found soon and can return to her partents but all this press specualation is more hindering than helpfull at present.
 
I always remember the "live and exclusive" banners going across the screen during reports the 9/11 attacks.

Sky news are "The Sun" of news channels
 
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DublinTexas said:
SKY News is not News, Sky News is infotainment!
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i agree and i don't watch it
its a pity our own Gardai don't take the same approach regarding leaks etc.
 
I would have to disagree. They are simply reporting 'as is' from the location. The reason they were interviewing 'red-top' journos was not from their opinions, but for their personal experiences of meeting Robert Murat, wouldn't have mattered if they were journalists or the guy who holds the lights. You never know, maybe if these 'journos' didn't bring it to light he may never have been called in (for whatever reason that may be).

At every given opportunity Sky mentioned that he could be a witness or a suspect and was not arrested. I am thankful for Sky News, as they are keeping this highlighted 24 hours a day, i.e. The teletext on RTE was still reporting the news from the day before yesterday evening.

Lets just hope this all comes to a happy ending soon.

G
 
gramlab said:
Sky news are "The Sun" of news channels
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hardly surprising when you look at who owns them both.

But yes, for a channel that sets itself out to be the market-leader in news, they've gone horribly tabloid over the last couple of years in particular.
 
Living in Croatia I'm having to subsist on Sky, CNN and BBC for my news (TV), and Sky are doing nothing more than their usual non-stop coverage. It's a non-quiet season, Tony stepping down, Bertie talking to Parliament, protests and wild goings on in former Soviet Union, but what's more important is a poor little thing gone missing and it warrants 24hour coverage. As was said by 2 reporters on CNN today (with the Canadian front lady who does the lifestyles spots as well) in the time since she has gone missing (Madeleine) there have been 3 child abductions in the UK, 1 in Germany and an honour killing in France. On top of that in Spain (Canaries) they have seend the largest influx of illegal immigrants in 2 years and on one both 2 children were smuggled, 3 were reportedly thrown overboard on the trip from Cameroon. But none of this matters to Sky, only the bleed and lead story of a little girl gone missing. I have to wonder, is the mass publicity actually helping or hindering. God help the poor guy who they have now if he's innocent. I'd originally thought it might ave been the parents and something gone wrong within the family, but none of it is clear.
 
Thats very profound Almo. Its upsetting enough that such bad things have happened and from what I ve picked up from the newspapers there are a lot of unanswered questions but to feel that Sky could be cynically and selectively manipulating the news and profiting off the pain of a little girl makes me feel uneasy. Shes the most important person in all of this. I just hope that justice gets done in the end.
 
Very good post. Don't forget the dozens, if not hundreds, of children who have been sold into slavery in central Africa and parts of Asia since that poor child went missing. We can be sure that many of them will be physically abused, raped and killed. Of course nobody cares about them because they are poor and not white.
I always remember the line when the Canadian colonel spoke the hotel manager in Hotel Rwanda; "to the west you're not even a nigger; your an African". This is more of the same. I don't blame Sky, the reality is that few people in their catchment area care about the horrors that take place all over the world every day.
 
I hope and pray that little Madeleine will be returned to her family.
This case affects us because it reflects us. We go on holidays, take our children with us and tuck them in safely at night.
Nobody expects the horror story that happened next.

Robert Murat will get over it. More importantly, where is the child?
 
Have to agree with original poster on this. In many respects though I nearly actually wanted this bloke to be guilty - reason being is that if the police were sent on the wrong trail here then it detracts from the real investigation.

Quite a lot of Sky;s reporting style is speculative - count the number of times they mention - possibly, could, maybe, might in any of there reports
 

I too hope that Madeleine will be returned safely but it's the first 48 hours which are the most crucial in abduction cases. My heart goes out to her parents as they must feel trapped in a nightmare from which they can't awaken. However, having said that, I would not leave my jewellery lying around an apartment in Portugal while I went out to dinner. Never, ever have I left my children in a situation like that. Abduction aside, what if they awoke in a strange place and I wasn't there. I never liked to think of my children feeling scared when they were little....still don't as a matter of fact.

I agree with others on the calibre of Sky News reporting. I don't think Robert Murat will get over it, if he's innocent. Mud sticks and some will always think there had to be a reason he was under suspicion. The same holds true for his mother who has made her life in Portugal. I prefer my NEWS to be more objective.
 
A very interesting article in this morning's Indo which is following up on a number of agencies struggling to be heard in the hubbub. I'v been watching Sky this morning from about 5.30 Irish time (helps me work before everyone lands into the office) and now there is breaking news (very ironically in yellow - yellow papers = garbage news) about Jose Mourinho, and minute by minute they are offering more and more news on it. At first he was arrested, all over his Yorkshire terrier and on it goes. It's nothing news and falling to the level of Fox.

They seem to have a nice way of playing with emotions on it, snidely slamming the parents with "experts" - who are actually reporters - for leaving the kids alone, and then showing how the entire world (used by Eamonn Holmes this morning and yesterday) is praying fo her return.

All this and a young mother in Donegal kills her daughter and then herself, 450 kids are missing in the UK in 12days, and yesterday 2 children and their grandmother died when their elevator fell 5 floors in their apartment building in Novosibirsk in Russia - which garnered a mere 4 lines in a single Russian daily as the arrest of another businessman and Condoleeza Rice's visit. Where are our priorities, and if we turn off Sky will they wise up?
 
Niallymac said:
They kept interviewing people who started making comparisons with the Soham murderer who had similarly hung around the scene etc........
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It's not just Sky News that do this. Gerry Ryan did exactly the same yesterday morning where he made the same connections with the Soham case. It was during his round up of the daily papers at about 9.05am.
 
Up to date with Sky, they're with the "growing media pack" with some Russian who had helped set up a website and have removed the other gents pc.

One question, if words betray mentality, a pack is usually used for wolves - as in hunt in packs, attack in packs. Could they not just focus on why a Royal isn't sent to Iraq while his comrades are already on the way?
 
almo said:
Could they not just focus on why a Royal isn't sent to Iraq while his comrades are already on the way?
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In Harry's defence, he actually wanted to go to Iraq. It was a military decision (not Royal or political) not to send him. Kind of makes sense to me, threats have been made against him, which would encourage more & more attacks on the British forces over there, which would probably lead to more soldiers being killed.
 
Would it not make more sense, or have made more sense, British troops being withdraw altogether, because while himself and a larger number of his colleagues will be safe, there are kids from up and down the UK being killed and mutilated in order to make the rich richer and pretend to spread democracy. I'd not for a moment think he'd chicken out, or that his Gran would pull him out, he seems like a game sort of lad, but there is good sense and there is just nonsense. Saving a few and offering up more just doesn't add up.
 
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