Who writes this drivel?

M

Markjbloggs

Registered User
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384
Headline from RTE business section, Intel shares drop sharply

http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/1004/INTEL.html

Gloom and doom sensationalism at it's worst. The drop they refer to well within the noise for normal day-to-day volatility, and the cause they refer to (MS reports of a price war) barely got a mention in real finacial reporting circles.

Hardly a day goes by without RTE trying to talk down the economy - a lot of it may be justified but some of it, like this report, is just pure nonesense.

Rant over. Nurse, my XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX...
 
If you click on the related sidebar for the article written when Intel announced increased profits of 44%, you can see that the stock price is still ahead of its July price despite the news and the intervening market turmoil (up about 30% for the year).

So I doubt the shareholders are getting ready to jump out the window just yet.

It was even discussed on the radio this morning as though a pullout of Ireland was imminent.
 

Indeed, the stock is near a 3 year high!! That did not get a mention.
 
"Intel aren't doing too badly, really"

isn't a headline that's going to sell a lot of papers.
 
You have to remember that RTE are still living in the semi-state world and their staff members enjoy civil service style terms and conditions so they will have an unavoidable bias in how they view and report the world.
This manifests in everything from the biased economic reporting of George Lee to the shallow and lazy anti American and anti Israeli reporting in their news coverage. (That said it does act as a counterbalance to the pro-American and pro-Israeli reporting on Sky and CNN.)
In my opinion we are badly served by RTE and Irish media in general. We adopt an attitude of superiority about the shortcomings of the media in the USA but ours is not much better, particularly in the area of foreign news coverage where vast areas of the world receive no coverage at all. The Irish Independent typifies this when as the largest selling newspaper in the country it employs no foreign correspondents, preferring to recycle yesterdays UK broadsheets instead.
 
I'd be even more concerned if they used expressions like "well within the noise..."
 
Newstalk 106 is an independent commercial station and habitually exhibits similar biases on the latter two issues (especially Karen Coleman) in my opinion. Perhaps both media outlets simply reflect to some extent a prevailing/majority view on such matters among the general public?
 

Couldn't agree more. I usually have to switch anytime she's on the radio.
 

Can you explain how "civil service style terms and conditions" contribute to biased economic reporting and an anti-American/Israeli stance.
 
room305 said:
Couldn't agree more. I usually have to switch anytime she's on the radio.
Click to expand...
I'm a sucker for punishment - I usually persist just like I do with Sunday With Norris and when reading Breda O'Brien or William Reville in the Irish Times no matter how annoyed they make me!
 
"Can you explain how "civil service style terms and conditions" contribute to biased economic reporting and an anti-American/Israeli stance"

While I do not necessarily agree with this viewpoint, I would have thought that the logic was fairly obvious on the issue of economic reporting: an organisation where people can't be fired, where pay cuts can never happen, where flexible work practices are simply not attainable from the workforce, and where profits are largely irrelevant, is hardly likely to have a reporting culture which gives the same respect to capitalist ideals as you might find in the private sector. Of course, the views of the private sector are not necessarily objective either.

Regarding the varied quality and tenor of reportage on world politics, I don't think there is much journalism anywhere which is free of bias. It behoves us to take our world news from more than one source, and to try to divine the truth from the various versions in circulation.
 
That is what I was getting at.
MOB said:
Of course, the views of the private sector are not necessarily objective either.
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I agree with you.

I also agree
 

This pretty much describes any organisation in which the unions have a strong foothold. This includes the various print media who form part of the private sector. It's very difficult to fire people from any job where they have at least 12 months continued service.

I'd be still interested in seeing the knowing how "civil service style terms and conditions" as opposed to a unionised environment contribute to biased economic reporting.


Still doesn't explain why RTE's take on global politics is influenced by civil service style terms and conditions".
 
Fair point, how does protected sector of the economy sound?
 
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