Why do so many at Indymedia hate the Irish Times?

Thursday April 25, 2002 10:31

by Puzzled

Everytime someone posts an article from the Irish Times, they are told to take it elsewhere. Yet others post articles from other mainstream media and nary a word in protest is uttered. Why is that?

Complaints and suggestions are made that people should write their own articles instead of relying on mainstream media, and that Indymedia is meant for such homegrown articles rather than a reguritation of the mainstream. However, if people are not prepared to offer their own raw opinion or reporting, which is understandable given how new this forum is and many are still feeling their way around the place, a way to jumpstart alternative reporting is to post the mainstream article and follow it up with comments.

The attitude Irish Times articles are met with here discourages that from ever happening and is an odd attitude to encounter, to say the least. One the one hand, people are complaining that there is not enough Irish based news being posted. On the other hand, when any Irish based news does get posted, it is usually from the Irish Times, and the person posting it gets slammed for using the Irish Times.

Is there another agenda at work here? Can those who do not like the Irish Times dispute the contents of the article instead of criticising the posting of it? An Irish based Indymedia needs to be nutured to take off, and some of the reactions here border on the fascist, which is not helpful at all.

Why is the Associated Press, for example, more acceptable than the Irish Times? Why are articles from mainstream media on topics that have F-all to do with Ireland more acceptable than articles from the Irish Times about Ireland? Are people that afraid to talk about what is going on in this country, even if they have to use the Irish Times as a starting point of discussion?