Making Stuff Up

While the mainstream media (MSM) snoozed, Indymedia Ireland contributors were providing eyewitness testimony, photographs, video of, and commentary on, last weekend's Dublin riots. What were the MSM doing during this period? Well, the Sunday Times was concocting a story that blamed the Independent Workers Union for playing a part in organising the riots. Because Indymedia is an Open Publishing medium, the IWU were quickly able to publish a refutation of this astoundingly scurrilous claim see full story below. So far, so good. Our unprecedented speed and openness had allowed the IWU to counter publically a vicious piece of disinformation published in a widely read medium. Imagine our surprise when our editorial collective received a berating email from the Sunday Times' Irish editor John Burns, admonishing us for not checking "our" facts! Mr.Burns appeared confused about who we were and assumed that we were the IWU. He demanded a retraction of the IWU's post because it incorrectly named "Liam Clarke" as the author of the lie. Naturally we wrote to him but it seems that he still doesn't get it.

Meanwhile, Tony O'Reilly's crack team of journalists, editors, sub-editors and secret garda sources were busy churning out their own brand of shite which was neatly countered in public by Indymedia Ireland contributor Chekov. The whole fiasco (and similar disinformation spreading in the past) demonstrates what is at best ludicrous inaccuracy, but is more likely a co-opted and broken media model. The Sunday Times' article is now nowhere to be found on its archives, there is no retraction published and we have audio of another Sunday Times editor spreading the lie, this time on the radio. Here on Indymedia.ie we've clearly published the correction that Liam Clarke denies IWU involvement (although his name is on the story). Compare and contrast. Good-bye Grub Street hacks, you're only useful to the government.

Finally, Indymedia Ireland have decided to join in the fun and games and have launched a campaign to identify the ringleader of the riots after our crack team of investigative journalists have poured through thousands of photographs of the riots.