Irish Examiner trashes Archiseek.com with made up story

national | arts and media | news report

Saturday July 09, 2005 03:01

by Markus

The Irish Examiner has published an article (July 7) which (in a sidebar) takes seven quotes from the forums on Archiseek.com out of context and uses them to back up its claim that Archiseek.com is anti-OAP. Inside Cork reiterates the allegations while commenting that they declined to reply.

Taken from Archiseek.com

Regarding the articles in The Irish Examiner and Inside Cork
Archiseek / About Us
The Irish Examiner has published an article (July 7) which (in a sidebar) takes seven quotes from the forums on Archiseek.com out of context and uses them to back up its claim that Archiseek.com is anti-OAP. Inside Cork reiterates the allegations while commenting that we declined to reply.

In fact, the first comment quoted as being on the website belongs to the website ageaction.ie and was NEVER quoted on Archiseek by any user at any time. It is an utter mistruth. The quotation, "They do not need to decide the future because they will disappear in the future", obviously deemed the most important by the Examiner is from http://www.ageaction.ie/campaign.asp

See the quote by CSD representative Mick Murphy in the Inside Cork article proving this, "These comments remind me of the comment to prove the point on the Ageaction.ie website".

The second and third comments were made as 1 post by 1 contributor "Freddie" and are NOT separate user comments - the article portrays these comments as being separate - thus representative of the other users. This user has made two posts in total and was removed from the forums for his comments. Sadly the Examiner did not care to publish subsequent comments chastising this poster for his attitudes. "I can tell you that no one will be "lamenting" anything but with the way you are referring to the residents is it any wonder why they get angry?"

The sixth comment "You'd better take there pensions off them, it wasn't designed for such frivolous use" was not a post condemning the members of CSD, it was actually a sarcastic comment against another comment, by a prominent Archiseek contributor who was defending the OAPs. This is another twisted portrayl and is entirely inaccurate and misleading. The post in its entirety was "You'd better take there pensions off them, it wasn't designed for such frivolous use Do you ever listen to what you are actually saying?"

The last highlighted point (seventh) about 'the local butcher' has been taken out of context in a discussion about objecting to plans based on their impact in depriving a community of local services and was in NO way related to an attack on the elderly, but the effects of development on community. It has nothing to do with the portrayed description in the Irish Examiner.

In total, of all the comments made apparently by users criticising the elderly, about 2 stand - one of which is definitely out of order, the other is a very general observation about objecting if a church was planned. The remaining quotes would seem to be either falsified, misrepresented and/or misquoted.

In a subsequent piece on Friday, 8 July, the Examiner ran a headline "Website pulls section over anti-elderly comments". I have not pulled it, it like so many threads before it, has simply dropped off the front page. It is still on the site, sloppy reporting I think you will agree. They also stated today, that "A representative of the website was unavailable for comment yesterday". I have not been contacted for comment at all. The article reiterated the accusations of the previous day.

Contrary to Katie Mythen's claim (katie@insidecork.ie) in Inside Cork, a small freesheet publication, we have not been asked to comment on any allegations by either their publication or the local edition of the Irish Examiner.

It is ironic that the Examiner has trawled through the thread for rare comments by now discredited members of the forum when journalists from their sister publication, the Evening Echo, post to the site adding more information. Indeed since The Irish Examiner published the story, one of their news sections has registered, perhaps recognising the value of the news about developments and planning in Cork. An Inside Cork writer is already part of the forums.

To hang the entire site as anti-OAP on the basis on a comment by a now banned poster and one other comment is sensational journalism of the worst and laziest kind. For The Irish Examiner to stoop to such levels is very disappointing to me. Freesheets in general are very prone to this type of sensationalism, but one would expect a so-called national newspaper to be more circumspect in throwing accusations around - even if they only published it in their local edition.