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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1067 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 25, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Small observation, struck me as interesting. I’m in Ireland. In the car this morning, radio on. The top of the hour news came on (public radio, state-funded). Top three stories:

  1. Gaza situation, MSF and WHO statements
  2. Iran nuclear situation, new sanctions
  3. Denmark drones situation, new sightings over military bases

There’s plenty happening in Ireland (presidential election campaign, housing crisis, Budget 2026 to be announced next few weeks)

Two competing thoughts:

  1. We (and maybe many EU countries?) have a very broad perspective on the world, and this is generally a good thing for Ireland’s place in a globalised/interconnected world.
  2. Our state broadcaster is sourcing its news agenda from international wire services, probably with many political biases intact and unquestioned, and doesn’t fund enough of its own journalism and newsroom anymore, and this is generally a very bad thing for everyone in Ireland over any time horizon.

It's disorienting to realise that our media diet is selected and proportioned far more by the availability/prominence/outrageousness of those particular news stories, than any objective importance of the events they describe. News media, like everywhere else, is scrambling to keep broadcasting with squeezed budgets. It's much simpler (and cheaper) to repeat verbatim a report from some NGO than pay an investigative reporter.

Or why not just straight up report whatever some state propaganda organ says?

Why would the Russian/Ukrainian/Isreali MoD ever lie? Or why would Hamas or any of constituting parts for that matter? Surely we can uncritically re report their press releases, often with barely acknowledging where said statements come from and that won't lead these organisations to try to use us to launder propaganda?

Yes, this is the reality as I see it. Economics not adding up anymore for most / all legacy news media organisations, so they have to do one of two things, or both: cut news costs, or sensationalise the news to generate attention and win another round of the advertising money game.

3. They're deliberately distracting people from the issues at home

Didn't cross your mind? It especially makes sense when it's a public broadcaster.

Of course it’s a possibility, and I’m sure it happens. I don’t believe it to be pervasive (here, anyway) because that would require a degree of coordination that honestly I don’t give them the credit for. It’s a small country and “everyone knows everyone” is a cliche, but there is some truth to it. There are very few leaps from me to editorial team in state broadcaster newsroom. Comes to mind: “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

I'm not sure why coordination would be required for this, rather than a desire for the current government to stay in power / whoever would foreseeably take over to stay out of it.

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