Published today is a document detailing the coverage RTE have given to the situation surrounding civil partnership legislation and matters pertaining to the legal recognition of same sex relationships.

Prepared by Karl Hayden I’ll leave it to him to explain why he put a great amount of effort into producing this list.

One of the reasons I chose to do this was because each time (3 times) I engaged with the protesters outside the Dáil in recent months. One of the claims they made was the lack of media coverage on the issue and their claim that the “Political Establishment” and “Liberal Media Bias” in particular RTÉ, had conspired to deny Irish people of information about Civil Partnership and that it was being done behind the people’s backs. They also claimed that the “Homosexual Liberal Agenda” got more coverage than anyone who opposed it. No doubt they will continue trying to say the Irish people have been denied information, despite the evidence.

Most of the links in the document work – so you can go back and listen to debates on reports on the issue over the years. And the next time someone says that gays and lesbians got more coverage than others or controlled the agenda one can produce this list showing lots of opponents (many with no mandate or knowledge on the subject) getting airtime. It’s a document that many students in media, sociology and history will refer to in the analysis of civil partnership and indeed the book that someone (no not me) will probably write about the campaign at some stage.

5 Comments »