Comparing the RTE website with that of the New York Times, I spotted one major gap. The way in which they deal with the story of 10 Americans being arrested for alleged abduction is quite stifling. While RTE gives it a great deal of space, the same cannot be said for the NYT. Instead, it is hidden away in the hope it will be missed. When you view the page, the headline is "Food Distribution Retooled; Americans Arrested"-as if it is secondary or irrelevant news. When it is referred to, it is briefly mentioned in one of the opening paragraphs and then the latter ones. RTE let the copy run for some 21 paragraphs in comparison.
Are we to accept that their news lists differ by chance, or are larger forces at play? Isn’t it our role to be critical?
Here are the links:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0131/haiti.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/world/americas/31haiti.html?ref=world
Until next time,
D.K
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What I enjoy most about the comparison between the two articles is that in the case of the NYT the two stories covered are easily newsworthy enough to be separate issues. Simply linking the stories by an "Also Saturday,..." in paragraph 3 doesn't mean they can be put in the same piece of copy. This sort of Hide-and-Seek with news stories really shouldn't be tolerated.
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