When media coverage means seeing is believing

Since the Rubberbandits introduced the nation to the thoughts of Jean Baudrillard the other night the level of debate has surely risen a few notches, particularly when it comes to our awareness of what is and isn’t real. Or maybe we’ve just been conditioned to think that way (see what I mean?). For instance, forget whether anyone can hear a tree falling in an empty forest: if an Irish team doesn’t win on Irish television has it really claimed victory?

Item: the Ireland-New Zealand rugby games, and specifically the coverage of that first game in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Even more specifically, the fact it was broadcast on eir rather than RTÉ.

It seems ironic that for an organisation suspected by devotees of other sports as being a bastion of rugby-ness above all things, RTÉ didn’t have the rights to the historic first win for Ireland over the All Blacks a fortnight ago.