Colin
In a shocking turn of events today, much of The Burkean’s previous reporting on the alleged Antifa-Media Scandal at the weekend at an anti-immigration protest has been proven correct. But the reality is even more bizarre than we thought.
Our previous reporting was based on local sources. A phone of a journalist was dropped at the protest. We saw content from a phone online, recovered by protestors at the scene.
Newstalk confirmed that a phone belonging to one of their journalists was stolen at the demonstration. Locals claimed to have subsequently found a discarded phone on the site, with video detailing the contents of the device being posted to X/Twitter later that day.
In the last 2 hours, new pieces of information have come to light about the incident:
- Newstalk (one of Ireland’s largest media companies) admitted they sent a team to an Irish anti-immigration protest in a statement to Gript (Ireland’s largest independent Irish news platform)
- A Newstalk journalist involved contacted Irish conservative activist Andy Heasman, denying that they had been working with Antifa
Newstalk are contradicting themselves in several different ways, but it doesn’t matter: whichever version you believe, it shows the massive bias the company has and the underhanded tactics it pursues.
The main journalist on the story works with the BBC and the lost phone showed contact with them about unrelated work. The day after the Coolock incident, the BBC showed up to the Coolock protest. What was the BBC’s role?
Admissions of Biased Journalism
In their statement to Gript, Newstalk admitted:
- Their team were doing an “undercover investigation” on right-leaning politics in Ireland
- The Newstalk team went undercover to “engage in counter protest” against a group of families opposed to a migrant centre in their neighbourhood. They got beaten up and lost their phones
- When asked if there were unaffiliated people at the “protest”, they gave no comment
Separately, this morning Andy Heasman posted what he said are screenshots with one of the Newstalk team.
- The journalist claims to have not been “colluding” with Antifa
Nothing Makes Sense
- Newstalk is saying it didn’t work with Antifa
- They are also saying they went undercover to counterprotest
- But the lost phone shows contact with prominent Antifa activists, and left-wing politicians who have engaged in Antifa tactics at protests before
- A tweet from an Antifa activist saying they were in Dublin came 6 minutes after a call between someone of that name and the dropped phone
- As Gript deduced, the Newstalk team, whether or not there were independent antifa activists present, went to instigate an incident at the protest
- Text messages on the phone discuss a protest in the city centre and the one in Coolock. And that they would go to Coolock if it was “too hairy” in the city. Why were a group of men looking for a soft target to stage a conflict, surely knowing that Coolock is a residential area with mostly women and children present at the protest there?
- Why did Newstalk brazenly lie to anti-immigration activists, claiming they were neutral?
- Why are Newstalk so unwilling to confirm basic aspects of the story?
The Burkean will continue to report on the story.
