News cycle moves on but not when it really matters

It never seems like it at the time but even the biggest stories fade from the front pages and the public conscience, if not necessarily in that order – the Covid crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the RTÉ crisis…all go from dominating the daily agenda to becoming an addendum to the news cycle of the day.

In some cases, as for RTÉ, that’s the light at the end of the tunnel – the old notion that today’s headlines are tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping – but for others, it’s the oxygen of publicity that sustains their fight in the first place.

It was through public awareness and daily messaging that we knew how to limit the pandemic damage; washing our hands, wearing facemasks, keeping our distance.

The media, ourselves included, carried a daily toll of deaths and hospital admissions to reinforce the message that this was a real and deadly threat on our doorstep.

We reported the terrible news of deaths – particularly of those dying alone in hospitals or nursing homes and those buried without a proper chance to mourn – and the good news of recoveries…on one hand to again underline the reality and on the other to perhaps offer hope of better days.

When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24 2022, the world watched in horror at the illegitimate and indiscriminate bombing of a sovereign nation so close to our own.

The world’s news media flocked to Kiev to report on every bulletin on this atrocity; RTÉ for a small while and the BBC, Sky and ITV for much longer anchored their news bulletins from a base in the capital city.