MCD Oxegen Burning
REFLECTING A CULTURE of legal posturing in place of careful consideration, MCD initiated a lawsuit against the largest collective of Irish online. According to Scrudu, fewer than a dozen Irish bloggers have noted the story. Not unexpectedly, the MCD action has stifled some discussion threads at boards.ie but what might not be expected is the self-inflicted damage MCD has incurred as a result of attacking pop culture at the water cooler. More than anything else, the discussion at boards.ie connects people throughout every county in Ireland. It takes just little ripple at boards.ie to wash over every ticket-buying twentysomething in the State. Has the MCD executive suite considered how long it might take to recover from the chill brought about by legal proceedings?
Like it or not, people talk about their experiences. Good or bad, they air on radio and through electronic discussions. What the boards.ie admins removed still courses through the e-mail lists and direct mails of hundreds of people. If the case goes to court, the allegedly defamatory evidence will enjoy a rebirth as it enters the public gallery and gets disseminated across hundreds of Irish blogs.
The ripples have already started. Shane McCarrick, senior civil servant in the Department of Agriculture and his fiancee have complained to the Equality Tribunal after MCD's security staff allegedly accused them of being drug dealers. McCarrick suffers from Crohn's Disease and needs to take steroid tablets at three-hour intervals. His fiancee has type one diabetes and requires regular injections of insulin and carbohydrates in the form of fruit drinks. As they explained on boards.ie, they were shaken down by MCD staff at an REM concert in June 2005 and accused of drug dealing. Since McCarrack's discussion board post mentioned MCD, it was pulled from the forum. McCarrick then brought his case to the Equality Tribunal. MCD deserve a fair crack at explaining why security staff choose to ignore doctor's notes and instead opt to quarantine concert goers in areas away from event controllers.
As this case devleops, there is no restraining a court document from the perpetual spotlight of the web archive. In bringing the action against the boards.ie community, MCD will seriously damage itself if its case is heard in open court. Does MCD management really want this course of action to unfold?
Perhaps they planned this. After all, MCD has excelled at entertaining the masses.
Mark Tighe -- "Civil servant harassed for taking medicine to rock gig" in The Sunday Times, September 3, 2006.
the MCD/Oxegen story is very interesting and youre right about the lack of blog action on it. For once, the print media (irish independent, irish times, sunday tribine, sunday times, evening herald) have well and truly beaten every online and blog source to the punch on this one - mainly to do with having the means and experience to "legal" contentious stories like this. The blogosphere still have a lot to learn
Posted by: Johnny | August 25, 2006 at 08:42 AM
If you have something to say about your Oxegen experience and you want it to be folded into a podcast, leave your thoughts in the MyChingo voice box at podcasting.ie and you can listen to the cacophony of voices unfold on site.
Posted by: Bernie Goldbach | August 25, 2006 at 09:42 AM
Indymedia.ie also had a lengthy article and analysis of the Oxegen fiasco.
Oxegen, Poxegen:
The Modern Rock and Roll Experience.
http://indymedia.ie/article/77264
Posted by: redjade | August 28, 2006 at 01:17 PM