[thegrim33]

They chose to add the word "guzzle". They could have just written "Irish datacenters now use 23% of the country's electricity". But they made the editorial decision to add in "guzzle". What's the word for this type of propaganda, where they add in some sort of adjective that wasn't needed, in order to prime the reader on how to think/feel, rather than just objectively reporting the facts? What are the odds that the content of the article is objective and factual, given the decisions they made with the headline?

[coldtea]

>What's the word for this type of propaganda, where they add in some sort of adjective that wasn't needed, in order to prime the reader on how to think/feel, rather than just objectively reporting the facts?

It's called an editorial.

It's not supposed to be a mere report, concerned with respecting any random person's feeling about how all electricity consumption is equally valid and should be equally respected.

[kevinpet]

Editorials are a thing. This is not an editorial. It's structured as a news report.

[hunterpayne]

Credibility is a thing. Articles like this burn it quite quickly. It really is past time that the scientific community needs to make a public statement rejecting these types of "journalists".

[coldtea]

The scientific community has burned a lot of credibility itself to make any kind of statement to that effect.

[hunterpayne]

That's the thing, the popular impression is that this is the case. But if you read what scientists actually wrote/said you would realize that what science says and what activists and journalists claim science says are quite different. That's why its almost impossible for a journalist to get a quote from a scientists on this topic anymore. Its also why there are almost no scientists who are members of "green" political entities (eg Sierra Club) anymore. Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article? When was the last time you saw one?

[defrost]

> Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article?

The article cited the latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

There's little need here for Niels Bohr or a bleeding edge virologist to lean in on annual summary stats on civil infrastructure usage.

[zdragnar]

This is The Register we're talking about. Of course it is heavily editorialized, that's half their schtick.

[fc417fc802]

It's called a value judgment and an emotionally charged tone. That's certainly a form of editorial but IMO not the good kind. If an outlet seeks to advocate for a cause it ought to do so in a well reasoned manner and with a professional tone.

[beepbooptheory]

Can you link to any examples of a good editorial by this measure?

[fabian2k]

Journalism is allowed to have an opinion, that doesn't make it propaganda.

[Kon5ole]

>Journalism is allowed to have an opinion, that doesn't make it propaganda.

How do you figure? Surely it becomes propaganda for the opinion?

Journalists are not supposed to let opinions show in their reporting, that’s why editorials exist.

[keane]

“I have given up on American journalism. The decline of the American press has long been obvious, and my time is too valuable to waste in an effort to supply the ‘man in the street’ with his daily quota of clichés, gossip, and erotic tripe. There is another concept of journalism, which you may or may not be familiar with. It’s engraved on a bronze plaque on the southeast corner of the Times Tower in New York City.”

—Hunter Thompson, letter to William Kennedy, 1959

“An institution that should always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.”

—Joseph Pulitzer, New York World mission statement, May 10, 1883, quote appears on The New York Times bronze plaque

[Kon5ole]

"When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want."

--Steve Jobs

I think the same goes for newspapers. They are businesses that make money from giving people what they want, and like all businesses they eventually care primarily about making money. Whatever else they were founded to care about is secondary at best.

[peab]

there's an unnatural amount of doomerism against datacenters, of exactly this kind. It's pretty obviously astroturfed.

[kridsdale3]

In case you didn't know, The Register has been deliberately using this kind of language about ALL topics for nearly 30 years. It's part of their appeal and brand, like The Onion. People choose to read The Register because they have this adversarial stance and humorous tone about tech.

[vkou]

The vast majority of the pro-datacenter 'externalities don't matter as long as I make money' is also pretty obviously astroturfed.

The difference is that much of the communication on that end happens in backchannels, directly with the regulators, in secret meetings, without any possibility of public scrutiny.

(When that isn't enough, the firehose of paid advertisements gets fired up to convince the public, instead.)

[hunterpayne]

The vast majority of the anti-datacenter movement is funded by the CCP. That's why it is so lacking in facts. Most datacenters use closed loop cooling. That means it doesn't consume water for anything more than the toilets and water fountains. Yet this talking point pops up in almost every article on the topic. Part of the reason you are seeing closed door meetings now is because leaders know that the public is profoundly misinformed on this topic. It doesn't help when AOC is waving a jar of dirty water as if it is proof of something.

[peab]

exactly. All of the arguments I see against data centers are simply arguments against industrialization.

The dirty water bit is the most ridiculous thing. It's meant to paint the picture that the data centers themselves are using the water and dirtying it, when in reality the cause is the development of the actual buildings and infrastructure, which would happen with any industrial development!

[vkou]

Most data centers do not use closed loop cooling.

They all have a closed cooling loop, but almost all of them cool the exterior condensers with an open cooling loop.

Which draws from the watermain, sprays water on the hot condensers, the water evaporates, cooling the condensers. This is done to reduce their electric bills, because condensers operate more efficiently when they are cold.

The fully closed-loop data center, with air-cooled condensers is the exception, not the rule. Because it sucks even more electricity than a regular one, due to its less-efficient cooling.

You are spreading falsehoods, while also accusing people who are factually accurate of being foreign propaganda mouthpieces. This is at best, ironic and jingoistic, and at worst...

[hunterpayne]

Do you honestly think that the very detailed understanding of cooling systems that you have has anything in common with the popular opinion that datacenters use lots of water?

Also, you are arguing jargon...and data centers use completely closed loop designs where it makes sense (very cheap power) and use what you describe where it makes sense (with more expensive power and cheaper water). Finally, nothing you said disproves that there is a significant propaganda effort to demonize datacenters by a foreign power.

[peab]

No, not really. My comments are organic - they come from a place of frustration, seeing such trivially wrong arguments against data centers.

All the arguments I see against data centers are arguments against industrialization. There are also arguments against capitalism and wealth inequality, that I sympathise with.

[hunterpayne]

That opinion should be informed by facts and data. This opinion isn't really informed by anything except scientifically illiterate propaganda. That's the problem. Journalists larping as experts in something that they have absolutely no expertise or even the basic scientific background to understand. The amount of misinformation on topics surrounding energy generation is absolutely criminal and journalists are far and away the biggest spreaders of misinformation on this topic. If I could, I would make a journalist without scientific or engineering credentials talking about this topic a felony on par with murder. After all, they are causing significant amounts of misery in the 3rd world with their lies.

[onel]

Not really, no. It is one of the most important attributes of good journalism that you have to be as impartial. That's why papers have separate sections for Opinions

[kazinator]

> They could have just written "Irish datacenters now use 23% of the country's electricity".

That's objectively described by "guzzle".

[zzgo]

Is The Register known for objectively reporting facts? If so, I have fundamentally misunderstood it for a quarter century.

[JumpCrisscross]

> objectively reporting facts?

I believe so. They're not known for neutrally reporting them, which is different.

[antonvs]

Do Ireland's data centers objectively "guzzle" electricity?

I don't have any problem with The Register, but reporting laden with value-judging adjectives is not objective.

[teamonkey]

Objectively, yes. It means to consume excessive or plentiful amounts of something, and 23% of Ireland’s electricity generation capability is objectively an excessive and plentiful amount.

[hunterpayne]

Objectively no, 23% of nothing is nothing. Ireland has no industry. Their grid is smaller than a major city's grid. That this is 23% says a lot more about the size of the Irish grid and their lack of industry than it does about how much energy a datacenter uses.

[antonvs]

The characterization as “excessive” is subjective. If you disagree, what are your objective criteria for making that claim? You fundamentally can’t give a correct answer to that, because it requires defining a threshold, and that’s subjective.

If people seriously think claims like this are “objective”, I weep for our collective understanding of reality.

[teamonkey]

Of course it’s excessive. Questions should be asked about any one industry using 23% of a nation’s generating capacity, when it was not built for this purpose.

Of course it’s excessive. Ireland’s electricity is not cheap or in such plentiful supply that homes are not affective by this. These data centres are driving up the electricity prices for everyone in Ireland.

Of course it’s excessive. There are only 80 datacentres that used 7.8TWh between them in 2025. That amount of power is used by only the heaviest of industries; it’s 3x more power than the UK steel industry uses, for example.

Of course it’s excessive. The amount of energy used means that more fossil fuels is being used to power them than would otherwise be necessary. Legislation has been written so that new datacentres must in future provide their own [fossil fuel] generators. This in a time of man-made climate change where we all urgently need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It’s not just excessive, it’s deeply irresponsible.

[alephnerd]

They basically re-report press releases. I've dealt with The Register as well as their sister publications back when I was still in product (especially during shudder RSA).

The Reg keeps a snarky tone, but immediately becomes deferential once a vendor begins a content campaign with them.

They also operated a bot account on HN for years that was spamming Register articles for almost 3 years and accumulated 66K karma until I and a couple others complained about it.

[hinkley]

I haven't found a single source of Irish power mix over time but what I did find suggests that the amount of renewable power in Ireland has been spiking aggressively in recent years. I see something like 15% in 2024 from one source and >40% in 2026 from another. One chart (which I just found reproduced on wikipedia) of wind power is going up at like 600 GWh per year.

[anigbrowl]

The Register is famous for its jaundiced takes, which are a mix of journalistic cynicism and parody of the febrile language of the UK tabloid press. You are not meant to take it at face value.

[onel]

I agree that this title is very opinionated. If the country would have created enough electricity, the percentage wouldn't be a problem

[egypturnash]

I see you've never read The Register before. Their whole value proposition is "here is computing news from cynical, snarky viewpoint". Their motto "Biting the hand that feeds IT" has vanished from the masthead but it's still in their footer.

[mikestew]

First time reading The Register, is it? Because I would expect no less from such a pillar of journalism as them.

[ralusek]

Guess if people who write articles like LLMs

[toomuchtodo]

"Unwanted industrial users consuming over 1/5th Ireland's electricity."

(Ireland has challenges getting enough renewable energy to the island, as well as connecting the northern and southern parts with transmission due to local citizens not friendly to the need for transmission infra; data centers do not belong in Ireland, build them in countries in Europe that have excess clean energy, Spain and France specifically, and eat any latency as unavoidable)

[alephnerd]

> data centers do not belong in Ireland...

Data Centers have been the cornerstone of Ireland's economy since the mid-2000s when the IDA began wooing tech FDI specifically by calling out data center expansion opportunities within the EU [0].

Also, if Europeans actually wish to have a sovereign tech industry, they need domestic compute capacity.

Complaining about American tech dependency and then immediately complaining about steps to build EU tech sovereignty is literally a contradiction.

[0] - https://www.siliconrepublic.com/science/ireland-has-the-pote...

[trollbridge]

Yeah, but Ireland has a looser regulatory environment where it’s easier for a data centre operator to buy off the relevant government regulators.

[hunterpayne]

Which is most of Ireland's economy. I am fine with pulling the plug on them. They are not. I mean, who wants to lose 2/3rd of their GDP overnight?

[trollbridge]

Such are the perils of democracy. Sometimes people actually want that growth and don’t want to be a zero growth state forever.