Category: Media coverage

RTE: Scared of its own shadow

Liveline presenter Joe Duffy nearly had a heart attack during the week when a caller made the link between Ahern’s evidence and the fact that it was given under oath.

The tribunal said he was untruthful, it didn’t say he lied.

Phew, that was a close one. Nearly had a ton of lawyers down on my head there Joe probably thought.

Marian Finucane, after coming across a newspaper headline that used the word ‘lies.

They’re calling it lies but the Tribunal referred to untruths.

Phew, nearly had a ton of lawyers down on my head there Marian probably thought.

Corcoran's twisted logic

According to Bertie Ahern’s greatest fan, Jody Corcoran, the former Taoiseach was not guilty of being untruthful but merely of telling half-truths.

And, apparently, those half-truths were told because Ahern was suffering the trauma of a marriage break down.

If you have absolutely nothing better to do I would recommend reading Corcoran’s rubbish as an example of how reality can be twisted out of all recognition by those who support scumbags like Ahern.

No admission by Martin that FF did wrong

Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.

No admission by Martin that FF did wrong

In her staunch support for Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as a politician of some substance, Terry Prone made claims regarding his ard fheis speech that simply do not stand up (Opinion, March 5).

On Mr Martin’s apology she claims: “He said he was sorry. No hiding behind global factors: Fianna Fáil had been in government. No reliance on the weasel word ‘mistake’: they’d done wrong.”

This is a complete misreading of what Mr. Martin actually said.

By including the world recession, the Eurozone crisis and the Opposition in his apology, Mr Martin was actually blaming those factors.

This is one of the oldest tricks in the speechwriter’s guidebook for politicians.

At no point in his speech did Mr Martin admit that either he or Fianna Fáil had done any wrong, as Ms. Prone claims.

He did use the weasel word ‘mistake’ and admitted that his party had got things wrong. But there is a world of difference between making mistakes or getting things wrong and doing wrong.

One is an error made under the best of intentions; the other is a deliberate action with a particular agenda in mind.

I can only conclude that Ms. Prone is either a closet admirer of Micheál Martin, or she’s an innocent abroad when it comes to free-floating political guff.

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh
Co Cork

Ann Marie Hourihane: Meandering and meaningless

I don’t think I’ve ever managed to read an article by Irish Times columnist Ann Marie Hourihane from beginning to end.

This is principally because, invariably, I find her musings to be meandering and meaningless.

Today, for some inexplicable reason, I did manage to read her entire article – and found it to be entirely meandering and meaningless.

Terry Prone sermon

Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.

Not all public servants are targets of hate

In her recent sermon-like article (Irish Examiner, Feb 6) Terry Prone castigated the Irish people for what she describes as their licensed envy and resentment against those perceived to be insulated against the current recession.

Ms Prone claims that anybody in the public service who takes home expenses of any kind is a target of public hatred.

This is untrue.

It is only those at the higher levels of the public service, including politicians, who pay themselves lottery sum salaries and pensions, that are rightly the target of public odium.

She claims that the media takes advantage of people’s resentment to get a headline.

This is untrue.

While the media has its faults it has done great service for the people of Ireland by exposing the corruption and incompetence that has destroyed the country.

Ms. Prone is critical of the Freedom of Information Act, suggesting that it costs more than it’s worth.

This is a disturbing attitude from someone who has such an influence in the media.

Assuming that Ms Prone is actually aware of the deep hardships being suffered by the majority of citizens is it reasonable to conclude that her hardline views stem from someone who is well insulated against such hardships?

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh
Co Cork

Is John Waters becoming an embarrassment to the Irish Times?

Catholic militant John Waters went a bit mad on Newstalk’s Sunday Show recently (12th Feb. 2nd part) during a discussion on the closure of the Irish embassy to the Vatican.

He returned to the issue in the Irish Times (17th Feb.) and was obviously still very angry at the evil conspiracy to do down his beloved Catholic Church.

The closure was, according to Waters:

An opportunistic act of neurotic bigotry by militant atheists seeking to impose their myopic beliefs on the rest of us.

Throwing in the usual stuff about an implacable media hostility towards the Catholic Church he tells us that the closure of the embassy is all part of a slithery agenda by the Labour Party.

This mad rant, of course, is par for the course for Waters as he continues his ever-quickening descent into the dark pit of religious fundamentalism.

The immediate (editorial) response from the editor of the Irish Times (Sat. 18th) was, however, surprising and, in my opinion, very welcome.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

Commentators have complained of a media culture that excludes or marginalises religious ideas, and even of the closure of the Vatican embassy as the product of a “militant atheist” Labour agenda.

The overblown rhetoric is almost comical, if not an insult to those who labour under real tyranny.

But is there a germ of truth? Are we really living in an age of liberal intolerance?

Hardly. In truth the reality of declining influence and deference – even within their own faith communities – is difficult to adjust to and accept.

Denial starts with blame. Shoot the messenger, the infernal media!

But amid the recriminations, compelling evidence of systematic media disparaging of religion has not been forthcoming.

I couldn’t agree more and I wonder if Waters is becoming an embarrassment to the Irish Times.

I wonder if the the editor is, perhaps, hinting that it’s time for him to move on.

Witholding information to save embarrassment is always wrong

A recent report by the Garda Inspectorate found that up to 65% of child sexual offences examined in a sample of Garda records were not included in the official crime figures.

An excessively deferential approach and a reluctance to apply for search warrants to secure church records were suggested as contributory factors

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan responded to the report by saying that the force had given ‘huge attention’ to improving its handling of child sexual abuse investigations.

This is the standard response when serious failures are revealed within the Garda, the political system, the church or the financial sector.

Mistakes were made in the past but now everything is rosy in the garden – until the next failure, the next scandal.

While the media is, by far, the most effective force in bringing state authorities to account there are occasions when sections of the media do get things wrong.

An Irish Times editorial in response to the Garda Inspectorate report tells us (My emphasis):

It is important to realise that this investigation was ordered in the aftermath of the Murphy report concerning clerical sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese and it deals with criticisms of the Garda Síochána from 2009.

The report was delivered in 2010, as public anger over denials and cover-ups by the Catholic hierarchy overflowed and a fresh investigation was launched in the Cloyne diocese.

In the circumstances, withholding the document to avoid the Garda being caught up in public condemnations was understandable.

It is, of course, neither understandable nor acceptable that information should be withheld to save any state institution from being the subject of public odium.

The expression of public anger in response to state failures is a crucial element in a healthy democracy.

Copy to:
Irish Times

Praise for Gavin Sheridan's hard work

Gene Kerrigan had a wide- ranging article in last Sunday’s Independent.

Everything from Minister Howlin’s toilet to the underlying reasons for the global financial crisis was the target of his crusading pen.

It was nice to see him give due recognition to Gavin Sheridan (My nephew) as one of his principle sources of research.

I know these things because I occasionally click into an indispensable website, thestory.ie, run by journalist and researcher Gavin Sheridan.

Mr Sheridan has an admirable devotion to digging out and archiving raw data on the running of the Government.

Damaging conservatism in the Irish media

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

When I read the particular Editorial referred to by the letter writer I came to the same conclusion.

The Editorial, and a number of other editorials on the same matter, reflect a deep and damaging ultra conservatism in the Irish media.

Sir,

Your Editorial on property tax is sheer nonsense. “We are living beyond our means”, it begins. Yes we are.

But the problem is not a lack of property tax: as anyone who has paid stamp duty knows,

Irish home-owners have been royally fleeced in recent years.

The reason is that as the Local Government Efficiency Review Group has identified, at a very minimum €511 million is being wasted on excessive layers of local government and hierarchy, waste which that report – commissioned by government – recommended be ended.

You could have used your Editorial to urge government to eliminate waste in local government.

And to curb eye-wateringly generous pay and pensions conditions enjoyed by the large number of the 32,000 local government employees whose role is administrative and unconnected with the provision of any real services to the public.

Instead you observe “Nobody likes to pay tax” before describing the “contempt for civic morality” of those opposed to the tax.

Can I suggest that the real “contempt for civic morality” is amongst those who expect hard- pressed homeowners to suffer more taxation to fund the egregious waste of public money.

Yours, etc,
Marc Coleman

Reminder: Ireland is not to blame for the catastrophe

At the very beginning of a Prime Time special last night viewers were ‘informed’ of who was responsible for Ireland’s woes.

2,000 miles away a country in turmoil lit the spark in a wildfire that would overwhelm Ireland and threaten to destroy the single currency.

Greece, according to the programme, was brought to the brink of financial collapse by a combination of corruption, chronic indebtedness and a dysfunctional tax system.

Ireland, on the other hand was ‘damaged’ by a combination of reckless banks, inept regulators and disastrous economic policies.

For a full hour the programme analysed the loss of Ireland’s financial independence without once mentioning the word ‘corruption’.

It is no mean achievement to analyse a country brought to ruin by political, financial and administrative corruption without once referring to that reality.

Greece is corrupt; Ireland is not, apparently.

So let’s bring ourselves up to date on who is to blame for the catastrophe visited upon Ireland.

The global financial crisis.

Lehman Brothers.

The German and French banks

And now – the Greeks.

Copy to:

Prime Time