Broadsheet.ie & IT deleting articles relating to Kate's death

Fear Uladh

I noticed they didn't mention the PR company at all either.

I'd say the word from the top is to keep quiet about it.

Edit: What The Sparrow said...

AnonoBoy

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

From what i remember no mention of that or the PR company

She did state that her employers had no idea she was suffering from depression. I think they're aware of the potential legal problems and are trying to get past that.

Giruilla

I certainly won't be tuning into Newstalk any time soon.

Sooopie

AnonoBoy wrote: »

She did state that her employers had no idea she was suffering from depression. I think they're aware of the potential legal problems and are trying to get past that.

Was she not off sick from her job with it?

Her employers did know?

AnonoBoy

Sooopie wrote: »

Was she not off sick from her job with it?

Her employers did know?

She might not have told them exactly why she was off work. I'm not sure about the ins and outs of it. I'm just repeating what her mother said on the Newstalk interview this morning.

Wibbs

The Sparrow wrote: »

And the really scary thing is that in the grand scheme of things this is a minor enough story, but what else have PR companies like this managed to get pulled or not published with threats of legal action?

Quite a few things that I've heard directly and through people I know well in said Irish medja. To be fair mostly salacious stuff like extra marital affairs and the like, rather than governmental corruption type stuff. Though sometimes the salacious stuff has "leaked" for political leverage or that would be my take on it.

Corruptable

Now that I think about it, Dinny will probably go onto Newstalk this evening with George Hook and moan about internet trolling like that other moaning Cork w*n*er Eddie Hobbs did earlier in the week.

Sooopie

AnonoBoy wrote: »

She might not have told them exactly why she was off work. I'm not sure about the ins and outs of it. I'm just repeating what her mother said on the Newstalk interview this morning.

You would need to tell your work why you're out sick.

hardCopy

Sooopie wrote: »

AnonoBoy wrote: »

She might not have told them exactly why she was off work. I'm not sure about the ins and outs of it. I'm just repeating what her mother said on the Newstalk interview this morning.

You would need to tell your work why you're out sick.

I thought the original article made it quite clear that they knew she was suffering from depression

AnonoBoy

Sooopie wrote: »

You would need to tell your work why you're out sick.

Part of the discussion this week about suicide has been how many doctors advise people not to put 'depression' down on their cert as it may not be viewed well by their employers. This well may have been the case with Kate.

Again, I don't know anything about her case so can't say for sure. All I'm repeating is what the mother said.

AnonoBoy

hardCopy wrote: »

I thought the original article made it quite clear that they knew she was suffering from depression

It did seem that way alright.

bijapos

Terry Prone and her family are imo essentially nothing more than paid media whores, they will back anyone up, push any policy, change any camp just for a few quid. Prone has worked for FF, PD's, Labour and FG several times over the years, has gladly spouted lies, spin (essentially political lies) innsinuations and innuendo to further whatever her clients want.

She was/is closely connected to Haughey, Reynolds, Ahern, Fitxgerald, Spring, Bruton and now Kenny. I gave up on her years ago, no substance and as a poster said earlier neither she nor her family have contributed anything meaningful to this country, if anything they have made it worse.

Bertie has her to be thankful for, it was only after she dealt with him that he got the sharp suits and the sharp haircut.

Her former company was Carr Communications:

Irish Examiner 15.06.1998
TDs thank Carr for gift of media gab

by Seán McCárthaigh
THE company that put the silver spoon in the mouths of many of the country's best-known politicians yesterday marked its own silver anniversary.
Carr Communications, the famous grooming school for TDs, celebrated 25 years in business by opening its new headquarters at the Communications Centre in Blackrock, Co Dublin.
On hand to perform the official ceremony was one of its most famous pupils — an Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Other guests, indeed clients, included EU Commissioner Pádraig Flynn, Environment Minister Noel Dempsey, MEP Mary Bannotti and former Taoiseach Dr Garret Fitzgerald.
Although he was never advised by the company to lose the anorak, the Taoiseach admitted that it was with severe reservations that he first visited Carr for media training. "I expected that they would want to transform me into something false, an imitation of some model communicator," said Mr Ahern.
However, according to the Taoiseach, he soon realised that Carr Communications taught people to be the best version of themselves.
"They don't put words in our mouth — they just push you to find the most interesting way to say what you want to say.
"That sounds simple, but it isn't. Particularly when what you have to say might be dangerous if misunderstood," said Mr Ahern as several heads nodded in agreement.
The company which was established by former Quicksilver presenter Bunny Carr, pioneered media training in Ireland and it quickly earned the reputation for being the first port of call for politicians anxious to polish up on their TV and radio performances.
Yesterday's ceremony saw Carr completing his career full circle as the company's new premises are in the refurbished building where he began his media work with the Catholic Communication Centre.
He recalled that when he established Carr Communications it seemed "a foolhardy and grossly unstrategic decision."

AnonoBoy

bijapos wrote: »

Terry Prone and her family are imo essentially nothing more than paid media whores, they will back anyone up, push any policy, change any camp just for a few quid. Prone has worked for FF, PD's, Labour and FG several times over the years, has gladly spouted lies, spin (essentially political lies) innsinuations and innuendo to further whatever her clients want.

Couldn't the above apply to any PR company?

Corruptable

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Couldn't the above apply to any PR company?

Or any:

• Solicitor
• Doctor (apart from Conrad Murray)
• Accountant
• Hit man

seeing_ie

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Couldn't the above apply to any PR company?

Don't know of any other PR company where:

Father of a family is managing director, mother and son directors.
Father is also Chairman of the State Broadcasting Authority.
Mother works in the media, also advises politicians on how to manage
the media.
Son also works in the media, and advises head of state (among
others) on how to manage the media. Son also interviews politicians. We don't know what politicians are clients of his.

The conflicts of interest are staggering.

On a basic level, is there no other journalist, whose mother isn't Terry Prone, or who didn't go to Belvedere college, that applied for the jobs Anton got?

Why PR companies like TCC won’t ever own the Interwebs.

AnonoBoy

seeing_ie wrote: »

Don't know of any other PR company where:

I just meant that most PR companies aren't exactly paradigms of virtue. They'll do whatever the money tells them to.

Kimia

There is no credibility in the Irish media, in particular - RTE (:rolleyes:), Indo and the Irish Times. It's all half truths & selective nonsense build on a foundation of nepotism and corruption.

Amalgam

PR companies operate best in a vacuum, with no resistance.. They shouldn't really have that much power or influence, in a healthy society.

Fair play to broadsheet.ie for just posting what was originally submitted, by a person who is sadly, now deceased.

I can't reach the site now, which seems a tad ominous..

Kimia

Amalgam wrote: »

PR companies operate best in a vacuum, with no resistance.. They shouldn't really have that much power or influence, in a healthy society.

Fair play to broadsheet.ie for just posting what was originally submitted, by a person who is sadly, now deceased.

I can't reach the site now, which seems a tad ominous..

Me neither!! hmmmm

mikom

I can.

Sooopie

Good on the Metro - Piece on the whole debacle this morning - and it named & shamed said PR company

Pdfile

dav3 wrote: »

Fair play to broadsheet.ie. Disgraceful and disgusting behavior from that PR company. A company, who in my own opinion has contributed nothing positive to this country.

do any PR company do anything positive really ?? :rolleyes:

The Sparrow

Sooopie wrote: »

Good on the Metro - Piece on the whole debacle this morning - and it named & shamed said PR company

Anyone got a link? Fair play to the Metro!

The Sparrow

Update from Broadsheet.ie

It is now six days since the Irish Times’ article about Kate Fitzgerald, who took her own life in August.

To recap. The piece did not mention her employer The Communications Clinic. It did however refer to Kate’s original article (which was available on the Irish Times website), written anonymously, where she made a number of allegations against the company.

On Monday, after we posted that Kate had worked for The Communications Clinic (alongside a July employment tribunal hearing report about a employee alleging bullying and intimidation at the company), Kate’s article which had been on the paper’s website since September 9 was edited without any explanation

The paragraphs that contained the claims against her employer were removed. In fact so clumsy was the editing it appeared that she had no issues with The Communications Clinic. Kate’s parents were not told in advance that this was happening.

Following a warning that we were facing a ‘libel landmine” (see previous post, link below) and after taking our own legal advice, we took our posts down.

On Tuesday we received an email from The Irish Times online editor Hugh Linehan which asked:

“Was wondering why you took down that post. Was pressure applied?”

We replied that we had received a late night warning and added:

“This was to be expected but [we] noticed you guys had pulled extracts from Kate’s original piece (referring to her employer) presumably on legal advice (?) and became anxious as our posts were based on that piece. [we] spoke with a barrister friend at about 1am who advised us to remove the two posts about Kate.”

We said that we had tried to get contact details for Peter Murtagh, the author of Saturday’s article, but it had been too late. Mr Linehan sent us Peter Murtagh’s phone number and email.

The conversation we had with Mr Murtagh was off the record but on Wednesday morning when, following a conversation with Kate’s parents, we published our article about the editing of Kate’s article we received an email from Peter Murtagh asking to contact him “urgently” about “refs to us [Irish Times] that are incorrect”.

He told us that the The Irish Times did not edit Kate’s article because of a threat of legal action from The Communications Clinic (as was our understanding based on our conversation) but on legal advice from the paper’s own lawyer(s).

When we asked Mr Murtagh if the Irish Times had acted solely on its own volition he said that The Communications Clinic had been in touch “with the paper” and had “registered its unhappiness” about the allegations contained in Kate’s original article.

Much about this story doesn’t make sense but this sounded especially odd as the paper regularly offers a right of reply to people who feel they have been misrepresented.

Also, to have edited an article that had been the author’s last words – described by her mother as Kate’s “suicide note” – on the basis of someone’s “unhappiness” as opposed to a substantial legal threat simply beggared belief.

However, we amended our post to reflect the clarification from Mr Murtagh.

What we know is that Kate wrote an anonymous article about attitudes by employers towards people with depression. That she was dead before that article was published in The Irish Times. We know that Peter Murtagh was contacted by Kate’s father Tom Fitzgerald, who confirmed his daughter was the author.

And that her article alleged wrongdoing at The Communications Clinic, a company that a month earlier had faced accusations of bullying and intimidation by another young worker.

And then. Nothing.

If this had happened in a local branch of Tesco you might expect a newspaper such as the Irish Times, would investigate.

It is very possible that Mr Murtagh, in his article on Saturday – three month’s after Kate’s death – included her claims about the difficulties at her workplace in his article and it was removed on legal advice during the subbing process.

But if there were concerns why did Kate’s article, in its original form with the allegations, remain on the paper’s website site until Monday before it was, in her mother’s words, “butchered”?

We know from talking with Kate’s parents that Mr Murtagh has acted in their interest and has helped to raise the issues surrounding depression and mental illness that she attempted to put into the public domain. We do not know Mr Murtagh. But he is known as a journalist of the highest integrity and in a tough, often unpleasant industry, is extremely popular and respected.

On Wednesday night we were told and it has since been confirmed to us that Peter Murtagh has had a professional relationship going back more than 25 years with Terry Prone, owner of The Communications Clinic. We were surprised that Mr Murtagh had not told us about this. Particularly as we had spoken candidly with him of our fears (real or imagined) and those of Kate’s mother about the influence and reach of The Communications Cinic within political and media circles in Ireland and that we had mentioned Terry Prone by name.

But we also realise that many journalists on most national newspapers know Ms Prone. It would be perhaps more unusual if Mr Murtagh did not know Terry Prone. We also understand that the Communications Clinic was unaware that Saturday’s article about Kate was about to appear.

But it is a question of transparency or, as media training consultants call it, the ‘optics’. Mr Murtagh wrote in some detail about Kate’s working life. The article did not mention her time at the Communications Clinic. Peter Murtagh is a friend of one of the owners of that company. Perhaps it should have been left to another journalist to cover that important area of Kate’s life? We asked Mr Murtagh yesterday morning on the record about Ms Prone but he said he did not wish to speak to us anymore.

The Irish Times is a newspaper with a record of demanding extremely high standards from others. Certainly standards this website regularly fails to reach.

This was Kate Kitzgerald’s version of Kate Fitzgerald’s life and it was altered and revised by the paper that she went to for help.

Why?

seeing_ie

Crusading journalism by Broadsheet.

The question is what is the *exact* nature of the “professional relationship” between Peter Murtagh and Terry Prone?

How many other journalists in Ireland have a “professional relationship” with Terry Prone or the Communications Clinic?

If other “professional relationships” are discovered, should previous articles be examined for bias?

grizzly

I imagine this will get buried very fast. Will be surprised if this thread will still be on the boards servers in a few months. In my mind Anton Savage's grin has just been downgraded to shít eating.

splitrmx

Any easy way for the average joe to save a whole thread himself apart from taking a ton of screenshots?

Dionysus

This Broadsheet.ie seems to be very impressive, comparatively very courageous, here. The entire Savage/Prone spindoctor machine has always been ugly. And fair play to the posters here who have outlined its incestuous relationship with RTÉ, the Irish media generally and most of the political parties. Their attempt to kill this story is stupidity on an extraordinary scale, but not surprising. The Irish Times editing of the final letter of a deceased person is shocking and should lead to resignations.

But who owns and is the principal editor of Broadsheet.ie? I can't find any 'About' section on their website, which is not exactly transparent.

SEPT 23 1989

grizzly wrote: »

I imagine this will get buried very fast. Will be surprised if this thread will still be on the boards servers in a few months. In my mind Anton Savage's grin has just been downgraded to shít eating.

I hope the owners of this site dont do that

seeing_ie

Dionysus wrote: »

This Broadsheet.ie seems to be very impressive, comparatively very courageous, here. The entire Savage/Prone spindoctor machine has always been ugly. And fair play to the posters here who have outlined its incestuous relationship with RTÉ, the Irish media generally and most of the political parties. Their attempt to kill this story is stupidity on an extraordinary scale, but not surprising. The Irish Times editing of the final letter of a deceased person is shocking and should lead to resignations.

But who owns and is the principal editor of Broadsheet.ie? I can't find any 'About' section on their website, which is not exactly transparent.

Very good question it has to be said.

I recognise some of the contributors' names. Some are/were bloggers I think. Was John Ryan involved with "Blogorrah" back in the day?
I loved that blog. Very funny.