Politicians and the media in Ireland

Floppybits

My feelings on this is that there is a cosy love in between the media and the Polictians in this country. The media never seem to pull Politicians up on things they say that are completely wrong or when they are down right lying.

Take for example the comments from Noonan where he said that FF pulled a stroke to get one of their Senators elected to the banking enquiry which caused the opposition to have a majority on the committee. The truth was the labour Senators didnt turn up, the opposition parties offered to delay the vote till the Senator where there, the government Senators said no we will go ahead and they lost the vote because Norris sided with the opposition Senators. Why didn't the media pull Noonan up on this when it was crystal clear he was wrong?

Then again yesterday we had the roll back on the medical card debacle and the Taoiseach and Minister for Health get up and say that the reason for the mess was because FF centralised the medical card decision making. Now FF may have centralised the decision making but it was FG/Lab government decision to review the medical cards, again the media did not pull them up on this?

How can we expect the Politicians to be more honest when the media whoare the people never pull them up on their incorrect comments?

I am not a FF supporter or anything like that its just that examples given above are the most recent examples of the behaviour of politicians and the media.

IrishProd

Three words.


Denis O'Brien.

petronius

The Irish media is so entwined with the political class.
RTE is so dominated by Labour / Left -wing / Liberals of course it would try its best to portray the government in the best light.
Look at the partisan way it handled the North west Euro election debate, trying to keep its paymasters or licence fee/broadcasting tax purse handlers happy...

Knob Longman

A bunch of yes-men in our media.

Paddy Constable

petronius wrote: »

The Irish media is so entwined with the political class.
RTE is so dominated by Labour / Left -wing / Liberals of course it would try its best to portray the government in the best light.
Look at the partisan way it handled the North west Euro election debate, trying to keep its paymasters or licence fee/broadcasting tax purse handlers happy...

Does anybody pay a TV license up in that neck of the woods ?

Does anybody up there pay any legitimate charges ?

Sunnyisland

Is there any media independence any where in Ireland/Europe ? Does not all media have an agenda one way or another ? To many big/rich business men know own them,it's inevitable IMO.

Good loser

They're a mixed bag - Irish journalists. Not many intellectuals or thinkers. Jump onto bandwagons whenever one starts trundling. General bias towards left wing and socialism. Not one dares mentioning reducing social welfare rates.
Then the SF economics e.g. the wealth tax. No journalist I've ever heard enquire as to what the 1970's wealth tax in Ireland raised per annum. From my memory pitiful amounts. Yet SF project anything between €200m and €700m per annum.

comongethappy

realies wrote: »

To many big/rich business men know own them,it's inevitable IMO.

Is it not the opposite?

Too much state involvement or outright state domination across all media sectors, that agenda paid for in most European countries by forcing its people to pay a tax to perpetuate that same dominance.

The cosiness is inevitable & perpetual.

Paddy Constable

comongethappy wrote: »

Is it not the opposite?

Too much state involvement or outright state domination across all media sectors, that agenda paid for in most European countries by forcing its people to pay a tax to perpetuate that same dominance.

The cosiness is inevitable & perpetual.

That one is beyond me my friend....sure RTE is State dominated ...but where are the other examples. ?

comongethappy

Paddy Constable wrote: »

That one is beyond me my friend....sure RTE is State dominated ...but where are the other examples. ?

State broadcasters on average control 1/3rd of TV in Europe, higher still for radio.

Public funded tv in the UK has a 43% market share & a 50% market share for Radio & a whopping 70% market share for broadcast news.

In most European countries the largest broadcaster is also the state broadcaster

Saying the media is controlled by an oligarchic cadre isn't true.

hatrickpatrick

The Irish media for a large part treats politicians and other establishment figures like celebrities. Rather than holding powerful people to account and asking them difficult questions, too often you instead see them accorded the rock star mentality "Oh I'm so LUCKY to have been granted an audience with this person! Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence" and so on.

The media's blind adherence to the government's spin on the Cooke report and failure to go into the actual raw document and report on the sections which the government were eager to gloss over illustrates that perfectly for me, as does the disgraceful firing of journalists for not treating establishment figures like demi Gods.

Hell, think back to that excellent grilling of George Bush by Carole Coleman years ago, in which she actually tried to force him to cut the bullsh!t - rather than being proud of an Irish journalist doing her job, the establishment here rounded on her for her "disrespect". :mad:

petronius

There is too close a relationship between the media and politicians
They often share the same social circles, went to the same schools etc.

The Idea that you had Dobson asking a FF politician a question when Dobson had been advising politicians how to answer them.
That you have Labour party activists asking or reporting on political events involving Labour party members
Or former FG TD (Yates) asking a FG-er on Newstalk, or FG supporter(Hook) asking an FG public rep. a question how impartial can it be.
Not to mention how a state broadcaster can go easy on its minister of communications since they know the licence fee is set by them and apportioned by them - you can not have an impartial media when they are beholden to the government like this.

Godge

Floppybits wrote: »

My feelings on this is that there is a cosy love in between the media and the Polictians in this country. The media never seem to pull Politicians up on things they say that are completely wrong or when they are down right lying.

Take for example the comments from Noonan where he said that FF pulled a stroke to get one of their Senators elected to the banking enquiry which caused the opposition to have a majority on the committee. The truth was the labour Senators didnt turn up, the opposition parties offered to delay the vote till the Senator where there, the government Senators said no we will go ahead and they lost the vote because Norris sided with the opposition Senators. Why didn't the media pull Noonan up on this when it was crystal clear he was wrong?

Then again yesterday we had the roll back on the medical card debacle and the Taoiseach and Minister for Health get up and say that the reason for the mess was because FF centralised the medical card decision making. Now FF may have centralised the decision making but it was FG/Lab government decision to review the medical cards, again the media did not pull them up on this?

How can we expect the Politicians to be more honest when the media whoare the people never pull them up on their incorrect comments?

I am not a FF supporter or anything like that its just that examples given above are the most recent examples of the behaviour of politicians and the media.

I agree completely that the media are not holding politicians to account.

Every newspaper and news website should have a banner across the top that states: "Remember Fianna Fail ruined the country".

The banner could alternate with other things that the media seems to forget:

"The IRA haven't gone away you know, there is still an Army Council"
"There is absolutely no sense to any of the economic policies of the Socialist Party"
"No independent has ever been in government and made changes to policies and decisions"
"To be called left-wing in Ireland you have to oppose left-wing policies such as property taxes"
"People before Profit have no idea how to balance the Government's budget"


I could go on and on about things that politicians are lying about and that the media do not pick up on.

hatrickpatrick

Now Godge, don't forget about Lowry and Healy Rae when discussing independents and their impact on government policy

Godge

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Now Godge, don't forget about Lowry and Healy Rae when discussing independents and their impact on government policy

Point taken. Adjust banner headline as follows:

"No independent has ever been in government and made positive changes to policies and decisions".

jonah_whale

Good loser wrote: »

They're a mixed bag - Irish journalists. Not many intellectuals or thinkers. Jump onto bandwagons whenever one starts trundling. General bias towards left wing and socialism. Not one dares mentioning reducing social welfare rates.
Then the SF economics e.g. the wealth tax. No journalist I've ever heard enquire as to what the 1970's wealth tax in Ireland raised per annum. From my memory pitiful amounts. Yet SF project anything between €200m and €700m per annum.

virtually all intelectuals and thinkers of note in ireland are of the left , we have not one single conservative academic of note , i have no doubt they are out there but they would indeed be in enemy territory were they to venture near a radio or tv station

our media are that comfortable seats kind of mary robinson socilism which just drips smugness

jonah_whale

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

The Irish media for a large part treats politicians and other establishment figures like celebrities. Rather than holding powerful people to account and asking them difficult questions, too often you instead see them accorded the rock star mentality "Oh I'm so LUCKY to have been granted an audience with this person! Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence" and so on.

The media's blind adherence to the government's spin on the Cooke report and failure to go into the actual raw document and report on the sections which the government were eager to gloss over illustrates that perfectly for me, as does the disgraceful firing of journalists for not treating establishment figures like demi Gods.

Hell, think back to that excellent grilling of George Bush by Carole Coleman years ago, in which she actually tried to force him to cut the bullsh!t - rather than being proud of an Irish journalist doing her job, the establishment here rounded on her for her "disrespect". :mad:

the media in ireland has always been lewinsky like in how it approaches our police force

InReality

I think there is a 10-15% that they hadn't researched the issue enough in those cases.
However as they often ask reasonably good questions it is very very hard to explain when they don't follow up in cases when the minister is clearly wrong.

I never see that sort of outright failure to ask the right follow up on say Newsnight or in fact pretty much any UK programmes.

I'm not convinced it's to do with bias or personal relationship or a party

There was a lot of it around bertie's finances and FF time, lots of obvious questions never asked of him.
Look at how annoyed he was the night of the election years ago when he was asked only a midly difficult question.
He clearly expected just to be congratulated and was totally shocked at the "impertainance" and didn't mind lashing into journalists pay in response.

You'd never ever see a politican question the media like that in the UK or US.

I think its something like deference/fear or simply a personal/psycological weakness in not wanting to point out when a another person is clearly wrong.

I think the broadcasters in general are happy to pretend to be part of a punch and judy show but never actually threaten the "powerful".

Also proper investigative journalists have had a terrible time in Ireland.

petronius

Irish Government and its politicians get an easy ride from our Media, particularly RTE.
They hold the purse strings so RTE is fearful that any negativity by it toward the government will end in the Dept. of Communications changing the allocation from the licence fee.
In general our media and politicians (particularly in dublin) come from the same social class, go to the same Universities, circulate in the same social circles etc..
RTE was very pro-government in hosting debates for the recent euro elections
The classic example of the cosy cabal was when Martin(FF) then a minister was questioned by his communications advisor/trainer Brian Dobson - how can this be impartial or fair or fulfilling the remit of a neutral news organisation
RTE has been dominated by people with political affiliations, predominantly Labour, in the "recent" past Workers Party, watched reeling in the years and look at how the way RTE didnt send reporters to the coverage of the bye election in fermanagh-south tyrone which seen bobby sands elected and coverage was from ITN.
A government whose members (e.g. An Taoiseach) refuse to participate on Current Affairs shows (e.g. vincent brownes show) undermines our democracy.
The way the Media here hush hushed incidents, like the AG and McArthur in the GUBU controversy or Stagg in the Park..
-
The media were unquestioning in the "celtic tiger" bubble, even celebrating it,
going along with the flow, helping the escalating housing market - not rocking the boat