Spectacular own goal from Irish Times

gaiscioch

Remember the incredible story by Joe Humphrey's in The Irish Times this morning which claimed more teachers were paid for working on the strike day than not paid?

It seems, after all, that Humphrey's latest propaganda piece against teachers (front page of this morning's printed paper) was based on "incorrect" figures from the Department of Education. They have now "updated" the original story:

Department issues apology over incorrect teacher strike figures

andrea1983

Seems fair enough to me.

Stationmaster

I wouldn't be the biggest fan of the IT but I can't see how it was their own goal.

gaiscioch

Stationmaster wrote: »

I wouldn't be the biggest fan of the IT but I can't see how it was their own goal.

Here's the cached version of the original article. Humphreys has, for a long time now, simply been a mouthpiece for the Department of Education, failing at every turn to challenge their stories. This was so obviously factually incorrect, yet he published it without checking and added his own usual anti-teacher conclusions. From the original article:

"More secondary school teachers reported for work than were absent during the two recent strike dates over junior cycle reform, according to official figures that will come as a serious embarrassment to teachers’ unions.
The Department of Education said 17,794 secondary teachers were paid for reporting to work on Tuesday December 2nd 2014, and 17,782 teachers were paid for the second strike date of Thursday January 22nd 2015.
The number of teachers recorded absent for each of the two days due to strike action were 15,314 and 15,345 respectively.

The figures belie claims by the two unions representing secondary teachers, the ASTI and TUI, that the profession is united on the issue, and bear out anecdotal evidence of support for the reforms among a significant portion of teachers.
Payroll figures
The department’s payroll figures cover all secondary and community/comprehensive schools and exclude those employed by Education and Training Boards (ETBs).
They are based on returns filed by school management, which were charged with recording absences through an online claims system.
Regarding the just over 15,300 striking workers, the department said “pay has been deducted from the salaries of all those teachers in respect of the two absences”.
The fact that more teachers reported to work than went on strike raises questions as to why schools, in fact, closed on both days. Management bodies are only supposed to close schools if there is insufficient staff."

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The fact that, even in the original article, all VEC techers were excluded from these figures was enough to make a mockery of Humphrey's original "More teachers worked on strike days than were absent" headline. He ran with that headline nevertheless, as he is simply against the teachers.

mtoutlemonde

gaiscioch wrote: »

front page of this morning's printed paper

I wonder will the apology make front page aswell - probably not.

andrea1983

I think this is a bit of a non issue really.

Still though, the IT is an absolute rag. Paul Cullen parrots HSE policy and press releases, Humphreys is a gob****e, they selectively report things that suit them.

I wouldn't bother get annoyed by it. Just don't engage.

Better all round. Stop buying the IT.

spurious

andrea1983 wrote: »

I think this is a bit of a non issue really.

Still though, the IT is an absolute rag. Paul Cullen parrots HSE policy and press releases, Humphreys is a gob****e, they selectively report things that suit them.

I wouldn't bother get annoyed by it. Just don't engage.

Better all round. Stop buying the IT.

Ah sure doesn't the lovely Breda Oh no not a homophobe O'Brien make appearances there. I used to love the laughs she'd give.
Best thing they ever did bringing in a charge to read it online. Goodbye and good luck.

NufcNavan

Newstalk were quick to run with this obviously incorrect information this morning in the news too..

evolving_doors

NufcNavan wrote: »

Newstalk were quick to run with this obviously incorrect information this morning in the news too..

Did they get in a little dig against the teachers yet?

implausible

NufcNavan wrote: »

Newstalk were quick to run with this obviously incorrect information this morning in the news too..

Morning Ireland reported it too - our national broadcaster.

Powerhouse

To be fair, anyone who swallowed the idea that more teachers reported for work than did not on a day when it had already been widely reported that schools were closed has to really question their judgement. Such a story would not pass the basic requirement of being vaguely believable in the first instance.

But it shows once again that journalists are often jacks of all trade and more often masters of none and are often operating outside their comfort zone. It is often only when they are dealing with an issue that you have a specific knowledge of that this is apparent but it's probably a regular occurrence across the board.

evolving_doors

Powerhouse wrote: »

To be fair, anyone who swallowed the idea that more teachers reported for work than did not on a day when it had already been widely reported that schools were closed has to really question their judgement. Such a story would not pass the basic requirement of being vaguely believable in the first instance.

But it shows once again that journalists are often jacks of all trade and more often masters of none and are often operating outside their comfort zone. It is often only when they are dealing with an issue that you have a specific knowledge of that this is apparent but it's probably a regular occurrence across the board.

I think it just shows that a journalist will print any line from the dept. without any critical thinking involved... and then put the department's spin on it. (Impartial journalism????).

It's blatently obvious that the numbers were crazy.