Who is Ireland's worst journalist?

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Paul Williams. Pretends to be hard hitting but is just a romance writer about criminals.

I've met him a couple of times socially (years ago) and he seemed nice enough, not a bragger or anything. So, it always surprises me when I see negative comments about him. If i read something he has written about criminal activity, am I being conned, I mean , surely he has to write the actual facts.


There's a TV series on one of the satellite channels, about murder investigations, and its hosted by an Irish journalist (who's name escapes me). I would watch one of his programmes and think "well, that's a bit tabloidy", so its his style I'd be criticising. I wouldn't be in a position to criticise the accuracy of the facts he reports, because how would I know one way or the other??? So is Paul Williams the print version of this guy?

As for worst journo - immediately Barry Egan comes to mind, but perhaps I'm doing a disservice to the profession by describing him as a journalist. Is Fawning ar$e licker a profession?

NickNickleby wrote: »

I've met him a couple of times socially (years ago) and he seemed nice enough, not a bragger or anything. So, it always surprises me when I see negative comments about him. If i read something he has written about criminal activity, am I being conned, I mean , surely he has to write the actual facts.


There's a TV series on one of the satellite channels, about murder investigations, and its hosted by an Irish journalist (who's name escapes me). I would watch one of his programmes and think "well, that's a bit tabloidy", so its his style I'd be criticising. I wouldn't be in a position to criticise the accuracy of the facts he reports, because how would I know one way or the other??? So is Paul Williams the print version of this guy?

As for worst journo - immediately Barry Egan comes to mind, but perhaps I'm doing a disservice to the profession by describing him as a journalist. Is Fawning ar$e licker a profession?

Guessing Donal McIntyre, Williams acted disgracefully towards Maurice McCabe,

Karl Deeter , The tripe he comes out with. One that stick's in mind is , he recently wrote to put older people out of the 3/4 bed semi's they had worked hard to buy (the children have flown the coop). I have to add . Ciara Kelly! God help us.

By pure aggressive tone of voice:: I could not stand Vincent Brown. And now it's Matt Cooper.. I did and do not like how they operate.

Brendan O'Connor came out with this infamous article in 2007, f*cking idiot!

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-smart-ballsy-guys-are-buying-up-property-right-now-26307728.html

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I quite like Barry Egan's work to be honest. It's not like he's a hard hitting gonzo journalist or anything. He's a gossip columnist, and I think he does that with the wit and levity that is required. I get the feeling Egan's tongue is firmly in his cheek as he writes what he writes.

Oh, HIS cheek. Right.

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

That one who's name escapes me that bought a flat in the docklands and then wrote columns about how unfair all of it was when it lost its value during the crash. I think there was a bit of a legal hullabaloo about it too on boards.ie with her not liking the fact that she was being discussed. Her articles were generally just complete airhead stuff, a Dublin Carrie Bradshaw lite.

Alison O'Riordan. Seems she's re-established herself as a court reporter.

Was just another Indo bubblehead. As is Egan. See, both sexes.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/i-signed-my-life-away-for-the-sake-of-city-centre-apartment-26642735.html

Is Ursula Halligan still pretending to be a journalist? Haven't seen her recently. Or did she get what was coming to her career wise after she gleefully told Brian Lenihan's kids their daddy was going to die of cancer on St Stephen's Day. Happy Christmas indeed!

If she is gone and so is Ivan "40-Pensions" Yeats then Ciara Kelly. But does she count as a journalist? She's a presenter.

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Eoghan Harris. The man is a parody of himself at this stage.

Harris basically has one story: "Sinn Fein are bad m'kay?" which get's pulled into all kinds of other topics that he's pretending to address.

Not that there's anything wrong with thinking bad of SF, but someone in national newspaper should have a bit more range and not prompt you to skip his pieces because you're already familiar with the content.

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Brendan O'Connor came out with this infamous article in 2007, f*cking idiot!

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-smart-ballsy-guys-are-buying-up-property-right-now-26307728.html

To be fair, he was singing that as part of a pretty big choir.

The Sunday Independent used to be bought after Mass every week. I railed against this, because even then I thought it was a right leaning kisser of rich people's ass. I suspect its far worse now. Just go look at the Irish Independent front page on the web, half the headlines are about some famous person's pregnancy. I wanted to enclose the word famous above, in quotes, but I saw someone getting in trouble for it. ":D:D:D". So, just assume they're there.

Gene Kerrigan walks past my gate occasionally, and often was I tempted to tell him that only for his column, the paper would have been burned at the earliest opportunity. But I didn't want him to think I was one of those looneys who has to share his opinion with everyone on the street.

So now I do it on boards :pac:

Whoops, afterthought - I used to* read the Indo's political correspondent's column. I think its useful to read all political correspondents, for a mix of (usually) considered views.

*won't pay for it, have a sub to the IT instead, where I can self flagellate whilst reading Fintan and Una' latest diatribe.

George Lee.

Kristy Blake Knox of the Independent.

greensausage wrote: »

Gemma o Doherty if she counts??

Not anymore

greensausage wrote: »

Gemma o Doherty if she counts??

She could make it in the Irish Independent.


WHO CAN'T MAKE IT IN THE IRISH INDEPENDENT!?

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I quite like Barry Egan's work to be honest. It's not like he's a hard hitting gonzo journalist or anything. He's a gossip columnist, and I think he does that with the wit and levity that is required. I get the feeling Egan's tongue is firmly in his cheek as he writes what he writes.

Not sure if serious or not but I'll bite anyway. This is possibly the worst thing I've ever read on this site. Wit? Levity? On top of the embarrassing subject matter of "articles," his actual writing is appalling. The man is a complete ****ing imbecile.

All my other usual suspects have already been named but I particularly loathe Sarah-Jane Murphy. Her Twitter account is a procession of fictitious, fanciful, embellished stories to the extent that I saw a mental health post from her retweeted the other day and I (somewhat guiltily) just assumed it was yet another attention seeking pile of tripe.

Any cynical ex-alcoholic who fancies themself a writer male or female.

Haven't read The independence in a long time but it uses to be full of them.

Brendan O Connor has gone peculiar I wonder does he have an eating disorder he has so many diest related articles on his show.

John Waters. Even before he turned the crazy up to eleven with Gemma, I found it very difficult to get through any of his articles, because you could have nearly half of it read and still not be sure what the hell it was about. I don't know why they keep having him on radio or TV either, just getting a coherent sentence out seems to be beyond his capabilities.