Blurred Keys

Newspapers get a bit prickly when it comes to exclusives and credit for such, rightly so. But apparently there’s a bit of confusion over who got there first at the Irish edition of the Sunday Times on a story on Manhon Tribunal interview tapes.

The Times printed their story earlier this month, while the Phoenix published their first at the start of the year. Phoenix explains…

Read the rest of this entry »

Monica Leech has lost her libel action against the Irish Independent. Leech claimed she was libelled by the newspaper in an article about claims made on the RTE radio show Liveline.

The PR woman previously won €250,000 in damages from RTE due to comments made on the show.

MORE: Leech loses High Court damages action (free access).

Deputy Editor of the Sunday Business Post, Richard Curran, defended negative media coverage of the Irish property market this evening on the Last Word radio show; he said a stable market would not be affected by such coverage.

Curran came under fire for talking down the property market after presenting the RTE program Future Shock: Property Crash, but much of the media has been blamed after an apparent recent in negative coverage.

Irish journalists were accused of been infected by a pack mentality yesterday by Paul Allen, head PR company of Paul Allen & Associates, who was guest writing in the Media and Marketing section of the Sunday Business Post. He referred to coverage of the economy as well as how the media treated Bertie Ahern before the recent election.

Allen citied similar criticism on coverage of the economy by Bank of Ireland economist Dan McLaughlin, saying, “He has suggested that certain elements in the media are trying to talk us into a recession and do not give a true picture of how the economy is performing. He suggested misleading headlines were taking things out of context”.

The PR man said the media were obsessed with bad news and called for journalists to start acting as independent observers, “It is time the media got back on track and started acting like an independent observer and reporter on our current fortunes, rather than spinning the stories to suit its own bad news agenda”.

A post on the Edelman Dublin blog today remind us of news in the Irish Times last week that the Irish watch less television then our European neighbors, interestingly an increass in online usage has had a little to no impact on TV viewership numbers… 

On average, Irish people watch TV for an average of just over three
hours (182 minutes) per day. In the UK, the average is 216 minutes
per day. Paul Moran, managing director of MediaWorks, who compiled
the data from Nielsen ratings, points out that, despite the
increasing amount of time people are spending online, TV viewership
has remained relatively consistent over the past decade. News is
still the most popular TV programme genre in Ireland, whereas
reality shows are the most popular in the UK. -  Media&Marketing, the Irish Times 

Adrian Weckler at yourtechstuff.com questions Bebo’s high Irish visitor figures, asking "Are there really more people watching Bebo than the majority of TV shows?".

The real question here is why internet advertisers are not pushing for more independent visitor numbers accreditation systems, such as ABC Electronic, an offspring ABC the UK and Irish newspaper audit system?

Newspapers of  the Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) media group could switch to production outsourcing, Anthony Dinan group managing director is quoted as saying in an interview in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune.  

Dinan said outsourcing was one of a number of cost-cutting moves which could be use.

He also said the recent outsourcing at rival IN&M paved the way for any such move without objection from the NUJ, but the NUJ said the vote by their members at IN&M titles was not a vote for an overall acceptance of the idea of outsourcing.

TCH owns the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Business Post, a large selection of regional newspapers and other media interests including a percentage of radio stations Red FM, Beat FM, and MidWest Radio.

The Mahon Tribunal’s action against the Irish Times has been
set to be heard before the High Court on July 10. 

The action centres around forcing the editor Geraldine
Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena to reveal the source of a
story focused on payments to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, a letter quoted in the
article is viewed by the private and confidential.

M: Judges appointed in case against ‘Irish Times’ (subs
reqd)

Whether it’s Evening Herald on-the-road newspaper seller (as pictured above) or distributors
of freesheets Herald AM, and Metro, newspaper distributors are a common sight
on Dublin roads, on traffic islands, or between cars, trucks, and buses.

Apparently the Evening Herald yesterday featured alarming news
that people on roads and moving even between stopped traffic could be a hazard.
The story focused on people selling the service of windscreen washing, but don’t
newspaper sellers and distributors cause at least similar hazards?

Irish Examiner political editor Harry McGee tackles John Waters’ claims of bias against Fianna Fail in the pre-election coverage…

Most journalists based their predictions (and their analysis) not on
any fatuous wish-fulfillment for the soft left or prejudice against FF,
but on the only evidence that was available to them - the opinion
polls. The same polls waxed and waned during the 25 days of the
campaign. And it meant that many journalists, who are creatures of the
moment, swayed with whichever way the wind was blowing.

In the main,
the writing reflected this flux and the volatility (and I’m including
my own in this). Sure there’s a question about our almost craven
reliance on opinion polls. And perhaps, in retrospect, journalists
over-estimated the impact of the BertieGate allegations. But that’s a
reflection (sadly) of superficiality - not of any deep-seated
ideological prejudice. And, what nobody predicted, even FFers
themselves, was the sheer ease of the FF victory. - Harry McGee

Meanwhile, Michael Hennigan at finfacts.ie tackles Waters on a number of points… 

Expecting to dance to the tune Arise and follow Charlie, John Waters as Rip Van Winkle, wakes up to an Ireland where divorce is legalised, homosexuality decriminalised and the cap is no longer doffed to the high and mighty in Church and State. God forbid, the media at last even dares cast a cold eye on the machinations of politicians. - Michael Hennigan

Never mind Rip Van Winkle, what you have imagine is Waters (and Harris and co) actually sitting behind a dike with their fingers in the gaps in the wall stopping the tide of a Fianna Fail biased media from coming in from the other site, a Fianna Fail biased media which "en masse" is only in their imaginations…   

The easier solution is for the media, with the exception of Eoghan Harris and myself, to stand down en masse, it having been established that, once again, ideological agendas, wishful thinking and spite have prevented them doing their jobs. If there is a better reason for resigning, I cannot think of it. - John Waters in the Irish Times

Maybe Waters was reading too much of the Irish Times? The Phoenix had the following to say about the newspaper’s election coverage…

There was a time when, despite its undoubted anti-Fianna Fáil agenda, the IT affected an impartiality in its political coverage. However, all such pretence has been dropped under Madam Editor, whose detestation of FF was openly manifest in its election coverage. This bias may well have damaged the paper’s credibility, not only because many of today’s middle-class readers would have more regard for FF than ten or twenty years ago, but also because the paper’s election coverage was damaged by its partisanship.

The differences in news reading styles
at RTE and Sky are outlined by the Dublin-based BalconyTV.com in the below video…

Viewers should note that the
video may be distasteful to those of a sensitive (or too sensible) nature after
01:40.

BalconyTV.com which uses YouTube is shot from a balcony of an apartment on Dame Street in Dublin. The show which is about 5mins long, but varies in time, is normally host to musical acts. It won the best music website at the Digital Music Awards 2007.

« Older Entries