Blurred Keys

It is wrong gardai are lining up to pressure Evening Herald journalists to reveal the source of its story of a junior minster’s wrong doing. However, at the same time, the newspaper makes it very hard for people to take it seriously.

In a cover story yesterday afternoon, the newspaper highlighted how gardai are asking journalists for interviews, as well as requesting documents. It was a predictable move by the gardai.  There was also at least three comment articles on the issue.

The newspaper, however, makes it hard for people to take it seriously. The city final edition on Tuesday led with a story about an ex-lover’s argument on a street. The ex-lovers are a TV presenter and former model and high-profile developer, but the argument was nothing more than a noisy row. This is the kind of non-story with no possible public interest that the Evening Herald deems fit for its lead front-page story. How can this newspaper be taken seriously?

Entertainment or gossip stories also featured in all of the top four places on the paper’s website at different times when it was checked yesterday and today. What do I expect from the Herald? Is some solid Dublin news too much to ask for? Not too long ago the paper was at least good for that, you could over look it’s tone for some solid news not found elsewhere. This is not to say there is there is no place for entertainment stories, but rather a newspaper should be putting solid news first. And the paper’s editorialising and sensationalism seems to be getting worse.

This may all be viewed a ivory tower commentary. But the Evening Herald is losing circulation on a scale not seen at any other paper tracked by the ABC.  The downward trend at the Herald has also being more constant than most other. The average net circulation for the newspapers is down to 69,351  last year, compared to 104,137 just eight years ago in 2002. People may be reading the paper but fewer and fewer are willing to buy it. Furthermore, only an average of 61,438 people last year picked up the paper at its full price.

Within yesterday’s edition the paper covered the issue of a 30km/h speed limit in Dublin City Centre. The monthly Dublin City Council meeting was held on Monday. A Fine Gael councillor wanted the whole 30km/h zone scraped — even for small streets — so he tabled an emergency motion. Labour Party council members were willing to compromise reverting back to 50km/h on wider roads that were further away from the most pedestrian heavy areas. An amendment was attached to the Fine Gael motion. Both failed to reach the required amounts of votes.

Amazingly the first paragraph of the story covering this council vote in the Evening Herald, read: “A majority of city politicians want to revert the divisive 30kph speed limit — but it is here to stay because they can’t agree on how to change it”. This is nonsense, and clearly an inaccurate account of a highly contentious issue  (It should be noted that the online edition for some reason has a more accurate intro to the same article).

A comment article which appeared below the news story in the print edition was equally twisting of reality. It said: “The one bit of positivity last night was that Mr Slow finally bowed to public pressure when he tabled a motion for an amendment that would allow certain zones to revert to a 50kph limit. But it ended in failure when the number of votes fell short of the required majority.” No context or mention that those councillors who wanted the whole zone removed would not go along with the compromise. This is ill-informed or unbalanced commentary, it’s unclear which, maybe both.

Another thing you miss by not seeing the printed paper is the use of photos. One politician at the centre of the story is pictured, fine. One happy female journalist is shown in a byline photograph, fine. But then you have another female journalist (no byline on the page) in a photograph posing under a 30km/h sign, why? What’s the need for female journalists to be pictured like this? This practice is common at the Evening Herald, among others. How can a paper be taken seriously if it treats one section of its journalist like this?

Then there is also another woman pictured under a list of councillors voting — who is she? There’s no caption. But looking at the list of councillors, one name is followed by “(pictured)”. This councillor is not mentioned in the news or comment article on the page, and is has not being anyway notably vocal on this issue. Can anybody really take the Evening Herald seriously?

Gardai are very likely to have used current data retention laws to look at the phone records of the journalists in questions. Like the new wider Data Retention Bill which in its final stages before the Houses of the Oireachtas, no court order is need for this. So where do the paper stand on this? We were expecting to find nothing on the Evening Herald’s website about data retention, but there was a telling article about the paper’s position.

An opinion article without a byline – possibly an editorial — is headlined “Cack-handed Greens have made themselves look wobbly on crime” (Thursday, July 16, 2009). It said: “Eamon Ryan then let it be known that he’d fought bravely with the minister for justice to secure “significant changes” to the crime legislation on data retention published earlier this week”. This type of law has being passed in recent years in the name of tackling gangland crime and terrorism.

Of course the problem with this cheerleading of the Data Retention Bill and the then criminal justice bill, which the article also mentions, is that these types of laws have too wide of a scope to be abused. The Herald said, “all the evidence suggests that this is a bill the public wants to see passed right away.” But it’s this kind of law which now allows gardai to look at journalists phone records without court orders. The cheerleaders of bad laws do not have the moral right to cry when the kind of laws they promote are turned on them. Should anybody have any sympathy for them now?

In The Irish Times today, Peter Murtagh writes (’Journalists are supposed to be against abuses‘) about Monica Leech being awarded €1.87 million in her libel case against the Evening Herald / Independent News & Media.

He says journalists should not be standing “shoulder to shoulder” with those who abuse power — in this case the Herald.

The argument on the other side is the large sum awarded will deter serious journalism. But is it not the Herald which is at fault here rather than the jury? Beside money, what else does Independent News and Media understand? What else would make them think twice?

- Press Ombudsman says plagiarism is covered
- We get legal threats from an Irish Independent journalist

As examples of plagiarism are mounting against newspapers in the group, Independent News & Media seem to be unable to keep their hands off the copy and paste function of their PCs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Vincent Browne’s Village magazine is to cease publishing, he called the process a "suspension," and said to the Irish Independent that he hoped to resume printing in future. The magazine’s website, Village.ie, will continue, although it is currently off-line for updating.

After previous cuts in the workforce, the three remaining staff will be let go.

He told the Irish Times the move is due to "a significant downturn in advertising and the cancellation of special
contract publications we were undertaking for third parties."

Village was expecting to make a small profit this year, but the contract publications were central to this. In a recent interview with Marketing magazine Browne said: "My only backer, Michael Smith, lost about €260,000 and I lost in the region
of €1.2 million. Village is going to be a marginal exercise but we can
make money on contract publishing and we should make significant money on the
website".

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission has said ‘Biffo’, the nick name for the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, does not insult him and was "highly unlikely to cause widespread offence”.

Complainant, Charlie McGrory, objected on the grounds of fairness, objectivity and impartiality, and taste and decency, after presenter of RTE Radio 1 News at One, Sean O’Rourke (pictured), said "did Biffo blink?".

According to the BCI: "McGrory states he is not a Fianna Fáil member or activist but finds this reference to the office of Taoiseach disrespectful, lacking objectivity and in poor taste.  He wonders how we can encourage our young people to become active in politics when the national broadcaster refers to the Taoiseach as ‘Biffo’"

The acronym, depending on your point of view, can mean ‘Big Intelligent Fellow From Offaly’ or ‘Big Ignorant Fucker From Offaly’. RTE said it "has as much to do with a boy’s comic character from the 1950’s as it has to do with any reference to people from County Offaly. Indeed, the term has been used by Mr Cowen himself in a humorous context".

The broadcaster added that, generally speaking, it does not and will not use the term ‘Biffo’ when referring to the Taoiseach and this was used as a ‘headline’ to attract listeners to stayed tuned in before an ad break.

MORE: Decision in full (MS Word doc)
MORE: List of decisions of July 2008

A round-up of news, comment and other info from news sites blogs, and message boards etc…

Cardinal challenges the media’s ‘dominant’ secular view
Sunday World top of the pops as it avoids musical marketing
Ireland’s papers defy downward trends
JNLR July 07-June 08 Survey results issued (PDF)
ABC IofI report (PDF, link replaced when new report released)
Tom Dunne to Newstalk
Today FM to preserve Pet Sounds
Ray of sunshine
Muzu makes music pa
Media world: Too Late Late for Pat Kenny?
RTE promises ’spectacular’ first Late Late Show despite Kenny’s delay in signing up
Lung cancer under reported in Irish media - report
Sunday Times to launch monthly Irish edition of Style magazine
South Ossetian man angered by Irish media coverage
MediaBite Email Re: The €11m ‘gas bill’
Media ought to beware groups bearing surveys
Belfast Telegraph relaunched website sees huge traffic spike
Myers and Nigerians
RTE Television unveils new season
Sponsors fail to check in to Failte Towers
The Big Switch over
BCI National Conference Asks ‘Does the Medium Matter?’
O’Brien group told January DTT launch is a ‘fantasy’
Digital terrestrial TV available from autumn next year
Adverts rate alert for Channel 6
TV3 to buy Channel 6 for €10m
Is RTE Radio 1 being dumbed down?
Mandy and the Irish Media

A boards.ie user spotted the above story this morning on RTE.ie News where a map outline of the US state of Georgia was being used on a story about the country of the same name.

Regular Blurred Keys users will be aware of some their past errors and tabloidisation, regular readers of RTE.ie are probably even more aware of such. The online news section should not to be confused with the general RTE News, which is a different operation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bit late with this one… Entry to Newstalk’s Emerging Voices Student Documentary Competition closes this Thursday. And this is what it’s all about:

"The judges will be looking for work that is original, relevant and
produced to a high standard. The winning entry will be broadcast on the
station, the winner will receive a placement at Newstalk and a cash
prize of €500".

For more see newstalk.ie.

Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times today talks about "the hyping-up of the ordinary into the extraordinary". In the article he mentions journalism’s part in the in the hyperbole…   

Journalism, of course, has a lot to do with all of this. The tabloid
thesaurus in which every murderer is a monster, every rapist a beast
and every piece of celebrity tittle-tattle a sensation, is becoming the
vocabulary of the mainstream media too.

Of course, tabloids are not the only culprits by any means. For one local newepaper we read, an aim to cut road deaths is hyped to "frightening number of deaths", and new trains which don’t have reclining chairs, don’t have a first class carriages, and don’t currently have any dining carriages, some-how are “luxurious” trains. We’re surprised when there isn’t superfluous words in their news.

I’ve heard excuses along the lines of it makes content more interisting, but nonsense hyperbole slowly chips away at people’s fate in journalism. Is saying this hyperbolic in its self? No, because what are too often brushed away as just a little mistake and, in this case, just a little bit of hype is exactly what erodes the public’s confidence in journalism. 

The Sunday World has relaunched their website, sundayworld.com, recently.

The content includes columns, gossip, and reviews. They also have online-only content from gossip site PerezHilton.com. And there’s video from Balcony TV, along with other video clips of games and films, and ‘funnies’.

But no news.

The roll over banner advert currently running across the site shows Paul Williams, the newspaper’s crime editor, saying - as ever - he’ll be watching the criminals. That’s entertaining at least.

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