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Sunday Independent journalist Eoghan Harris has been appointed to the Seanad as one of 11 non-elected nominees of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Harris has been a supporter of Ahern throughout last year’s ‘Bertiegate’ events. The journalist has been accused by some of being too close to the  Taoiseach, the appointment will now be seen as a reward.

MORE: Taoiseach appoints eleven Seanad members

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”.

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)

The opposition receive more coverage then the government in the run up to the Irish general election according to a RTÉ.ie / Dow Jones’ Factiva media tracker. The tracker data backs claims that Fianna Fáil made just days before the election.

"At our press conferences, people were coming in quite hostile against
my ministers" Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed, "No matter what Fianna Fáil said, they were coming like rocks at us".

Looking at the same trend for Irish media only, shows an insignificant spike on that day while Fine Gael was the clear winner…

This shows how much coverage each individual leader has received since the start of the campaign. As you can see, Enda Kenny has dominated the coverage since Fianna Fáil’s manifesto launch with Pat Rabbitte even outpacing Bertie Ahern on most days….

Interestingly, the three main parties have a pretty even spread across the regions, although Fine Gael and Labour have a much bigger story count (1106) verses FF’s 641. - RTE Online

Ballistic has a bit of a review/rant of Mongrel, the Dublin-based magazine that according to one if its blurbs is "everything but placed directly in the hands of its intended reader due to its bespoke selection of distribution"…

Like most right thinking Dubs the first and only freesheet with bite
has and always will be The Slate which for three glorious years between
200-2003 meshed the sarkiest of wit and decent listings with an
investigative edge helped in no small part by an unpretentious
editorial team (unpretentious by Trinners standards anyway) who weren’t
afraid to rock the boat. By contrast Mongrel is boutique fare about
fashion, trendy liberalism and the razor-sharp wit involed in saying
‘everything is crap’ at the business end of your 20s.

Anyway, Mongrel have an interview with the cheeky devil, the Bert, Bertie Ahern online here… 

“MARY HARNEY IS A TOTAL GEEBAG!” …and other outrageous observations Bertie Ahern was not persuaded to make to Mongrel Magazine.

It’s hard to believe that poor old Bertie only
managed to squeeze in about 500 words in direct quotes in an interview article
of over 2,000 words. ADDED: There are some reasons behind this…

But whenever the Taoiseach’s press
guy doesn’t like one of my questions, he pulls me
aside and reminds me that its just a conversation.
“It’s a getting-to-know-you session” he says. “If
this goes well we can do something else down
the line.” Don’t hold your breath.