Blurred Keys

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

Vincent Browne talks to Marketing magizine about getting sacked by RTE, his Nightly News show on TV3, the Sunday Tribune, what he thinks of Independent News & Media and much more. Read it here. (vie Fergus Cassidy)

Or at least that’s what Gayle Killilea wrote for the Sunday Independent after seeing a group of Irish newspaper reporters staying quite at the former Taoiseach’s address to Congress…   

…I made my feelings clear about the media behaviour to Charlie
Bird when I met him on Wednesday evening. He said that he had clapped. And
I believe he did, the broadcast media were seated in a different section of the
house to the print media, and did not seem to be infected by the same
negativity.

However, he defended their behaviour by asserting that it is normal for
journalists to sit impassively during such occasions. This suggests that it is
normal for the Irish media to be impartial and detached, which of course they
are not. The Irish media are not impartial or detached, the articles that they
write demonstrate that…

- Gayle Killilea, Sunday Independent

The mess that is the relationship between the property sector and the Irish media twists again, from the Sunday Business Post… 

Estate agents in Dublin have been accused of providing misleading sales figures to national newspapers.

The
suggestion that agents were exaggerating the prices at which properties
had sold, in an attempt to manipulate the market, prompted the property
editor of The Irish Times to write to agents claiming that the unfair
practice was compromising the newspaper.

It was a cover story on the Sunday Business Post yesterday. But, as Richard Delevan points out, the Irish Times really had nothing to say about it…

The Irish Times property editor, Orna Mulcahy, wrote a letter
to Ireland’s estate agents, calling them out for attempting to
manipulate the market by exaggerating (translation: lying) about the
sale prices of houses bought by private treaty. Massive story. The Sunday Business Post — no stranger to property advertising — runs a big piece on it. It’s a major story on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

So this morning we searched for the Irish Times‘ own version of the story. None can be found…

Although, we would echo Delevan and say fair play to both the Times’ property editor and the Post.

Former Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, as part of one of his weekly Irish Times columns (’Interaction between print and electronic media seems limited‘) wrote about the courage of journalists covering paramilitary activities in Ireland not being backed at editorial level:

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- Firm say they are not acting on any clients’ behalf
- Solicitors ask for the “name and address” of users
- Politics website transfers to US servers after claim

Frank Ward & Co, solicitors for Taoiseach and the Fianna Fail, have had comments removed from an Irish politics website after claiming them to be libellous to the firm.   

The offending posting on Politics.ie referred to the handling by Frank Ward & Co of their former client Grainne Carruth around the time she was giving submissions to the Mahon Tribunal. Carruth, who is Bertie Ahern’s former secretary, changed solicitors between different dealing she has had with the tribunal.

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Four BBC journalists were arrested – with a number of others – by gardai investigating paramilitary activity in Donegal over the weekend. Footage was also seized, and it is still unclear why the arrests were made.

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Senator and Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris appeared visual upset after a recent TV interview was not going his way (clip above).

The senator looked upset on TV3’s ‘the Political Party’ when the interview was not going his way. "We got bogged down in small tribunal stuff," he said on the show in reference to questions about Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who he regularly defends.

He asked "Are we going to re-recorded this?", to which the presenter, Ursula Halligan, told him the programme was "recoded as live, this is pre-recoded as live".

The event follows him storming out of the Today FM studios in May after he was not allowed to control a debate with the Irish Times‘ Fintan O’Toole. At the time he said: "I tell you what, I have enough of  Fintan O’Toole and the Irish Times", and left the studio.

- Dublin homicide rate
  is not close to NYC

- Facts do not support
  John Waters’ views 

"Comment is free, but facts are sacred" wrote Manchester Guardian editor CP Scott. It’s not a surprise that many of those in the business of comment would disagree. Such as John Waters, pictured right, in the Irish Times.

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The first Press Ombudsman was
appointed yesterday and should be able to take complaints about the print media
in Ireland from November.

Members of the public with still be asked to contact newspapers or
magazines first. If unsatisfied, the next step will be to contact the Office of the Press
Ombudsman, only major complaints or complaints unsatisfied at ombudsmen
level will be passed on to the Press Council of Ireland.

The ombudsman will have no powers to fine newspapers only to make them publish
his decision.

The new ombudsman, Dr John Horgan, called for the Defamation Bill to be
reintroduced as soon as possible. Horgan was
professor of journalism at Dublin City University before resigning last
year. He is also a former Labour TD, Senator, and a MEP.

He had previously worked at the Evening Press, the Catholic Herald in London,
and for the Irish Times where he reported on religion and education. Horgan also
was Editor of the Education Times, and has freelanced for the New York Review
of Books, the London Review of Books, the Guardian, and Le Monde diplomatique
among others.

"This means that Ireland finally has a complaints mechanism that
is free, easy to use, totally independent and available to every
citizen," said Prof Mitchell was quoted in today’s Irish Times. "Anyone who feels aggrieved by a
newspaper article or photograph can avail of this mechanism without
having to risk spending a fortune by going to court".

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