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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”.