The Irish Times
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Friday, 10th November
Essay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor_tupp/296369008/sizes/m/
The Raw Notes for the Home News, and Business supplement are now available here.
It seems that adherence to the newspaper’s duty to its reader- to unearth and report the news they ought to be made aware of- has mostly been replaced with the easier task of just printing whatever piece of advertorial, press release or staged event is plopped in front of them.
Take a look down the list of home news for Friday and you only find one story that seems like good original journalism. And that’s a colour story on a TCD graduate and street magician.
The Business supplement abandons any pretence of a difference between news stories and advertisements. Supplements seem not to even have to pretend to do more than retype press releases, it seems.
This is very bad.
Raw Notes
Main Section, Home News.
Raw notes for The Irish Times Main Paper Friday 10th november 2006
Pg 1 Democrats clinch virginia to take control of the senate- nothing new, but a good round up.
Ex-AerLingus Chairman bids for Hungarian airline- Reads like a rehashed press release. (wait, make that a wire report. From a week ago. http://www.privatizationbarometer.net/news.php?id=9716&PHPSESSID=0fec3668f0a10d20ac29cc66f759927e)
Brennan dismisses UN data on Irish Poverty- not bad, as the further detail inside is trailed at the end.
Pg2 Breast Screening units for Galway and Cork- Reads like a press release. Was just a report of a press conference at launch of BreastCheck Annual Report. Question use of phrase 'it was confirmed yesterday'. Suggests more active reporting than was the case. http://www.breastcheck.ie/news/news.php?ident=113
Passage East Resident stage car ferry protest.- Bad reporting. details unclear. Key obfuscation phrase "the total funding required for a one-mile access road was still not in place, it emerged". Emerged from who or what? The Black Lagoon? No attempt to place protest in a context.
Public consulted on floods: reads like a press release from Bray Co. Council. [[1]]
Animal Rights group calls for ban on electro-immunisation device- Driven by a press release- presents two conflicting claims about a machine, but doesn't tell us which is correct.
Farm Conference to highlight Reps scheme changes- reads like a press release from Teagasc. http://www.teagasc.ie/events/2006/20061110.htm
Pg 3 Death of Leading Architect at age 72: Bland report on death of controversial figure. Will expect more background and context in an Obituary on Saturday.
Show goes on for Trinity Graduate- Great colour story, photo makes front page. Original.
Woman wins right to see contents of job reference- Picking a story off the ground, as the Information Commissioner has done all the work, but a sturdy piece nonetheless. Might have been better if existing caselaw on references had been mentioned.
Approval for hotel complex on Haughey estate- Plodding but comprehensive report. However a context failure again: An Taisce "added it was disappointed that the significant issue of project splitting has not been addressed". This is a trick which is becoming widespread (an issue in the Corrib case, for example) but which has never been addressed by the paper on its own.
An Post 'hugely concerned' by robbery attempts- Mix of Press release and reporting known facts. Dull to me, but I'm never interested in crime stories.
Pg 4 DPP's view on rights of burglars sought- Court Report. interesting. Presumably reliable.
Man gets five years for tying up and robbing students- Court Report. No legal precedent set, and case not reported before the judgement that I saw. Presumably here for cheap thrills of reporting "hour long ordeal" as the reporter describes the crime. Inappropriate editorialising for a court report.
Widow seeks access to hospital staff over death- Court Report. This is a good story and well reported. But will there be a follow up after it leaves the court room on the important questions raised?
Planning fee of €45 gets court backing- Court Report. Feels like a Press Release from the state. Or at least something brought to the paper's attention by the state. Not inaccurate. Just a little odd, in some way.
Judge refuses to direct murderer to pay alleged debt of €38,000- Cour Report. misleading headline. The judge has merely refused to give summary judgement, as we discover in the last paragraph.
Pg 5 Council to give tunnel date soon- Another story picked up off the ground. A county council report, in effect. No challenge or context to the statement. Maybe none needed, but I'm left with questions.
Chairwoman leaves Dublin transport role- Terrible reporting. Leaves the internal contradictions in the Minister's statement unchallenged. Leaves contradiction to Opposition spokeswoman instead of judging it on the facts.
Pg 6 Population may hit pre-Famine level by 2025- Press conference/Press Release rehash.
DUP casts fresh doubt on deadline for St Andrews deal- May be finest reporting in history. As I never read NI news, I wouldn't know.
Government to accept qualified Yes on deal; see above.
Poll Shows most back NI deal: see above
Garda observed signature facsimile- I have no idea what, if any significance this report has. It could be the turning point of the whole Morris Tribunal, or meaningless noise. And I'll never know with a report in this format.
When Mars had life within its grasp- Oddly entertaining, despite its conference reporting format.
P7 MRSA sufferer died soon after severe burn in nursling home- The most disturbing story in the paper today. Well reported from the Cork Coronor's court. But leaves huge questions unanswered. In an ideal world, I 'd like to see this story followed up in future editions.
Delays mean €64m of health budget not spent- I need more context. By the end of the story I still don't know who is to blame for failures, if failures they are. And again internal contradictions go unchallenged eg "HSE examining a range of strategies aimed at minimising its capital surplus" but still is projecting an underspend of €17m in facilities. Is the health system that well specced that they just can't find anything that needs buying?
No scrutiny of deaths in homes- Leas Cross Report- Another report on a report. But I want to focus on one phrase "recommendation for an independant inspectorate for residential care remains unfulfilled." Which begs the question- Why? The question isn't asked, let alone answered.
Ireland third in weight gain survey- If its a survey, it must be news. More picking up news off the floor. A well written piece, in fairness.
Monaghan hospital protest set for Dublin- reads like a press release. No context. Are the fears expressed reasonable? We're not told.
P8 Cross Border body may 'face serious damage'- NI related. Don't care.
Failure to link Luas lines very costly- Dail report. Snippets from speakers. What more can you say? Without being there, who knows if these are representative?
Hospital not suing ex-patient over book- Misleading headline and misleading quote from Tim O'Malley. Only one of these is the fault of the paper.
Hayes appalled that woman not assisted- Seanad round up. What more can you say? Unless you're there yourself, you can't decide if the important comments were the published ones.
Opposition explodes after McDowell lights the fuse- Dail Sketch. I like the Dail Sketches. They're a breath of life on a dead page. But shouldn't there also be Dail analysis on the serious issues raised in the other reports?
Dunlop claims £1000 paid to four councillors- I don't read the reports from the Tribunals. They never reach a conclusion and so they've drained of meaning.
One in Five voters will be asked to produce ID: A tidy box packed full of questions unasked. Reads like a press release. Includes the tell tale phrase "yesterday Mr. Roches said..." but doesn't say where or when he said it. This tells me he said it in a press release. As press releases can't be questioned, this lets the Minister also say "the state of the old register was a 'scandal in a modern democracy' " without anyone pointing out that he's in charge of the scandal.
Arts organisations get extra €7.5m for capital projects- Pure Press Release reprint.
P10 UN urges action on child deaths from water crisis- Now, this is one of those stories I feel I ought to be reading, but as its only going to make me feel bad I skip.
UN poverty index is misleading- Minister's statement and Combate Poverty statement. No help given by the reporter as to which might be accurate. Glaring omission: Minister says 'literacy figures used by the authors dated from 1995 and did not reflect the current situation'. Why haven't we collected more recent figures?
Ireland ranks fourth on list for human development- How did our team do?
Ireland should avoid addiction to incarceration- Conference report.
Off-licence told to close for two hours- court report.
Phew! That's the end of home news.
Main Section- World News
Page 11 Talk of Revenge as Palestinians bury their dead- Syndicated Guardian story, accompanied by distressing photo of child's blood spattered face.
Linguist supports Irish boycott of Israeli academic institutions- It isn't a wire report, making it a highly unusual world news article in an Irish paper. But then again, is it really world news. Reading it, it turns out to be a report on something said at a conference in Dublin. More picking news off the floor. But as it seems not to have been released as a written speech (as no other paper picks it up) I'll give it journalism, as somebody had to have the initiative to go along and transcribe what they heard.
Christie's stage biggest art auction in history- Wire story ad for auction house of dubious moral standing.
Eunuchs shame local tax defaulters into paying- You just have to read a story with a headline like that! Not a wire story, as Mr. Rhaul Bedi seems to be a freelancer in New Delhi. Journalism.
Page 12 Letter from Paris; Plus ca change in French republican monarchy- Look, actual foreign journalism written specifically for an Irish audience.
MI5 identifies 30 terrorist plots targeting Britain- Reprint from the Guardian.
East German spymaster Markus Wolf dies at 83- Another original piece of world news. The Irish Times is showing some talents now. Journalism.
Serbia to hold general election in January- Journalism again, from our man in Eastern Europe, Dan McLoughlin.
Romanian ex-spy accuses politicians of collaboration- Journalism. Dan to the fore again. Though it does include an odd reference to Romania's 'so-called' intelligence unit the Securitate. I think it just was called that.
Page 13 Results of election in US spark worldwide jubilation- Wire story.
Whitehall believes Blair has nothing to fear from US result- Reaction from London, by our actual reporter there. Journalism.
Democrats espouse an eclectic mix of policies- Introduction to newly elected Democrats for Irish readers, from our actual reporter there. Journalism too.
Arab commentators delight in elections outcome, lauding victory for 'Iraqi resistance'- Exhausting headline. The American Mr. Jansen appears to be freelance, rather than a wire reporter, and actually based in the Middle East so a reasonable rounder up of news reports for us.
Main Section- The Arts
Page 14 A playlist by the people for the people- Arhh! One of the Irish Time's unique contributions to Irish journalism- unreadable half page interviews with worthy artistic practitioners. At least it wasn't with an Arts Administrator. I never want to hear from the Artistic Director of the Project Theatre. I only want to know about what's actually on the stage. (The layout of these pages are frequently identical. I wonder are the articles commissioned to fit the layout, or vice versa?) Journalism, but not aimed at me, clearly.
Main Section- LifeFeatures
Page 15 A new chapter at Google- The Irish Times continues its hesitant engagement with the internet with a rather good piece on Google's Library project. Written by our man in New York, and therefore showing that they've realised that if you send somebody abroad, it might be a good idea to have them doing more than just tell the folks back home what's in the local papers (which they can now read for themselves using that very internet). Journalism.
Source of bright ideas- Ad for interesting book about inventions.
Adjusting to life on the planet New Ireland- What? What is this? A series from a man who's moved to Mullingar and finds the bewildering rush of the 21st Century a struggle? "its different here. There's no place for idle romance. No taste for mythic landscapes." Dude, you're in Mullingar. This clearly ought to be a blog on the ireland.com website. Can I call it opinion? I suppose I must.
Main Section- Opinion & Analysis
Deadline? Pull the other one- The lefthand sidebar used to be the engine of the Irish Time's opinion pages. Certain writers would appear on certain days, and you'd know what to expect. Fintin O'Toole would give you something to chew over on a Thursday, bringing things from disparate fields together to show you that they were part of one, bigger thing. Dick Walsh would interpret the week's events on Saturday, putting them in an historical and personal context. John Waters would appear on Wednesday, and you'd ignore him. And so on.
Nowadays its seems like the stable of race horses has been replaced by a rotating panel of plodders. David Adams here only ever talks about NI, and therefore is impossible to get through, even if you were so minded.
Mary Raftery is quite good, I admit. But its NI today, so no point thinking about that.
A Palestinian asks: why does Bush hate me?- A press release printed as though it were an article. All you need to do is read the italics at the end Hikmat Ajjuri is the delegate general of Palestine in Ireland to know what it will say. An example of the Irish Times' confusion of analysis with just printing the views of vested interests. They do the same thing with the American Ambassador too, and with commercial interests promoting themselves. It's a betrayal of their readers, in my opinion.
Martyn Turner Cartoon- I love Martyn Turner.
Enmity the upshot of culture clash- Inappropriately placed sports commentary on International Rules match. Opinion.
Income Inequality on the rise- Yawn! Reading these Editorials is like chewing raw porridge oats.
School Planning- Yum, another bowlful of dry oats. Actually, this one is a little too kind to the department of Education's woeful inability to build schools near new houses. So dry, unreliable oats. Opinion.
Business This Week
P1 Groceries Order abolition trims inflation- Press Release. Picking news off the ground. Figures from CSO.
Taoiseach says firms in pensions row wrong- Conference/ PR
Hotel Restoration bill climbs to €90m- Second half reads like a retyped press release. No source cited for claimed figures for refurbishment costs.
P2 Ryanair broke stock exchange rules- Press Release. No details of consequences.
BT to invest €500m in services growth- Ad. Press release
Martin Annouces creation of 350 jobs in US ecommerce firm- Mis-titled. Most of report deals with internally contradictory statements by minister re decentralisation of Enterprise Ireland. The rest is a retyped press release.
Ex-NIB director resists case for cross examination- Court Report. Good Report.
Revenue scrutiny of recent scandals yields over €2bn- PAC report. Picking news off the ground.
Microsoft finally gets Vista in focus- Press release.
P3 Taoiseach raises temperature in pensions debate- At last. Actual analysis and context setting of conference speech. Good thinking.
Ad agencies take on press challenge- Ad
Officers in finance firms to face tests- Press Relase
Page 4 Bertie gives tax harmonisation 'nul points'- Workaday explanatory report. Good section detailing usually ignored vote in European parliament.
Trading carbon credits misses the point- A plain, well written piece drawing actual meaning from the bare facts reported. V. Good.
Current Account column- though a sidebar, one of the best places to find the meaning in the press releases reported elsewhere in the supplement.
Time to shake up the auditing status quo- Vested Interest Corner. Every week someone with a vested interest is asked to tell you why they're right. This is a shameful practice.
Page 5 Warning on Tax breaks for multinationals- Another decent article. Though its main thrust is exactly opposite Mark Coleman's 'nul points' article facing it.
Ibec calls for policy change in food and drink industry- Press Release journalism. Doesn't question figures as presented to it. e.g. groceries order products more likely to be commodities, so less prone to price inflation than basket of other branded goods.
Page 6 Grassroots open source inches into the mainstream- Imbues estoerica with meaning for the rest of use. V. Good.
Lenovo struggles to create greater brand awareness- Is part of this struggle junketing journalists to places in the hope they'll write advertorial like this? Press Release. Ad
Mio's pretty gadget puts GPS on the Map- Ads. Mulitple Press Releases.
Page 7 Internet forum may slowly shift levers of power- Good. Original journalism. Imbues esoterica with meaning also. Provides context. Plain language.
Accenture applies smart thinking to technology- An ad.
Two wire service reports.
Page 8 (Headed Personal Finance) Seems like the persons whose finances this is aimed at have so much money that they play the stock market on a regular basis. As that's not me I move on.
Page 9 Pension warnings finally affect contributions- Press Release
Moving mortgage is worth a little effort- Ad for NIB/ Mortgage Brokers.
SSIA mortgage offset urged- Ad for First Active
Page 12 Insiders pose biggest threat of fraud to companies- Ad / Press Release. A particularly blatant bit of advertorial.
Homeric task of getting to grips with income tax- Mostly reads like a Press Release from Revenue. Also manages to suggest that illegal tax evasion is the normal, reasonable, response to personal unhappiness to paying tax.
Delegates at forum to be told innovation is key to success- Press Release retyped.
Pages 13-27 Ads that openly admit their paid for status, unlike much of the rest of the supplement.
Page 28 Hurd's iron grip pushes the right buttons for HP.- A mostly positive, but not uncritical interview with HP CEO.
Old-fashioned principles spur top Irish Takeover advisor- Just an ad. No worth. Shameful betrayal of the reader's interests.
Saturday, 11 November
Main Section
Weekend Review
Notes
LEAD STORY on First Time Buyers looks very much like heavy advertorial on behalf of estate agents - the market is currently dead and is not expected to revive until after the budget, yet the story creates a sense of urgency and desperation by suggesting supply is like a tightening noose. But don't worry FTBs, it says, take the plunge and those huge mortgages will result in perfectly manageable payments, just look at these people who say come on in, the water's fine.
STORY ON LIMERICK HELL: Supposedly reported "from" Southill, but contains verbatim quotes which were in other papers and thus not the result of direct interview. Also quotes from something called The Limerick Independent, an organ which I, as a Limerickman, have never heard of and deeply suspect does not exist. My Limerick girlfriend has never heard of it either.
Soupcon of Garda PR about story's demand for more resources, except that the calls are made by Mr. Murray, the local state solicitor (and brother of the Chief Justice, which is not mentioned) and it is quite obvious that the Gda are astoudingly underfunded and it has been well known since my school days in the city that the Garda have long withdrawn policing services from the above areas - this historical circumstance is worthy of journalistic investigation, but for some reason...
