And still spouting shite to avoid hard questions
Youâre a gas ticket pal 
One thing you learn on this forum is that @artfoley is always the âvictimâ.
A classic case of a lad who likes to dish it out but reacts like Neymar when he gets anything back.
Oooh victim blaming. Youâve been badly exposed so many times now as a hypocrite and a genuinely nasty piece of work youâd think that a rebrand is well overdue, or a break from tâinternet cos tâinternet is breaking you.
Thanks buddy.
That is a cry for help if ever I read one.
Sid looks at the river, the river looks at sid.
TBF to INM itâs the clickbait that brings in the revenue. If more people clicked on serious journalism theyâd do more of that. People are to blame, not the rags. Thatâs not to say the INM arenât a bunch of cunts mind.
I have to laugh, in straightforward factual terms, at the idea of The Irish Times as an âecho chamberâ. There are plenty of reasons to criticize the Times in its current instantiation (Patrick Freyne, anyone?) but any idea of it a homogenous entity is just silly (and derives from people hereâs obsession with the prominence of Una Mullally and RĂłisĂn Ingle). You may as well throw up your hands at Liz Jones or Carole Malone or Isabel Oakeshott or Melanie Phillips. Skewed partiality, zany or not, ditzy or not, remains skewed partiality.
Notably, no one here objects much, in my reading, to the opinions of Breda OâBrien, which âbalanceâ those of UM. So what is the basis of the gripe beyond venting? Life, for the most part, is the freemasonry of mediocrity, which is why sport is such a relief to so many so much of the time.
The Irish Times is no different in large part. How could it be? Most of it is mediocre, like most of life. The problem on TFK is the clutch of ladeens who think to themselves: âI could be as shite as him or her, given the chance⌠As her, any road!â But being shite is not the point, any more than having the distance with a 65 is the point unless the sliotar passes between the posts.
Equally, the Times played host in the recent past to Kevin Myers and John Waters, two figures who have taken right wing perspectives into the realms of the crazed. Has this facet been erased? The idea that there is but one âlineâ hosted in the Times is simply not the case, on factual grounds. Their economic coverage is even more variegated in political hue than their sociopolitical and cultural coverage . Besides, is there one âgreenâ contributor who âbalancesâ the superficially rational comments of Newton Emerson? The âfourth green fieldâ is the true blind spot in the Times.
Needless to add, The Irish Times in its general bearing, for complex and various historical reasons, is a liberal paper and somewhat left of centre on many issues. So what? A plaint about this reality is essentially a plaint about the whole media apparatus not being an echo chamber for disgruntled mediocre middle-aged men with a chip about their lack of recognition. Why not read the Daily Express, if so?
The Irish Times is a liberal newspaper because liberalismâs tenet is a belief that human life can be improved. There are reasons to deny this tenet, due to the cast of human history. Fair enough. Michael Oakeshott is probably the most eloquent advocate of the counter tenet. But there are many coherent reasons to advance the liberal tenet. There might be moments, aghast at human folly and evil, in which none of us is a liberal. But who wants a return to paraffin lamps and dry toilets?
The best Irish journalist is surely Justine McCarthy. There are writers terrific in niche regards (and wider than niche regards) but JMcC has long seemed the best to me in overall terms. Marion McKeonâs coverage of America in TSBP in recent times has been consistently excellent. Michael Clifford knows his (unglamorous) stuff. Rosita Bolandâs recent Times feature on Ann Lovett was one of this decadeâs most outstanding pieces of journalism.
Now for the cry of the entitled mediocreâŚ
8 Likes
I do. Breda is shite as well.
Putting out the person who yells loudest âon the other sideâ does not make a good newspaper.
The Irish Times recent breaking news coverage has been shocking. Jumped to get out there first (with the Enniskerry murder for example) and put to shame by Newstalk with factual coverage of the Belfast trial. The IT were there quick enough though with their think pieces afterwards.
In terms of Irish journalists, look at the McCabe Tribunal. I am still waiting to see what exactly the two Ministers who were forced to resign did that was actually anti McCabe. The Irish press ran wild with rumours and innuendo, desperately looking for clicks.
Their coverage of the âhomeless crisisâ was a disgrace. Running with whatever line is fed to them by the various charities.
It took months and months for a serious newspaper to notice (SBP) that Shane Ross is a running joke in his department for having no interest in policy. Political comms love the rattle and drama of a âshowdownâ between Ross and FG over judicial appointments but have little interest in pointing out that Shane Ross has no interest in reforming the institutions he criticized for years in his newspaper column.
Did I see much substantive discussion in the Press on the Ireland 2040 plan? A discussion on the actual policy behind it beyond bellyaching nonsense from rural TDs? No, instead I saw a few days of chatter on FGâs âPR unitâ, straight from DĂĄil tattle.
Irish journalists coverage on international affairs is garbage, particularly the US, where it is either the Guardian or NY Times line that is followed unquestioned. Their coverage will always be bised towards the Democratic Party, because of Ted Kennedy.
Todayâs story is typical of the self regard that the media have for themselves. Shock horror a politician criticises the media, get over it.
1 Like
If a reader didnt find elements of a newspaper disagreeable to them then it really would be an echo chamber
Journalists are scum, I think youâd have to be a wrong one to get involved in that profession.
1 Like
Joe.ie put both to shame IMO through Rosanna Cooney. Daily tweets top class and she wrote a few excellent pieces subsequently albeit I didnt agree with all of them. But thats not the point
I have never been a fan of mixing journalism with opinion pieces.
It has become all too common across the board to think you can do both.
There should be some sort of separation.
What made Greaney great was that we still donât know his opinion.
I think she was exceptionally impartial tbh through the trial
Oh yeah, just think the news reporter should park it even afterwards.
Reality tends to be heavily biased towards the Democratic Party because the people who make up the Democratic Party tend to be at least rooted in reality and evidence-based thought, spineless as they often are in defending the interests of ordinary people, whereas the Republican party is the most dangerous political institution in the whole of the developed west - a collection of religious crackpots, kleptocrats, warmongerers, gun nuts, racists and bigots.
The vast majority of international coverage of US affairs tries to reflect reality, with a particular emphasis on how US politics relates to the rest of the world.
So, given that the Republican party has so wholly embraced the looney agenda, I think youâll agree that bias towards reality will always mean a bias against the Republican party, in the exact same way that a bias towards reality will always mean a bias against, say Israeli government policy as regards Palestine, or apartheid, or naked greed and corruption, or science-denial, or human rights abuses, or dictatorial regimes.
I am not going to get into discussing US politics with you.
It isnât a football supporters thing for me, which it bizarrely is for you, considering that you have never been there.
My point is on the bias of the Irish mediaâs coverage towards Washington, New York and the east coast, which are Democratic strongholds and fit into their view of what America should be. The Irish media fail to get outside the comfort zone, and this results in shock like in 2004 when they thought for sure that John Kerry would beat George W. Bush.
The letters page is pretty much the centrepiece of each edition of the Irish Times, and it reflects a wide diversity of opinion. A good lettersâ page should be a centrepiece of any good newspaper.