TheStory.ie

Kate Shanahan, a TV and radio producer and lecturer in the DIT School of Media, has a piece in the ‘Think Tank’ slot on the [paywalled] Sunday Times opinion pages today. The headline is ‘Media can’t chase after squirrels’. The piece chastises the media for following the shiny stories from hour to hour instead of staying focused and providing depth on the important stories over long periods.

I largely agree with her until she begins her conclusion…

“In the Irish context, we may prioritise news values as they apply to the current crisis.

A story about Ivor Callely’s expense claims should not overshadow one about a semi-state that has squandered millions, such as Fas.”

Let’s not forget that the Ivor Callely story is not your average expenses story. It’s not about him being kicked out of the Seanad and going to the courts. It’s not about him claiming travel expenses from a house in Cork which wasn’t his principle residence.

It’s about him allegedly using forged documents to claim money from the taxpayer-funded parliament. That would be fraud.

That’s serious.

Dismiss your politicians’ apparent financial discrepancies as small-fry because it’s only a few quid here and there and watch it happen again and again. Then watch that attitude permeate through society and into – amongst other places – semi-state bodies. “Fair play to him, sure wouldn’t we all do it?”. Well, no.

When it comes to public representatives – those charged with giving direction and providing moral and political leadership – we shouldn’t care how many figures follow the currency symbol.

Ivor Callely isn’t a squirrel… he’s a… let’s not forget that.

Slow posting around here of late because we’ve just been gunged with data from two or three sources. We’re processing it at the minute and will post as soon as we can. Sit tight. We’re a duck. All the effort going on where you can’t see it. A journalistic duck.

In the meantime, I’m outsourcing comment to Ireland After Nama.

Firstly, Delphine Ancien…

The comment came as a reply to Richard Crowley asking about future government’s borrowing and the high level of (over 7% at the moment, compared to average levels of 2 to 4% across Europe). Brian Lenihan attempted to dismiss the question as he said something like “we have enough in the government’s coffers to keep the country going until the middle of next year, so no need to borrow”. Until the middle of next year? Wow, phew, I feel much better now, I thought we were about to run out of money, but we have until the middle of next year.

The presenter insisted with his question though, and mentioned that sure the government was going to need to borrow again around February-March, because we will need money (you know, to keep the country running after the middle of next year), and asked something along the lines of “what will you do if the interest rates remained as high?”, insisting on the fact that they may be as high as 8% (and, as admitted by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, they are not foreseen to be lower than 6.4% in 2011).

That’s when Brian Lenihan replied: “I’m not going to be tied down with numbers”. (I know, I’ve written down that quote several times already, but I just can’t get over it…. A Minister for Finance in charge of the budget who says that he is not going to be tied down with numbers?!? Americans would add something like ‘WTF?!?’ here – not meaning to be rude, but I feel that expletive sounds about right here, I reckon that’s how many people would feel hearing that).

Secondly, Mary Gilmartin on the cost of education.

And lastly, Cian O’Callaghan on budgetary madness.

FOOTNOTE: Cathal Furey, a friend of mine, shot the excellent footage below of the student march during the week. Gardai clearly over-reacted, possibly in an illegal manner. They behaved as if their job was to exact revenge for protesters’ behaviour and damage instead remaining above and upholding the law while regaining order. They acted like the biggest bullies in the playground when they should’ve been the school principal.

Anyway, it’s strange how none of the media coverage mentioned the presence of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement. They’re clearly some of the ring leaders. Watch for the black nylon hooded jackets with the small green emblems on the chest and shoulders (see image). Continue reading “Still live and kicking”

Elaine Byrne has a good post over on PoliticalReform.ie about the recent Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.

Ireland ranked 14th [least corrupt] worldwide.

Elaine Byrne raises some questions about how perception and reality may differ due to the methodology employed. Corruption is inherently an extremely difficult thing to measure. What is corruption? What do the people surveyed perceive as corruption? Yadda yadda yadda.

The reports on individual countries in the International Progress Report are usually more interesting.

FOOTNOTE: Regular readers may (?) be happy to know I managed to avoid being shot by a trench-coated man with a silenced pistol as I casually walked through the dark rain-soaked city today. Always a positive, that.

… Or maybe it’s not the ‘Real Mark Coughlan’ typing this and I just want you to think I’ve not been assasinated?

Okay, I’ll stop now.