Media – Page 10 – Slugger O'Toole

Is ‘peace journalism’ largely about sustaining the ‘right’ kind of propaganda?

Soapbox on March 21, 2016, 6:48 pm

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Jamie Bryson is a Unionist political activist interested in law, human rights and writing. He is author of My Only Crime Was Loyalty and banned Nama book ‘The Three Headed Dog’. Currently a political advisor and campaign manager for Cllr Ruth Patterson. I have been following the debate – mostly in the Newsletter Letters page – around the call by Professor John Brewer for more “peace journalism”. It’s a term that catches my interest because I sense a deeper, and …

Gerry Adams’ White House ‘controversy’: “Quite apart from being bumptious, paranoid and absurdly self-pitying…”

Pete Baker on March 19, 2016, 7:51 pm

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In the Irish News Newton Emerson highlights the unintended consequences of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ intemperate outburst following his recent misunderstanding with security at the White House. From the Irish News GERRY Adams could have been pragmatic and diplomatic about being locked out of President Obama’s St Patrick’s Day reception and simply laughed it off. It is all too believable that the White House has the same hapless jobsworths in its security hut as everywhere else – and that has …

“All the time, journalists were missing out on what was actually happening.”

Pete Baker on March 6, 2016, 4:27 pm

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Post the 2016 Irish General Election, RTÉ’s Science & Technology Correspondent, Will Goodbody, was quick off the mark to assess whether, as billed, #ge16 really was “the first truly social media election in Ireland”. In the coming weeks, when the dust has settled, the candidates and parties will be reflecting on what went right, and in many cases wrong, with their campaigns. As part of that post mortem they will no doubt ponder what role was played by social media, who used …

Michelle Gildernew and Fermanagh/South Tyrone: “I am honoured to have been selected by South Tyrone.”

Pete Baker on February 20, 2016, 5:31 pm

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[But not Fermanagh and South Tyrone? – Ed] No. She tried that. It didn’t work. So the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle invented a constituency for her. Sinn Féin’s attempts to rewrite the past clearly have no time limit. Witness the party’s shenanigans over candidate selection in Fermanagh/South Tyrone for this year’s Northern Ireland Assembly election. The Ard Chomhairle was forced to re-run their selection convention in Fermanagh/South Tyrone following allegations of unaccounted-for votes which saw former-MP, former-MLA, and current Ard Chomhairle member, …

After its bias towards SF and Labour in 2011 RTÉ is sticking to regulations for #GE16

Mick Fealty on February 18, 2016, 1:01 pm

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GAMING RTÉ: Sinn Féin is unhappy with the coverage it gets on RTÉ. The national broadcaster is obliged to provide proportionate coverage to all parties. Given a detailed report of GE2011 indicated a heavy bias towards SF and Labour, it is likely the party is just suffering a sharp corrective.

NI Assembly Commission misleads the Assembly, and the public

Pete Baker on February 15, 2016, 3:20 pm

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When the BBC reported the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission’s written answers to some ‘stupid’ questions from TUV leader Jim Allister on Friday they used the headline “Sinn Féin MLAs who claimed almost £700,000 in expenses ‘did nothing wrong‘”. There was also a report broadcast, “Sinn Féin cleared in expenses investigation“. The NI Assembly Commission is chaired by the Speaker, currently Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin, and consists of one MLA from each of the Executive parties – who have a vote …

Sinn Féin decommission “Booby Sands” leaflet

Pete Baker on February 8, 2016, 9:57 pm

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As the BBC Trending report notes As unfortunate typos go it could have hardly been worse. The Republic of Ireland is currently a few days into a general election campaign that is taking place amid the backdrop of the hundredth anniversary of the Easter 1916 rising. In one campaign leaflet, Mary Lou McDonald, the deputy leader of Sinn Fein – the fourth-biggest party in the last Irish parliament – wanted to be quoted invoking the spirit of one of the …

Phil Flanangan re-selected in re-run convention, Michelle Gildernew not so much…

Pete Baker on February 1, 2016, 1:08 am

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David noted the result of the re-run Sinn Féin selection convention for Fermanagh/South Tyrone. But, interestingly, given the allegation of unaccounted-for additional votes for Michelle Gildernew in the first selection convention [see comment zone] which promoted her above Phil Flanagan at the time, that re-run has seen notorious tweeter Phil Flanagan re-selected by the party, along with fellow sitting MLA Sean Lynch, and Councillor Sean Feeley. Neither the renewed candidate Bronwyn McGahan, MLA, nor former MLA, former MP, and current member of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, …

Second Chance at Re-Selection for Sinn Féin’s Phil Flanagan – Updated

Pete Baker on January 30, 2016, 3:54 pm

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Sinn Féin’s other notorious tweeter, Phil Flanagan, MLA, may be facing a sizeable bill for libelling the UUP’s Tom Elliot, but the party’s central office has given him a second chance at continuing his political career. He was deselected by his party constituency organisation on 13 December last year, but earlier this month the party’s Ard Chomhairle decided to re-run the selection process in Fermanagh/South Tyrone. On 22 January, The Impartial Reporter noted Mr. Flanagan refused to comment when contacted by this newspaper, …

What will be the followup to new police move on the Birmingham bombings?

Brian Walker on January 30, 2016, 1:22 pm

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(Kieran) Conway, who is a now a solicitor in Dublin specialising in criminal defence,, voluntarily spoke to detectives in connection with his memoir of life inside the IRA “South Side Provisional”. In the book, Conway revealed certain details about the Birmingham pub bombings to which the IRA has never officially admitted. No one has ever been convicted in relation to the atrocity in England’s second city… For decades the IRA never publicly admitted they carried out the atrocity but Conway …

[Cough] This is what politics really looks like when you’ve stripped out all the meaningful content…

Mick Fealty on January 29, 2016, 1:38 pm

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Would you Adam and Eve it?Peter Serafinowicz gives Donald Trump a cockney makeover.No words were changed. Posted by Slugger O'Toole on Friday, 29 January 2016 And here’s one person’s reasoning as to why populists like Trump always win… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Soapbox: BBC Question Time and its failure to represent women in Northern Ireland…

Soapbox on January 29, 2016, 1:06 pm

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RIGHT TO QUESTION: The BBC is always beset with criticisms of bias. Recently Question Time faced criticism of for loading the panel to the right. When the programme came to Belfast last week Rosa Thompson was dismayed when none of the questions chosen from the floor included a woman.

“Perhaps it’s best to simply regard Gerry’s book as the political equivalent of an ageing hardman action star taking a role in The Expendables…”

Pete Baker on January 23, 2016, 4:03 pm

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The Guardian’s Marina Hyde on the “exciting publishing news”, the terms may be used advisedly, of the forth-coming publication of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ Little Book of Calm Little Book of Tweets. From the Guardian article Enormous congratulations to Gerry Adams, who is formally elevated to irony’s army council. The Sinn Féin president is the subject of exciting publishing news, with the forthcoming release of a collected volume of tweets and selfies. According to the party bookshop’s blurb, “this …

US President Bill Clinton: “We’ve all taken our licks for Gerry”.

Pete Baker on January 7, 2016, 4:06 pm

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The BBC’s freedom of information specialist, Martin Rosenbaum, has been reading through transcripts of calls and meetings between US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, between 1997 and 2000, which were released following a BBC freedom of information request to the Clinton Presidential Library. As he notes, [The transcripts] contain substantial redactions, especially of Mr Blair’s remarks… From the BBC report Much of their discussion was about the Northern Ireland peace process, in which President Clinton played a significant part. …

Renua Ireland launches General Election manifesto

Pete Baker on January 4, 2016, 11:46 pm

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[One of] Ireland’s newest political party parties, Renua Ireland, launched its general election manifesto today, and revealed its 18 candidates. The RTÉ report focuses on the proposal for a flat rate of income tax at 23%, and the party leader Lucinda Creighton’s bid for the party as a future coalition partner. Ms Creighton claimed no party would have a clear-cut majority after the election and the question voters had to ask was “who would be their watchdog in government?”. She insisted …

Lessons from working in a local newspaper (and how they can work for you)

CM Johnston on December 24, 2015, 6:05 pm

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local paper mastheads Belfast Telegraph Irish News News Letter

A long time ago in a newspaper far, far away (well, Ballymena) I was kindly taught local newspaper writing by a fellow reporter and by our bosses. The lessons from those days have stayed with me so, for something a little more light-hearted at Christmas, it made me wonder how knowing the basics and banter of a local newsroom could help us to use the pages of a local paper today to promote our cause/ business/ party/ angry mob. Almost …

Gerry Adams on Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy’s tax evasion: Yeah but, no but, yeah but, no but…

Pete Baker on December 20, 2015, 5:23 pm

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After the guilty verdict in the trial of, “key supporter of the Sinn Féin peace strategy”, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy on 9 charges of tax evasion, Gerry Adams, TD, declared that he had “no comment to make until the legal process has been concluded”. Following criticism of that position the Sinn Féin president has, apparently, decided that some comment would be appropriate after all. The journal.ie has his initial further comment, and the Sinn Féin website has a further, further version. From the …

Question for Gerry Adams: Is Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy still “a good republican”?

Pete Baker on December 17, 2015, 2:34 pm

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As the BBC reports, 66-year-old Thomas Murphy has been found guilty of nine charges of tax evasion at Ireland’s non-jury Special Criminal Court. When, in March 2006, there was a series of co-ordinated raids on properties in the UK and Ireland connected to Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy – who had been named previously as both the UK’s richest smuggler and a former Provisional IRA Chief of Staff – the Sinn Féin president, now Louth TD, Gerry Adams declared, “Tom Murphy is not a …

Irony-free Sinn Féin MLA to repay £900 postage bill

Pete Baker on December 1, 2015, 5:23 pm

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The BBC reports that Sinn Féin MLA Barry McElduff has agreed to repay nearly £900 in postage costs claimed from Northern Ireland Assembly allowances. The cost relates to a circular letter sent in June to over 1000 households in the Drumragh electoral ward in Omagh, County Tyrone, complaining that “the Tories are robbing the assembly and every government department of a workable and sustainable budget”. For which the Sinn Féin MLA subsequently claimed the costs back from charged the costs to public funds… [Update It …

Unite: “The recent deal between the parties ties the hands of the Northern Ireland Executive…”

Pete Baker on November 28, 2015, 5:32 pm

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Unite protests against Fresh Start: The Unite union holds protests against the ‘Fresh Start’ deal outside offices of the NI parties responsible – DUP and Sinn Féin.