October, 2020

Trial by Media by Fra Hughes

The media as presented to us through radio, television and print have many functions and many facets. Among them is a remit is to inform, educate and entertain. They have many platforms and increasing they have more distribution networks to interact with the public, including the burgeoning use of the internet, youtube and social media. It […]

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Trump beats the odds again?

This blog first appeared as a column.  in the Andersonstown News Sometimes I have flashbacks. I come downstairs, switch on the radio and hear the news that Donald Trump has won the US presidential election. The night before, I’d watched pundit after pundit on CNN explain how if by some miracle Trump climbed over Obstacle A, he’d still be faced with Obstacles B, C, […]

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HAROLD EVANS, BLOODY SUNDAY AND WIDGERY POKERY

The Headline is my own. The text below is of an email sent me  in November 2011 by Eamon Dyas,( former Head of Archives  with News International)  PART ONE “It was under Harold Evans’s  editorship that the SUNDAY TIMES  Insight team undertook such a thorough investigation of the Bloody Sunday business shortly after it happened. […]

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PAT + JUDE TALK ABOUT STARMER AND CORBYN, £10,000 LANDING IN AN ACCOUNT, AND HALLOWEEN

Is Jeremy Corbyn a hang-over from a Labour past that’s truly past its sell-by date, or is he a socialist who therefore doesn’t fit into modern  Labour? And that £10,000 grant that erroneously was sent to the account of  quite a few people: if it happened to you, would you pay it back? Finally, Halloween –  was it a daft inflation of an ancient feast, or just  Derry people having a bit of fun and attracting tourists as well? Pat and I cover all the bases…

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Good knight Sir Keir casts Corbyn into the night

So Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party he led until a short time ago. He was ejected, not because he said he thought anti-Semitism was a good thing, or that he denied the existence of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. He was dumped because he said that, in his view, the reports […]

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Today’s Irish Times: a colonel and a columnist

There are two interesting pieces in this morning’s Irish Times.  The first is a letter from a retired Irish colonel, in which he advances a proposal in some ways as radical as Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal, when he argued that poor Irish people should be allowed to sell their babies for eating by the powers […]

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Trump: going, going, g—-

Does it matter who wins the presidential race in the US? If you answer ‘No’ to that question,  maybe you should join the Sleepy Joe section of the class. Word in some quarters is that Boris Johnson is holding off his final decision about a hard, no-deal Brexit or a slightly less-hard agreement with the […]

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THE TIMES AND THE PRESS COUNCIL by Donal Kennedy

IRISH TIMES 18 FEB 1982 Text of talk given in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. 5 February 1983 by Donal Kennedy On Saturday 9 May 1983 Michael Leapman, New York correspondent of THE TIMES of London, reported on the resignation from The Daily News of New York, of their reporter Michael Daly. The Daily Mail  of […]

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BREXIT COMES TO AMERICA by Michael J Cummings

 Britain’s endless  whining about exiting the European Union (BREXIT) will soon come to an end.  Prime Minister Johnson’s sunny predictions of the commercial “buccaneering” that will follow,  often omits  an important caveat.   For Brexit to succeed, Britain needs a U. S. trade deal.  Although leaving the EU is a folly of their own making, Britain’s rescue is deemed a U. S.  obligation   even […]

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PAT + JUDE TALK ABOUT FEAR OF VACCINE, STATE COVER-UP AND FRANK BOUGH

A recent survey suggested that over 40% of people would be reluctant  to have a vaccine against Covid – has the world gone totally bonkers?  And why has the Mother and Baby report in the south been postponed  and postponed – and is it now to be put under embargo for 30 years?       Surely people have a right to know what occurred in these places. And finally, what about Frank Bough who died recently. Everyone  agrees he was a great sports broadcaster – so why did he get the boot?  And was it justified?   All this and much, much more awaits…Put some    sunshine into your Monday….

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