Generally speaking, most of us tend to underestimate the power of the mainstream media. We tell ourselves that since now we have Facebook and Twitter and all the rest, the press, radio and TV are considerably enfeebled. There’s truth in that, but the mainstream media still are hugely important in framing public thinking.
Which is why I was alarmed to hear a BBC reporter on Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster last Sunday. The matter of Communities Minister Paul Givan’s announcement in October of £500,000 to refurbish ‘community halls’ has been widely interpreted as a typical Givan gesture, since there were signs that GAA halls would not qualify for this source of funding. The sum available has now almost quadrupled to £1.9 million, and the BBC reporter on Sunday noted the concerns about one-sidedness expressed by Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey and the SDLP’s Colin Eastwood. But the BBC reporter said that nationalist/republican objections to his money allocation would please Mr Givan, since his / the DUP electorate would interpret nationalist/republican objection as a sign that Mr Givan was doing a good job. The reporter went on to point out that another Minister, Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard had been in Derry recently, announcing the creation of an hourly train service between Derry and Belfast. Ministers parade these goodies in the mouth of an election to impress their supporters. Both sides at it, you see, doling out goodies as the election train comes lickety-split closer.
This on-the-one-hand-on-the-other line of reporting, under the label of supposedly objective reporting, is lazy and misleading. There is one glaring difference between Givan’s generous funding of Orange halls and Hazzard’s funding of hourly train services. If you go to buy a train ticket, you’re not asked your religion. You’re not asked the religion of your spouse. You’re not asked to promise rejection of all Popish idolatry and never to attend a service in a Catholic Church. Regardless of your political or religious affiliations, a place on the train is available, because the train service serves all the public. Orange halls in contrast, have a series of slightly smelly criteria which they apply to members.
It’s possible that the BBC reporter on Sunday thought he was doing his duty and being even-handed in his comments. If so, he’s a very simple-minded man – although not alone. The mainstream media throughout this election will, going by past form, locate and trumpet the parallels they claim exist between Orange and Green, and present all points of difference as part of the sectarianism cake.
Is there any way we can avoid being sucked into this on-the-one-hand-on-the-other black hole? Yes, at least in the coming election.
The answer is to keep in mind at all times just what the main electoral issue is. It is the Renewable Heating Initiative, aka the Cash-for-Ash scam. This is a straightforward financial matter, and has nothing to do with Orange and Green.
Whoa there. Maybe I’ve overstated things with that last sentence. It is certainly true that every tax-payer in this jurisdiction will be funding this deeply-stupid scheme which offers customers £1.60 for every £1.00 they invest. Not just nationalist/republican tax-payers but ALL tax-payers. And I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that unionists don’t enjoy having their pocket picked any more than nationalists/republicans.
The issue might be classed as Orange vs Green, in that the people who initiated this scheme, the people who insisted it continue even when warned against it, are DUP politicians.
Now the DUP may be many things, but one thing they show few signs of is stupidity. Which is why you’d hesitate to put down their hair-brained RHI scheme to stupidity. Unfortunately, being even half-intelligent would mean you’d have spotted the deficiencies of the scheme at a hundred paces. So then, which is it to be: the RHI scheme was the product of stupidity or the product of corruption?
There is one simple test which can be used to deliver the answer. The public need to see two lists.
The first will be a list of all those who registered for the scheme. That shouldn’t be too hard, since the people taking it up were told at the time that their names would be available to the public.
The second list we need is a list of DUP donors and supporters. The two lists then should be placed side-by-side and compared.
This is something the mainstream media, in their editorials and columns, should be shouting for. It’s what BBC reporters should be seeking. And if they find their way blocked, they should reporting this to the public and offering possible explanations.
Will that happen? Not except media people push for it. They are committed, certainly in the case of the BBC, to an on-the-one-hand-on-the-other approach to politics here. I look forward to the day when they report on God vs the Devil, where they explain that while the Almighty has much to be said for him in terms of creation, forgiveness and love, we mustn’t understate the good qualities the Devil is possessed of, under his admittedly loathsome appearance.
‘This is a straightforward financial matter, and has nothing to do with Orange and Green.’
Dia duit ar maidin Jude, ta se fuar anseo, ba maith liom balcas, and not the type which comes from publicly funded elected officials, nor their publicly funded civil servants, even them in the BBC.
I shpuld disagree on RHI having nothing sectarian about it. The announced inquiry will make, I suspect, no real headway in uncovering the truth of whom benefited most from public money, there will be trade off’s and, backroom deals but, in twelve months, I shall not see any return on our investment while others, curiously, with friends and close relatives in Dundonald, shall be.
Politics, a gravy train.
Great story jude
I get the impression from listening to the radio and reading the online letters of people giving their opinions, that the majority of people are not going to be taken in by this Orange and green agenda that some in the DUP would want.
I was impressed during the week of just how many unionists were angry at the DUP leadership at facilitating this corruption of the public purse. I was also impressed at how many unionists expressed sincere sympathy for the plight of Martin McGuinness.
Sure there are those who will always vote Orange and green and those who take great delight on Martin McGuinness’ illness but you cannot fail to acknowledge that there has been progress made here when people who acknowledge voting DUP in the past make the effort to publicly express sympathy and concern for Martin McGuinness even those who have suffered as a result of IRA actions.
I think that Ian Paisley Jr has also felt this subtle shift in public perceptions and the genuine anger that unionists and Nationalists have that some politicians and their advisors would be so corrupt that they would skim off millions for their wealthy sponsors and interests while elderly and families with children can’t afford to heat their homes.
I saw a simple plea in Ian Paisley junior’s message to DUP voters “the people who worked together and compromised to get things working are still here in the DUP and Sinn Fein but there is a bulwark of hardline “no compromise” individuals who are stopping this from happening”.
I completely agree and well said, Pointis
Thank you Scott,
Sometimes it can be difficult for people here to take an impartial view of things and sometimes it requires us to step outside our own community comfort zone and ask ourselves what would someone from Iceland, Brazil, Tunisia, Germany, Australia or Botswana think about what is going on here.
I think Ian Paisley courageously stepped outside his comfort zone on Thursday evening to show people that you don’t have to be weak to show kindness and concern for a traditional opponent. It takes a special kind of person to challenged perceived norms from within one’s own community as it requires humility as well as an overwhelming determination to do what you believe to be the right thing against the run of play.
Mr Paisley gave us a glimpse of what politics could be like here, where someone could have a diametrically opposite position on an issue but still anticipate that it is perfectly ok to enjoy spending time over a drink, meal or a chat with that person and feel enriched by the experience.
Mr Paisley exhibited moral fibre which certainly showed us that he definitely has the potential to be a leader who can reach across the divide.
The second thing that stuck me deeply this weekend were the tears in Martin McGuinness’ eyes when he was explaining to people in Derry about his illness and his retirement from front line politics. I think Martin McGuinness believed he had a lot more to give in terms of work to bring real reconciliation to people here and of how we should all be working to dissolve old hurts.
I couldn’t help thinking that some of those tears were for unionist friends that he has made and worked with to make this place a better place to live and whom he will sincerely miss.
Anybody interviewed from the pro Britisher side of society maintains that Orange halls are community halls and are an essential part of rural structure. What they really mean is that not all the people using them are Orangemen not that all the people use them. So when you see hordes of keflicks exiting from a hall remember it so you can tell your grandchildren. Of course they could be in there for a PSF convention to select an MLA or a CLCG meeting about funding or even plans for a future visit from Il Papa. Who knows?
There should be a third list. A list of the companies that supplied boilers, installed boilers, and those that supplied the pellets. If the story of sheds and boilers heating nothing are true, the suppliers must have been aware of this fraud. It would also be interesting to find out if any of these companies had links to DUP, familial or through donor ship.
Your scrutiny of the mainstream media in Norneverland, today, Esteemed Blogmeister, revealed a true-blue Northern Irish stew of slant, cant and a can’t-believe-what-one -is hearing -about this Land of the Enchanted Grant.
Which set one a-wandering down the Wonder Boreen : could we possibly (gulp) down here South of the Black Sow’s Dyke have a (gasp) mirror-image mainstream media ?
-Surely not, Shirley !
Sadly, after a spell of mature reflection lasting roughly three shakes of a nanny goat’s tail (in technical terms, this is known as three nano-seconds) one was left with no choice much less recourse to Joyce to conclude that it is only too true-blue true that we do indeed have same, deed and we do.
But then:
-Sure, why not, Shirley?
Tar éis an tsaoil / After all, was not the Free Southern Stateen the very political slum (a slum which was greater than the sum of its mainstream parties) where the Sheik of Fake News himself, Conor Cruise O’Brien of the (gasp) Irish Labour Party practically invented this deceptive concept with his dance of the seven veiled threats, , Section 31 ?
Unlike Elvis, that sniffy piece of Electioneering Protectionism, this Sylvia’s Mother of all media muzzles hasn’t left the main media houses of self-correction on Liffeyside , you know.
As a random samp of the still-damp-with-printer’s-ink news items from yesterday will aver, Mrs. Avery.
Take the reporting of the Northern Institutional Abuse Report.
RTE, ar ndoigh/ of course, led with (yawn, stretch, trouser cough) Fr. Brendan Smith and later interviewed Archbishop Eamon Martin. But it was the dogmatic dogs of the streets of Dublin which did not get to bark, which caught the ear, mostly.
Take, for example, Fergus Finlay.
Despite his initials he is not a Ffer but indeed was once a SPAD on Paddy’s green shamrock shore for the, erm, offshore Irish Labour Party. Being the one charged with keeping the Spring Water clear, from (gulp) dick liquid, that sorta thingy.
Nowadays, he is the CEO of Bernardo’s (Ireland) and is one of thsoe voluble verbalists who is on RTE not quite as irregularly as, say, the Weatherwoman.
Another of these mouthpieces born with a silver microphone where their umbilical chords might have been, is, gan dabht, that baby-faced supporter of resurrectintg Nelson’s Pillar, Brian Hayes, MEP. Who, since he moved to Bruxelles to act as understudy for that city’s iconic statue, the Manneken Pis, has actually added to his daily guesting on RTE Radio 1 by including a nocturnal shift.
We are talking about Boy-location here, bigly.
-Urineair: Low Furores Made Simple !
But, back to Fergus Finlay, pluralist, the absence of, from the frontline of RTE Radio 1 frontline news progs in the immediate aftermath of the Historical Abuse Enquiry Report in Norneverland. A plural version of the Randy Van Warmer song came to mind:
-Just when we needed you most.
Clearly, he hadn’t been asked.
Of the 22 Institutions listed in this report, less than a third of them were run by the Popish religion. Two of them (both in Newtownabbey) were run by Bernardo’s. One of the latter (Macedon) was finger-pointed at in the Report.
-And the operator said, forty cents more.
To conclude: Kincora House was also at the core of this Report. Curiously, nobody was queried by RTE on this one of the 22 centres, either.
-Ah, where Kincora ! is Brian the Great?
And where is the beauty that once was thine?
Oh, where are the princes and nobles who sate
At the feats in thy halls, and drank the red wine?
Seems like niether James Clarence Mangan, Esquire or, indeed, B. Ború, Uasal himself were available for interview to answer these red button questions which had been (presumably) prepared by RTE Radio 1.
Despite the image they like to project,the media are seriously out of touch and have been wrongfooted several times lately.On the night before McGuinness brought Stormont down, i was told byan immpecable source that it was to happen “tomorrow” ie Monday.I followed all news bulletins from early next morning and listened as numerous “political correspondents” ,experts,commentators etc talked “liathroidi” about what was going to happen .They were talking a week ahead of themselves and after 3 that day were literally crapping themselves when they discovered that Martin was going to pull the plug without them having the slightest inkiling.They are now spouting about how the election will go with nonsense about “political uprisings” against “those inpower” etc.I can tell you as someone on the ground in this area that if they think the shinners who were in power are in for a roasting ,they are going to be left speechless again.SF are energising members,supporters and voters in a way I have’nt seen in nearly 20 years.If I have a word of advice for the SDLP ,it would be -tone down your anti SF hatred because if you are going to survive at all ,you are going to need SF transfers big time!
why have journalists that are gagged.none of them here ask hard questions.
meanwhile back at the ranch,honest jim has just found out his brother and his 3cousins have # 8 # boilers blasting away.lol
This is what I like to call the “Both Sides Are As Bad As Each Other” approach by the media. There’s no interest in the truth, and if there is and the Truth paints one side as bad but not the other, then the media must dig up something bad on the other side to level the playing field, even if its unrelated to the topic being discussed. Its poor, unprofessional and false journalism.
There was once a Unionist commentator on this blog, I cant remember who it was, who said that both sides are as bad as each other on a certain topic. I felt the need to “check” that commentator and provide evidence to show his statement was nonsense. I believe the topic was parades and he honestly tried to say that Nationalist parades (which are a fraction of the number of Orange/Loyalist parades) are as bad as Orange parades. “Bad” in the sense for sectarianism, for demanding to parade in contentious areas, etc.
I also think some Unionists/Loyalists like to jump on this statement of “Both sides are as bad as each other” and promote it because they know if we look at the facts it will ultimately make Unionism look bad in comparison to Nationalism. I’m not saying Nationalism is perfect and lily white but I cant remember the last time a Nationalist parade literally besieged a Protestant area because it wanted to parade through it simply because it was Protestant. And of course Drumcree had the full backing of political Unionism and its electorate, as did the sectarian camp at Twaddell. Drumcree was what led to the 3 Quinn children being burnt to death by the UVF and Bernadette Martin being murdered by her own partners friend because of Drumcree and also because Bernadette was a Catholic. Indeed Bernadette’s murderer also murdered Catholic Michael McGoldrick due to Drumcree.
The Orange Order is a sectarian and anti-Catholic organisation. That’s not me attacking it, that’s its values, that’s what it is. Centuries of History proves that right up to the present day. Its amazing at how the media here accepts the Orange Order without question, as if its some sort of cultural society for old men and women. It never questions the morality of Orange demands to march, especially at contentious interfaces.
But lets look at it this way. What if the KKK wanted to parade and march here. The KKK are an anti-Catholic, Anti-Black and anti-Asian organisation. There would be OUTRAGE if they demanded to parade at all, never mind parade through a neighbour mostly occupied by black people. There would be no talks. There would be no toleration for it from any quarters. It simply wouldn’t happen.
But yet there’s plenty of toleration and no questioning for the Orange Orders anti-Catholic values. The media when it came to Ardoyne even tried to paint the Catholic residents who opposed this orange parade as “anti-peace” at one point.
RHI is not an Orange-Green issue but It still wont do much damage to the DUP as it would if the DUP was based in a normal society. I think the DUP might lose MLA’s over it but still remain the largest party. I still think Arlene will top the poll in Fermanagh, despite her costing her own voters hundreds of millions of pounds. In any other society, in England or in the Republic, Arlene would’ve resigned a long time ago…..
PS: According to a tweet from Sam McBride, the Newsletter Journalist, a DUP MP during a DUP Assembly Group meeting said that its possible the DUP could lose 10 MLA’s due to RHI and also due to fewer Assembly members returning after this election. The mood at the meeting was described as “Sombre”….
I thought it would be obvious by now that most folk would treat the BBC with a large pinch of salt? After all they have been one of the main producers of ‘FakeNews’ even before it became trendy. One only has to observe their subtle demonisation of Corbyn to see what their agenda is and always will be:
https://off-guardian.org/2017/01/20/pannell-beaters/
The mainstream media set the agenda Jude. I think that we should no longer be asked to fund the BBC. As the name suggests it is British in its outlook. Which as we all no really means English. Why should we pay for an English propaganda machine?
There is an attempt to rewrite the history of this place and the media are at the fore. I’m fed up listening to journalists, reporters and presenters pumping out the party line, as if they were unaware of the reality of our situation. Nolan, Thompson, McKee, the Telegraph, the Newsletter and the Irish News, all appear to have forgotten key elements of our historical journey. I said, elsewhere, that anyone from a progressive background should ask the interviewer a number of questions before agreeing to appear on a show, or give an interview.
I suggest the following,
1/ Do you understand why we have a mandatory coalition, under the terms of the GFA?
2/Are you aware that this is an international treaty acknowledging unionism’s inability to behave in a democratic manner?
3/Are you aware that the RUC/UDR were disbanded as part of the outcome of these negotiations because the international treaty recognised their unacceptability to a large section of the people listening to your show/reading your article?
4/Do you accept that the British government have officially acknowledged state forces collusion with unionist death squads?
5/Do you understand that the largest number of innocent victims killed in the conflict were Catholic civilians and that over 75% of these were murdered by unionist paramilitaries or state forces?
If the journalist is able to confirm that they are aware of all of the above, then proceed with the interview. It seems entirely reasonable to assume that someone purporting to be a journalist should at least be aware of the most basic information in order not to waste time making inaccurate assertions and asking ludicrous questions.
“3/Are you aware that the RUC/UDR were disbanded as part of the outcome of these negotiations because the international treaty recognised their unacceptability to a large section of the people listening to your show/reading your article?”
Neither the RUC nor the UDR was disbanded as part of the outcome of the GFA negotiations.
The RUC continued, though its name and badge were changed.
The UDR had been merged into another regiment some six years before the GFA.
“5/Do you understand that the largest number of innocent victims killed in the conflict were Catholic civilians and that over 75% of these were murdered by unionist paramilitaries or state forces?”
‘Innocent victims’? What sort of sophistry is this? Presumably you have removed victims that you consider not to be ‘innocent’ from.the list in order to twist the facts to put your favoured group at the top of the list? And you talk about others rewriting history!
How despicable: and a clear indication that you saw the murder of police officers and others as legitimate. Shame on you.
Jude
As I said before (do you even read the comments anymore? My opinion was compared to a dog shitting on a carpet today!) party donors in Northern Ireland are not published for security reasons.
As far as I know that is still the case,unless your research tells us otherwise.
That being the case I don’t see how that list could be produced.
I would certainly like to see all future donors to any party being made public, but I don’t see how it could be applied to previous donors.
What security reasons would they be Gio? I mean, we’re in 2017, not 1977, I’d understand then but not now.
It all sounds too much like when British Government says “National Security” when they refuse to release information on incidents they are suspected of being involved in, and I’m not just talking about collusion against Nationalists but also the Kingsmills Massacre, etc.
All parties, including SF and DUP, should release list of their donors.
Ryan
I didn’t make the rule I am just pointing it out.
I have already said I think they should now be public, but I don’t think people who donated under those rules should find their names being made public, do you?
I assume you agree with points one and two. You engage in sophistry to dispute the other points. Not everyone shares your perspective on our recent past. Your contribution has served to highlight the point I was making. Thank you, sir.
“You engage in sophistry to dispute the other points.”
I don’t engage in sophistry. You engaged in sophistry to eliminate from.the record and dehumanise those whom you think deserved to be murdered – in order falsely to elevate the suffering of your favoured ethnic group. Utterly despicable.
There really is no need to continue. You’ve already made my point.
“There really is no need to continue. You’ve already made my point.”
You original point was that ‘there is an attempt to rewrite the history of this place and the media are at the fore’. I havent made that point.
Then you said that your point was simply that not everyone shares the same perspective on our recent past: a point so obvious that most people.would consider it doesn’t even need to be stated.
Oh, you’ve made the original point. Very comprehensively. The fact that you don’t see it simply reinforces it’s validity. Good day, sir.
“Oh, you’ve made the original point. Very comprehensively. The fact that you don’t see it simply reinforces it’s validity.”
I haven’t made the original point.
You are deducing wrongly that because I didn’t comment on all the questions you listed that I therefore agree with the claim that the questions supposedly supported.
Unfortunately, however, even if I did agree that the questions were valid (which I don’t), it doesn’t follow that this means I agree with the original claim.
There are several failures in your reasoning.
Thank you, again,sir.
Agree wholeheartedly Brian….very valid points…as are those made by the other bloggers ……and I especially like the idea of a third list. We cannot possibly come to any lasting or permanent agreement without everyone understanding and accepting that we’re all equal….concealing or attempting to conceal nefarious actions only increases and multiplies suspicions and distrust.We’ve
made this mess together and attempting to apportion blame only prolongs the inevitable……we share this space……I can’t see anyone moving away , we must ,to survive , learn to work , accept and live together.
I agree there, Eolach. That is why the Maze site is essential. Unionism has closed it off in a kind of “book burning” manner. For god’s sake don’t let the outside world see the truth, for the truth is an ugly place. It must be said loud and clear, ‘Common criminals do not give up their lives, it just doesn’t happen.” Common criminals extort and defraud and deceive and money is usually at the heart of it, but they don’t give up their lives.
The notion that the proposed Derry to Belfast train link is not a political decision is strange given the largely nationalist make up of the city of Derry. No passport check is required to know which community is targetted.
The same point was often made about the M1 to Craigavon.
The idea that SF politicians are somehow above such petty vote grabbing is incredibly naive.
Doesn’t the train run in both directions?
Brian
I am going to take a wild guess that it does.
Does that change the benefits to the largely nationalist city of Derry?
And this is of no benefit to Belfast?
“And this is of no benefit to Belfast?”
Very marginal benefit. The vast majority of users of the service will be from Derry. People.from Belfast have little reason to go to Derry.
Brian
You are struggling to avoid the obvious point that this is a benefit to the people of Derry.
Even assuming that Belfast would benefit equally it is roughly 50/50 so can effectively be disregarded in terms of which community this is aimed at.
It is silly to pretend we cannot see the obvious.
Not exactly struggling. A rail link between the two largest cities in the north should not really be contentious. To suggest that the religious makeup of the cities in question should be a factor would seem to be odd, wouldn’t you agree?
Brian
It shouldn’t be but it is. Did you know there is an election coming?
Giordanobruno
No kidding?
Surely you are not suggesting that the religious affiliations of citizens should determine their access to the transport network and that political parties would exploit those primitive enough to share this notion.
I can understand that some people may have concerns that providing Eamonn McCann and Colm Eastwood with the ability to travel to the BBC studio in Belfast, in relative comfort, may be foolhardy, but is this not balanced by the humanity of allowing apprentice boys the opportunity to stretch their aging limbs during the tedious trip from Belfast to the walls of Doire?
Brian
The first order of business for any political party is getting elected. The second order of business is getting re-elected.
If you do not know that I can only wonder if the soapy bubble in which you came up the Lagan was also funded by Sinn Fein.
Giordanobruno
I find myself in agreement with you. I share your belief that Sinn Fein do not share the political dishonesty of other political parties.
That is what you were trying to say, isn’t it?
Brian
On that hilarious note I think I will leave you to your delusions.
Here’s a documentary that looks at how the BBC saved the Union. It examines the role BBC bias and propaganda played in the defeat of the 2014 Scottish Referendum.
Although specific to that setting, many of the points it raises can be applied more generally, particularly to Northern Ireland.
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/bbc-bias-london-calling/
“Although specific to that setting, many of the points it raises can be applied more generally, particularly to Northern Ireland.”
Which points and how can they be applied ‘more generally, particularly to Northern Ireland ‘?
Lets say that you were an alien and just dropped in from some other planet and you began watching and listening to the local news and current affairs programmes , it wouldn’t be too long until you became aware which side is bad and which side is good . Now if you had the ability to comprehend the local-speak and understood the loaded language used by the pundits and commentators you would soon be left in no doubt as to what the message is . Negative stories about the less favoured side run and run , while negative stories about the favoured side die a sudden death or do not get reported.
..
As an alien you would soon observe that the locals accept this blatantly obvious double standard without little or no objection to it , they have accepted it as being just the way things are . The broadcasters churn out the same old same old and everything is as it should be. However as an independent , clear thinking alien you are probably thinking what a fucking boring place this is and you would be calling your spacecraft to get to fuck out of the place .