The amazing, dazzling Radio Ulster and the Irish Times

I never cease to be impressed by the ease with which the mainstream media can make themselves invisible.

For example, in today’s Irish Times Letters page, there’s this from Danny Boyd of Newtownabbey:

Sir, – Anne Harris’s column “Varadkar, right now, is the leader we need” (Opinion & Analysis, December 20th) includes the statement, “Blair soothing republicans by ordering a second Bloody Sunday inquiry”. How must the relatives of those murdered on Bloody Sunday feel when reading this?

When are we going to see a northern nationalist given a regular column in The Irish Times, to balance the views expressed by Anne Harris, Stephen Collins, Michael McDowell and Newton Emerson? – Yours, etc,”

I find the second paragraph particularly interesting, because in my experience if you send a letter to the IT editor, if it’s not complimentary it’s spiked. Danny Boyd has escaped this fate, from which a reasonable conclusion is that the IT does include people with political views which differ from theirs, in this case Danny Boyd.  But do you think that the IT will mend its ways as a result of Mr Boyd’s letter, and that we’ll soon see three or four nationalist columnists climbing into the pages of the IT? Holy water and Orange lodges come to mind. The IT’s diversity of views stops with Danny Boyd’s letter.

As it happens, I was listening to the B(ritish)BC’s Radio Uladh/Radio Ulster earlier today. OnTalkback, several reporters were talking about their practice in terms of using sources, and whether that then hobbled them when dealing with that source in the future.  They talked  in pleasant tones, talked about off-loading the source onto a colleague in future reporting, thus avoiding any temptation towards partiality in writing about the source. They were particularly emphatic on the need for mainstream media to allow the views of those with whom they disagreed to be heard.

Really? So what was that broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin about, from 1988-1994? More recently, you might want to run your slide-rule over the guests on the Nolan show or Talkback, and see how prominent nationalist/republican pundits are. And yes, Virginia, I can indeed vouch for the speed with which the B(ritish) BC will make you a non-person if you attempt to point out an  uncomfortable truth.

But you see, by having journalists on the Beeb discussing the need to be open to all views, while never so much as hinting that the Beeb itself might be deficient in this area, you make the notion of a partial B(ritish) BC  unthinkable. As did the IT,with the Danny Boyle letter.

Dazzling, lads. Well done.