It
hardly needs to be said that Ireland is a small country. But, for
decades, it has had a newspaper industry to be proud of, with its
main titles fairer and less partisan than their equivalents in other
states.
Indeed,
in Ireland we only needed to look across the water to Britain to see
openly biased media in action, with papers either wedded to
particular parties and ideologies or manipulated by their owners,
depending on the circumstances of the day.
Over the
past generation, British outlets have entered the Irish market,
looking for circulation boosts to buttress numbers back at home. And,
aside from their presence squeezing indigenous Irish operations,
they’ve also brought with them the poor journalism standards of
their homeland.
Take The
Sunday’s Times’ (Ireland edition) splash on Dublin’s Russian
embassy last weekend, for instance.
For some
time now, Rupert Murdoch’s operation has been running an
anti-Russia campaign in its UK edition. And one of its key ambitions
is to have RT television banned from the British airwaves. This is
largely because it’s funded by the Russian government and offers a
non-mainstream perspective, which appears to infuriate the
Australian-born media mogul and his London team.
While
subscribers to the Times’ Irish offering have long been exposed to
the “mainland” hysteria over Russia, its Dublin outpost only
appeared to mount the “red-scare” horse with extra vigor in
recent weeks, with sensationalist pieces concerning the activities of
their embassy in our capital. Sadly, its coverage has been heavy on
hyperbole and low on real Russia expertise.
Full
report:
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