38 thoughts on “De Friday Papers

  1. Major

    Presumably the front of The Irish Times will have something about the difference in ABC circulation figures for 2008 and those released today? The figure was 119,051 in 2008. ABC circulation figure today is 58k. That’s a 50% decrease in only 10 years! Dear Sir, Is this a record? Yours etc …

    1. Mel

      Don’t worry. Timmy Dooley has a plan: https://www.fiannafail.ie/ff-proposes-state-intervention-to-secure-future-of-quality-journalism-dooley/

      ““Fianna Fáil is proposing to expand the role of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and to establish a Print Journalism Unit. Its remit would be to deliver innovative schemes to support the work of print journalists at both national and local level. The unit will also disper­se grant aid to support newspaper publishers in providing public service content”

    1. Johnny

      Do you think one ‘Ireland’s’ richest men having his holdings nationalized there has influenced Irish coverage (bff dob) and govt policy ?
      He had a nice ad for this white elephant that you can’t give away,the dogs on the property streets said he paid 10 for Gerry’s piece off NAMA,but 40 million was the price in Indo :)
      – the ad from today no really it’s called Freinds Of Mine-what a hack.
      https://www.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/smurfit-friends-of-mine-want-to-buy-the-k-club-37836063.html

      1. eoin

        The US ex-military who were caught with an impressive arsenal of weapons and devices in Haiti last weekend have been released into FBI custody and have been flown to the US. Smells to high heavens of the USA interfering in Haiti’s affairs again.

        Meanwhile, the protesters are back on the streets today. Will they be angry and resourced enough to get into the Port-au-prince White House? Maybe, but chances are they won’t and the corruption and unrest will fester for another while.

        1. Johnny

          Did they find oil :)

          ‘Federal sources told the Miami Herald that the men will not be charged criminally, but are being debriefed. They told U.S. authorities they were on the island providing private security for a “businessman” doing work with the Haitian government.’
          https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article226572869.html

          Protests scheduled for today and carnival has been cancelled,not sure how it’s going all play out.

          Meanwhile in a galaxy far far away,the mysterious group that bought this and was running a pencil over the Sunday Business Post while back,provides its readers in America this type coverage on Haiti.
          https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/education/denis-o-brien-s-digicel-foundation-opens-its-174th-school-in-haiti

    2. MaryLou's ArmaLite

      A toxic mix of socialism led by economically illiterate fools destroyed the country some of the largest oil reserves in the world.

  2. SOQ

    Farmers need bigger push in climate fight- Higgins

    I know he was playing to the cheap seats at an environmental conference but it was a bit tone deaf.

    If Britain carries out its post Brexit threat to allow cheap Brazilian beef into the UK, there will be no agri industry left worth talking about. I very much doubt if green farming methods are their top priority right now.

    1. Rep

      Britain won’t carry out its post Brexit threat to allow cheap Brazilian beef into the UK as it would decimate its own beef industry.

        1. Nigel

          Yes but eating meat isn’t a farming method? Intensive monoculture industrial farming methods are employed in crops and grain and vegetable production as well as the meat sector. They’re the ones using insecticides and pesticides all over the place.

          1. SOQ

            Plant based diets are better for the environment, as well as for yourself. This is hardly news. Farming, in particular cows account for near half the omissions in Ireland which is why it has become an environmental issue.

            Either cut the amount of cows or feed them only clover, which is expensive and time consuming to grow right.

          2. Nigel

            The palm oil debacle has shown that plant-based agriculture can be catastrophic in terms of habitat destruction soil degradation and land poisoning. Yes less cows and chicken factories but it’s no bloody good if farming methods don’t change to save biodiversity.

          3. SOQ

            The palm oil debacle has shown that plant-based agriculture can be catastrophic in terms of habitat destruction soil degradation and land poisoning.

            Well now, I’d have hands on hips if I wasn’t so full of gin.

            How is this.

            Scraping into large fields, then for no real reason knocking trees and clipping hedges twice a year is a pretty good indication that those who farm the land no longer respect it?

          4. Nigel

            It’s open season on trees and hedges st the moment and the forestry lot only want more conifer plantations I’d say the country has actually declared war on the land.

            Land War 2: We’ll Fight The Beaches The Landing Grounds The Fields The Forests The Hills

  3. Starina

    had the feckin Irish Times squished into my letterbox this morning (not a euphemism) along with a subscription card. They must really be desperate for subscribers

    1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

      After all that kerfuffle yesterday I resubscribed to the Guardian. I never look at the Irish Times anymore, really.

      ps I was sorry to hear that it wasn’t a euphemism. What a morning that would have been.

      1. Starina

        I took the Guardian app off my phone after the transphobic op-eds in their UK edition recently…but now i get all my news from Twitter, which is a doomy sh!!tshow. Might have to go back to the Guardian once Brexit hits!

        And sure, there’s always the weekend ;)

        1. rotide

          Really Starina? I would have thought the Guardian was easily the most liberal of the broadsheets. They publish the most trans friendly op Ed’s of any of the mainstream papers/websites.

          Was one piece really that bad?

        2. f_lawless

          Beware the insidious nature of the Guardian!
          http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/888-limits-of-dissent-glenn-greenwald-and-the-guardian.html
          Apart from a few genuinely good left-leaning articles from time to time about social issues, the environment, etc, it performs the function of manufacturing consent among its liberally-minded readership towards establishment narratives. It’s a gatekeeper of ‘acceptable’ news and comment among the left. To quote former Guardian journalist, Jonathon Cook:

          “‘Even aside from its decade-long campaign against Assange, the Guardian is far from “solid and reliable”, as Glen Greenwald claims. It has been at the forefront of the relentless, and unhinged, attacks on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for prioritising the rights of Palestinians over Israel’s right to continue its belligerent occupation. Over the past three years, the Guardian has injected credibility into the Israel lobby’s desperate efforts to tar Corbyn as an anti-semite.

          Similarly, the Guardian worked tirelessly to promote Clinton and undermine Sanders in the 2016 Democratic nomination process – another reason the paper has been so assiduous in promoting the idea that Assange, aided by Russia, was determined to promote Trump over Clinton for the presidency.

          The Guardian’s coverage of Latin America, especially of populist leftwing governments that have rebelled against traditional and oppressive US hegemony in the region, has long grated with analysts and experts. Its especial venom has been reserved for leftwing figures like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, democratically elected but official enemies of the US, rather than the region’s rightwing authoritarians beloved of Washington.

          ‘The Guardian has been vocal in the so-called “fake news” hysteria, decrying the influence of social media, the only place where leftwing dissidents have managed to find a small foothold to promote their politics and counter the corporate media narrative.

          The Guardian has painted social media chiefly as a platform overrun by Russian trolls, arguing that this should justify ever-tighter restrictions that have so far curbed critical voices of the dissident left more than the right.'”

  4. bisted

    …while the no-deal brexit remains the closest outcome to what the UK voted for it looks like it will not happen. The UK electorate are about to be betrayed. The UK will not go cap-in-hand to request an extension that is at the behest of the EU27…instead, they will withdraw their letter invoking article 50…back to the status quo…the DUP will claim victory…

  5. f_lawless

    The Mirror front page: “Parents forced out of their cars to tackle rise in childhood asthma”
    I’m not so sure that that’s the right approach. Are kids being subjected to that much worse air quality than in, say, the 80s? What about the mind-body connection? There’s been a series of clinical studies linking the impact of parental stress to cases of asthma in children. Perhaps the “soaring asthma cases” are a reflection of the increasingly stressful conditions which people are having to deal with in modern Irish life?
    I’ve been watching some talks by renowned physician, Gabor Mate, recently..seems like an interesting person – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rof2UQfzUtY

    1. SOQ

      Pollution in towns and cities is at an all time high and if you doubt the impact school runs have, just look at the difference in traffic when the schools are off.

      1. f_lawless

        ..eh, no it’s not. Aren’t you old enough to remember the severe smog which hung in the air in the 1980s in the days before ‘smokeless’ coal? the airborne lead in the days before unleaded petrol, the blackened buildings in Dublin city centre, etc?
        This report, although written in 2012, goes into some of the historical detail of Dublin’s air quality over recent decades. https://www.dlrcoco.ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/aqmp_final_doc.pdf
        “In the past 20 years Dublin’’s air quality has shown significant improvement in the levels of black smoke, lead, sulphur dioxide (SO2), benzene, and carbon monoxide (CO). This is due largely to the success of the regulatory ban on the sale of bituminous coal in the Dublin region and the elimination/reduction of other substances in vehicle fuels.”
        Ireland has the 4th highest prevalence of asthma in the world, yet we continually surpass the standards of acceptable air quality levels set by EU legislation..surely it can’t all be pinned on air quality?

  6. eoin

    Vanessa’s friend Gerald Kean who was kicked out of his old offices on Pembroke Street gets more unwelcome press attention today. The Irish Times claims he owes his old landlord €180,000 in rent. Gerald says the old offices were too small and he’s moving to newer offices. He gave an address for the new offices on Monday, but according to the IT today “Mr Kean said he had found alternative offices on Trinity Street in Dublin, and was in the process of moving in”, what a strange turn of phrase “in the process of moving in”.

    How will he afford the rent on the new (“larger” he says) offices if he couldn’t pay the rent on the old office?

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/gerald-kean-owes-former-landlord-180-000-civil-order-shows-1.3802235

  7. eoin

    While we were all distracted by one oligarch in the High Court, we missed the judgement in the case of another oligarch in the High Court in London.

    Oleg Deripaska, owner of the Limerick aluminum refinery which employs 500 directly and is a very big deal for the region, loses his case in the London High Court over a payout from a deal on a development site in Moscow. Did the British judge believe what Oleg was saying in court. He did not. Though in fairness, none of the principals were believed very much at all. The case centers on the “armed” takeover of the residential development site in Moscow in 2010 by men working for Deripaska, that’s how they resolve business disputes there, and the compensation that should flow to Deripaska’s partner in the venture.

    It’s concerning that Deripaska still has a major stake in the Aughinish plant given his previous business conduct and his performance in the London High Court.

    http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2019/173.pdf

  8. eoin

    The Phoenix (out today) reports, page 1, the business editor of INM, Dearbhail McDonald has filed a “100 page” complaint of bullying with the human resources dept of INM against…… the editor of the Indo, Fionnan Sheahan. Alas, the Phoenix doesn’t detail the allegations. Neither of the INM employees had any comment on the matter when contacted by the Phoenix, and doubtless Fionnan will have something to say to HR about the allegations.

    Poor Fionnan, separately, the DPP has him up in court next Monday after an article in the Indo last year led to the collapse of a rape trial. According to the Sunday Times “the DPP filed a High Court action seeking attachment orders against the newspaper’s editor Fionnán Sheahan, journalist Nicola Anderson and Independent News & Media (INM).The DPP could seek the imprisonment of the journalists or a fine over publication of the report.”

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