From top: Former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams (left)and Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan; Anthony Sheridan
Irish Examiner journalist Michael Clifford believes there is an organised social media campaign by some in politics to discredit mainstream media.
Increasingly in some quarters of politics, social media is used to attempt to systemically discredit the media. This is designed to encourage the public to ignore anything negative that appears in the media about a particular politician or party.
This attack on the media, according to Clifford, encourages people to ignore facts and blame the messenger. And, he warns, the tactic is undermining the media’s role in holding power to account.
Specifically, Clifford is writing about Sinn Féin supporters who allege that mainstream media is biased against the party. He goes on to accuse those supporters of using the bias claim to discredit negative scrutiny of Sinn Féin.
Michael Clifford is wrong, as wrong as only an establishment journalist can be when faced with the uncomfortable truth of rampant mainstream media bias.
There are any number of examples of this bias not just against Sinn Féin but against any person or organisation, such as the water protesters, who threaten the power of the ruling political establishment.
The following is just one example from Clifford’s newspaper, The Irish Examiner.
A few weeks ago the leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryan used the ‘N’ word during a speech in the Dail. Ryan was referring to an article in the Irish Times by the writer Sean Gallen in which he described how racist abuse during his childhood affected his whole life.
Here’s how the political editor of the Irish Examiner, Daniel McConnell, responded:
Eamon Ryan is not racist.
The reaction to {Ryan} was astonishing and, in places, downright nasty. On social media, the great online sewer, he was slammed.
Was Ryan wrong to use it as opposed to saying ‘the N-word’ or some other variation when making his point? Or was he justified in saying it within the context of highlighting the abuse suffered by Gallen?
The rush to condemn did on one level smack of the disturbing pattern of the left to preach to everyone as to what speech is acceptable and which is not.
The moral high priests and priestesses who seem to go out their way to take offence do little to progress the cause of inclusivity or equality.
Four years ago, in May 2016, the then leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams also used the ‘N’ word in the exact same manner as Ryan.
That is, he used the word in the context of the suffering of the nationalist population of Northern Ireland under British/Unionist rule, just as Ryan used it to highlight the abuse suffered by Gallen.
The bias of the Irish Examiner is exposed for all to see when the favourable [and justified] defence of Ryan is contrasted against the judgement of Adams in a damning editorial [I have bolded what I consider to be the contradictions between the two responses]:
While Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has defended using a racist word for a black person in a tweet, his judgement must be called into question.
As leader of a political party, he has a duty to guard against making gratuitously offensive references.
Whether he likes it or not, his Sunday night use of the six-letter N-word is the kind of word that is synonymous with the attitude towards black people in America’s deep south. Whether used unwittingly or not, it a deeply offensive term.
It is simply not good enough to tell his followers on the social media platform Twitter that he was watching a Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, comparing the struggle against slavery in the US to the struggle by Irish nationalists.
If it had been a film about US president Barack Obama, he would hardly have used such a racist term. So why did he use it? Having drawn criticism on both social media and the Washington Times, that is the right question which Mr Adams must ask himself.
Mr. Clifford tells us that the so-called tactic by ‘some quarters of politics’ on social media to discredit mainstream media is undermining the media’s role in holding power to account.
There’s no need of such a conspiracy.
A declining standard of professionalism coupled with an obvious bias against those who challenge the ruling political establishment are doing more than enough to undermine trust in and credibility of mainstream media.
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Public Enquiry.
Irish Examiner Bias (Anthony Sheridan, Public Enquiry)
Higgins ‘Will Not Allow’ the Dail To Disband.
That’s the headline in Clifford’s Examiner today. Presented as fact basically for the people that pass the news stands and don’t buy the paper. When the article is read, the headline is shown, by the Examiner itself, to be a lie (regardless of where the single quotation marks are)
Maybe the problem with the media is it discredits it’s self
It can only blame itself
There is no equivalence between these two examples.
Eamonn Ryan said:
In a newspaper today there was a story by a young Irishman, Sean Gallen, who gave his experience of being othered and, from the age of six, being given that name, “You n****r”. He explained how this completely undermines people. Friends and relations of colour in this country, Travellers and members of other minorities, speak of the same experience. It is real.
Gerry Adams tweeted:
“Watching Django Unchained – A Ballymurphy N*****r”
Ironic really: Anthony Sheridan is on Broadsheet trying to discredit mainstream media.
Well its not like that discredit mainstream media hasn’t been going on here before
this is just a kinda new lad having a his go
that’s all
But the delicious irony is that Anthony is actually proving Michael Clifford point. He is actively attempting to discredit the media to encourage the public to ignore anything negative that appears in the media about Sinn Fein.
I’m actually not sure he fully understands Bias
Or any of the numerous demonstrations that prove a Conflict of Interest (s) is present
Which is fair enough
There’s Company Directors and CEOs in all types of companies
Senior and Junior Ministers – in fact public reps at all levels
Household names in Journalism and News / CA/ Business Broadcasting, along with their employers and publishers
That don’t either
I think he’s done a particularly good job at discrediting the media. In fact, the media itself is making quite a good job of it too. e.g. The headline in the Examiner today. A blatant lie.
The two are unrelated.
Yes, the headline in the Examiner today is a blatant lie.
But that doesn’t prove any bias (nor does his article above)
They don’t have to be related in order to be true.
Only one was true.
This is what is so wrong with Irish Journalism.. If you don’t tow the line you will find yourself out of a job… Michael himself was proving an erstwhile journalist for a period with very good investigative journalism over the past few years.. Then the Irish Times buy the the Irish Examiner.. Michael is basically confined to podcasts.. So this is Michael now trying to gain the confidence of his new employers by writing what they want him to write.. Michael and others know where their bread is buttered.. Irish Journalism is utterly compromised..
That takeover of De’ Xaminer is as recent as June 2018
barely two years
A lot of writing about stuff
and a lot of stuff said
about stuff
was done long before then
and btw, what you’ve described about buttered bread
that’s the Conflict we call
Influence – usually recognised as Fee Influence
which is why you see caps on what big firms can earn per year from their big ticket clients,
And its about as useful as this post, in fairness
The 2 instances are incomparable.
this, and even its apparent in the quoted editorials that Adams defended his use of the word while Ryan apologized immediately
But, the word was used in two very different circumstances.
Eamon Ryan was quoting a piece from a newspaper article, whereas Gerry Adams was using the word about himself, not quoting anyone, just causally using the word to call himself (I presume?) a Ballymurphy N-word.
I’m not particularly a supporter of either of the gentlemen involved, and I think neither of them should have used that word at all, but I do think that Mr Adams use of it was gratuitous and deserved to be singled out.
Adams was referring to the way the people of Ballymurphy were treated by the British authorities, Army and RUC ie massacred, harrassed, beaten, interned, verbal assault, zero amenities etc etc ad nauseum. But none of that matters more than his use of the n word to draw an obvious analogy between the treatment of black people in the US and the Irish people of Ballymurphy. Your moral compass is pointing in entirely the wrong direction
Adams is eloquent enough to have made that point (without using the n-word) if he had wanted to.
But he didn’t.
He literally just tweeted:
“Watching Django Unchained – A Ballymurphy N*****r”
If the writer really wanted to demonstrate Bias in the media
He could have taken a further look into the two Jounos he quoted for better examples
Than a pair of tweets
…you’d have to wonder about Michael Clifford after a lifetime as a hack not knowing the difference between the medium and the message…just more whinging from another contributor to the echo chamber…
My heart soars everytime Mr Sheridan describes me as an establishment journalist. It’s only then that I know I must be doing something right. For some reason, I light his fires. Once on Broadsheet he portrayed me as a supporter of Pat Hickey so it’s good to know he has retained the capacity to mangle and distort stuff I write. At least he continues to fill a gap left by my other good friend Gemma since she has fallen out of favour wtih the site.
Wow…I do hope this is an impersonation….
Michael, do you know how many houses your friend Frank Mullen left in his will?
Answer: 33.
(frantically googling Frank Mullen is 33 a Q thing,a sign:)
No
The former Garda left 33 properties in his will
or as we’d – from down the country’d say ‘his last letter’
That’s some amount of overtime
and nixers n’ sidelines
OMG just read Michael’s hostage letter-tks Bodger a lot of houses.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/frank-mullen-dies-trying-to-clear-his-name-455921.html
(´･ω･`)?
btw, that Kaomoji was in the ‘surprised/ speechless’ catogory (●’◡’●)
so are these ↓
→_→
←_←
What a bizarre example for Clifford to cite!!!
Adams was given a position of honour at the grave-side of Mandela. He was chosen by the ANC to be a pall bearer at the very culmination of that very public funeral. That’s a testament to his life-long alliance with racial justice there. Weirdly, that wasn’t mentioned by the great and the good of the Irish Times, etc, when they suggested that he was a racist.
The media which Clifford is defending gave that scant coverage precisely because it was Adams. Imagine if it had been any other public figure in Ireland. Imagine if that honour had been accorded to Mary Robinson or Bono. The coverage would have been far more extensive.
As for Clifford himself, he repeatedly enjoys making the sort of trolling reference to “Shinnerbots” which consistently lowers the standards of what passes for commentary from far too much of our establishment-friendly media.
Mick needs to cop on.
Anyone who has spent anytime with Gerry knows his lifelong commitment to civil rights and racial justice.
-Presenting a limited edition copy of the Frederick Douglass book to civil rights icon Andrew Young.
We visited the Civil Rights Room in the Nashville Public Library. There I was honored to meet with two former civil rights leaders Rip Patton and King Hollands.
They and around fifty local people had come along to hear me talk about the connections between the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and the Civil Rights Association in the North in the 1960s.”
https://www.irishecho.com/2018/11/a-most-interesting-time-to-be-in-america/
Depends who’s civil rights you are talking about.
The post is pretty cleared do you need some help following it ?
..not a junkie to be found-which scares you more Rob civil rights or addicts ?
“We briefly sat at the lunch counter where almost sixty years ago African American citizens were attacked. Later at a lunch they recounted their experiences of those days, including arrests and assaults, before we sang “We shall overcome” to our surprised guests.
In Atlanta, Richard and I visited the Centre for Civil and Human Rights. The filmed reports of those hard days can be watched on screens, including Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech along with the speeches of others”
Like i said – depends whose civil rights.
People in Palestine and South Africa – sure.
Those of his niece, or Mairia Cahill, or any of the people his organisation murdered – not so much.
Nor, indeed, of those whose lives were destroyed by the drugs sold in Dublin’s inner city with the acquiescence of his cronies, who enriched themselves on this human misery.
On some level does it not bother your soul to be constantly appropriating the genuine and true grief felt by these victims,have you no shame at all, can you please for the last time allow the victims and their families to rest in peace.
I think its just bad karma and so unhealthy no wonder your a miserable p..
Pointing out the man’s hypocrisy isn’t really appropriating the grief of (his) victims.
I was going to say exactly the same thing about you – grandstanding about the tragic deaths in care homes of covid for weeks, and then yesterday arguing that the state should just let the “oul lads” die in order that you could go back to work.
So your campaigning then for victims of sexual abuse or just appropriating the suffering of them to score some points-do you personally know any survivors of childhood sexual abuse-i do.
They would find your constant evocation of their suffering shameful and disgusting like I do, its just bad karma it really is.
You have no common sense Rob,no nuance its all junkies and terrorists bombings and rape-do you watch Fox all day, go spend some time with your grandkids your soul is destroyed with obsessing over sexual abuse,rape,terrorists and fantasies.
How do they feel about your constant lionising of a man who allowed the sexual abuse of someone in his own family to continue for years?
You cannot argue with a shinner. They are always right, even when murdering (including Guards), extorting, smuggling, protecting sexual abuses victims, or using inappropriate n words. You’ll be bullying and accused of being a member of Fg / FF or MMS. When are they going to form a govt – please let us know.
A steady diet of rape,murder and an obsession with sexual abuse has your soul tormented Rob,you have more in common with the die hard terrorists that you claim to despise, even the unionists have moved on.
Im not a spokesman for survivors of childhood sexual abuse so really I can’t comment, but bizarrely you appear to be.
The GFA was signed over 20 years ago, your stuck in the 70’s man its 2020,I have met many childhood survivors of sexual abuse,your weaponizing their pain and suffering,its just bad karma its just wrong, the fact that I have constantly explain why to an old bigot is not surprising, as childhood sexual abuse is not out even out of bounds.
You on here. constantly spreading hatred Ireland has moved on sorry you missed the bus.
Yeah – not really an answer, but that’s Johnny all over.
You want me comment on your obsession with childhood sexual abuse – specifically one victim ?
I’m not a spokesman for these victims,but given your concern for them and ALL the free time you have,why don’t you volunteer and help them.
Unless that is your only using her childhood trauma to further your campaign of division and hatred.
Rob the sun is clearly setting for you,the light at that long tunnel is flickering,why waste the little time you have left tilting at windmills,if you cared like I do you’d volunteer your time to help the peace process instead constantly trying bring it into disrepute by evoking the pain and suffering of victims,none of whom you know or have ever met.
Your just another old bigot,a bored lonely oul lad,on here all day spreading hatred,tiling at windmills.Its called peace – try find some.
My favourite was NY Mayor ( 2018) Bill De Blasio declaring that year’s Paddys Day ‘Gerry Adams Day’
While Leo was sitting on the same stage (◔‿◔)
Your point is moot. Adams wasn’t called racist. He was called out for being offensive.
As leader of a political party, he has a duty to guard against making gratuitously offensive references.
Whether he likes it or not, his Sunday night use of the six-letter N-word is the kind of word that is synonymous with the attitude towards black people in America’s deep south. Whether used unwittingly or not, it a deeply offensive term.
Enda Kenny likes to flip the odd ‘n …’ joke doesn’t he Cian? Just when he was vying to become leader of FG? https://www.irishtimes.com/news/loose-talk-black-day-for-enda-1.1094703
Oh, yeah – and this a a take of a FGer about the Enda Kenny story.
“You can tell risqué jokes that might be racist or sexist or homophobic to your friends who know you are not racist or sexist or homophobic,” according to one Fine Gael source. “But you really shouldn’t risk doing it in front of journalists.”
Really Cian? Really?
Why are you addressing this to me? I didn’t say it. Find out who said it and ask them FFS.
Because you had your high and mighty ‘As leader of a political party, he has a duty to guard against making gratuitously offensive references.’ That and the subsequent comment from a party representative. I don’t need to know a name. The brand is enough.
Just pointing out to you how sacred your beloved FG holds racism.
Enda Kenny was wrong to use that word too.
But that doesn’t change my point that Gerry wasn’t accused of racism but of causing offence.
I find it peculiar that people would become so fixated over Gerry Adams’ single (though no less regrettable) use of a racial epithet; it would be like splitting hairs over Jeffrey Dahmer getting a speeding ticket.
I would side with Mick Clifford on this one. But I believe it’s a 2 track approach. Discredit the mainstream media, which drives those so inclined, onto Social Media. Where Sinn Féin have an army, (excuse the pun), of SM friendly accounts to drive their message home.
The amount of people caught up in the SF populism has reached a crescendo, friends are apoplectic at the imminent state of G’ment.
The same people (and I might add SF TD’s themselves) who before last election would say ‘why don’t FF and FG combine, they are more or less a different cheek of the same…’ then when they do, go nuts.
Harry – all parties have an army on Social Media. FG go a step further – buying ‘likes’ on Facebook. Not sure where you’re getting SF saying “why don’t FF and FG combine” Are you sure it’s not them saying “maybe they should combine, as they are two cheeks of the same ass”
Same thing isn’t it? Pre election and during the time of Confidence and supply that was all the talk that FG and FF should amalgamate already.
No. There’s a subtle difference in the wording.
Anyone who says the mainstream media are not biased against SF have a mote, nay a beam, in their own eye.
It’s a real pity that Anthony didn’t find an example of anti-SF bias for his article.
It is. I suppose RTE deliberately excluding them from their Leaders debate in the last gen election takes the top spot for me though.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/rt%C3%A9-will-not-include-sinn-f%C3%A9in-in-second-tv-debate-despite-legal-threat-1.4144602
And even in light of the polls as well
Seriously Cian
This shared account is getting too sloppy now
Ye’re going to get yourselves into an awful mess
Lads still have time on their hands
You wouldn’t know what they’d dig up
Is today’s attack on Mick because of what he wrote on Saturday:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/columnists/michael-clifford-debating-the-tired-claims-of-media-bias-1006275.html
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
What does that mean? Real educated response to the debate I suppose, although slightly above the beddy byes shxxte you normally come out with. Were you offended by the shinner bots comments from Mick? Ah you were, weren’t you? I doubt they were personally directed at you. So when are you going to form a govt?
It means that if there’s any mention of SF, you’re out of the traps like diarrhea.
And just to show how thick your question was – click on the link in the article, highlighted in blue – “believes” -. Guess where it brings you?
I rest my case. Anyone who questions anything about the shinners is bulllied, called names (thick etc.). The bias on this site is horrendous. You were offended by shinner bots. A poor didums. When are you going to form a govt? Go on tell us?
“It means that if there’s any mention of SF, you’re out of the traps…”
– brave card for you to play, Giggidy, I must say
The problem with a fair proportion of the Irish Media is that they are biased , they have
tried and failed to marginalise those from the North that support Sinn Fein, then
they have a jaundiced view of rural Ireland, this mind set developed originally
in RTE in the late 60’s and spread like a virus in the rest of the media, the response
from the populace is that what is written and said by them is treated with contempt
One has only to look at the way the have fallen for the spin the current virus crisis
have been given a clear run, the entire response has not been managed at all
only concealed…..why has the media not exposed this…,or is it more”wash your
hands” guff: