A hard lesson - Immediacy not enough

JUST as Kennedy used television to defeat Nixon, Obama used modern communications to win the White House.

Irish politicians got their sharpest lesson yet in the threat of unfettered communications earlier this week when Taoiseach Brain Cowen’s travails became international news before he had time to finish his breakfast.

This is an example of how media unconcerned about libel laws and their own credibility can generate a storm with the capacity to do great damage to a country or to an individual’s reputation.