Media waking up despite its earlier silence

Isn’t it interesting how quick the media have been to point out that the recent election results are a wake-up call to the Government to rethink its austerity strategies and to find an alternative policy.

Yet this is the same media whose blanket response to the European Commission’s recent review of Member States’ finances, which indicated Ireland is still spending more than it generates and that there is still a need to cut spending and increase revenue, is to again bend to the myth of Tina (There Is No Alternative) to the current policy of bank caused austerity.

But didn’t the recent election results also send a message to the media that people want both sides of the austerity argument to be given a fair hearing and that it had lost patience with those who worship at the altar of Tina. Could it be that the media is too scared to give alternatives a fair hearing in case it affects their close links to the political establishment.

The media was a fully paid up cheer leader of the Celtic Tiger and Fianna Fáil. It was also one of the guard dogs that failed to bark when others tried to warn us about the folly of making our economy dependent on the building trade, a credit boom and US foreign direct investment. Yet the same people are not telling us through articles and TV and the internet that we have to pay billions in interest on a banking debt and billion in tax relief to financial services sector.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London