The media should own up to their failings

Your columnist Michael Clifford is right when he says that “journalists are as prone to displaying integrity as your average guard, teacher, solicitor, butcher or baker” (September 5).

But he is wrong when he says “the messenger is not to blame for cynicism about politicians”.

During the boom, the message from the media was that everything was getting better, and that there was no downside.

During austerity, the message from the media has been that everything is dire, and that it is all the fault of the Germans, or of some other foreigner.

During the ‘Celtic Tiger’, the media cheer led to the retention of one group of politicians in power for much longer than was good.

Their hubris gave these politicians ideas about themselves.

Thinking they could walk on water, they ended up making decisions that contributed to the bankrupting of the country.

If the media had been doing its job during the boom, if they had held the politicians to account with more rigour, and had told the rest of us of the risks involved in what was happening, we might not now be enduring the present austerity.

Like politicians, and indeed like most of the powerful institutions in our society, the media has had its failings and should own up to that fact. Indeed, if all institutions owned up to their failings and stopped blaming everyone else, there might be less cynicism all round.

A Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13