Irish Examiner view: Newspaper journalism's valuable contribution to our society
When people consider the great journalists of the past century, it’s likely that Hugh Cudlipp will appear on the shortlist.
Cudlipp was a founding father of modern tabloid style and a prestigious honour in his name for campaigning and investigative reporting is awarded every year.
This year’s choice is imminent and a hot favourite is a series which exposed the scandal of Britain’s single justice procedure, under which millions of people have been prosecuted and criminalised with no public scrutiny whatsoever.
That’s the stuff of good newspapers, you might think. However, what is remarkable about this potential prize winner is that the publication which provided the platform and resources for this important coverage is tottering on its last legs.
From five days a week, the Evening Standard has reduced to just one. London, which once boasted three evening titles and where street corner vendors regaled commuters and shoppers with the cry of “Star, News or Standard”, now has no daily print offering to serve a metropolis of 9.8m people.
To a certain extent, and as we mark World News Day, we need to remember the catchy — and often misunderstood — early 60s phrase of the communications guru Marshall McLuhan.
“The medium is the message,” he declared, proclaiming that content is shaped and controlled by the form in which it is delivered. It’s a slippery precept which can be applied to multiple technologies from old- school print, to radio, to cinema and TV, to the internet, to text messaging, to all the modern tech platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and X.
With all the changes, fairly rapid in terms of human history, it can be argued that our faculties for critical thinking have been left behind and “truth” has become an increasingly elastic concept.
World News Day aims to remind us of the importance of fact-based journalism and how we need more of that. Only when founded on facts does opinion and commentary, of which there is a glut, carry cogency and relevance.
For the most part, they are gathered by what used to be known as “shoe leather reporting” — getting out, speaking to people, and validating what they say against other, independent sources. Increasingly, it relies on reading the runes in open source data.
This requires boots on the ground, and most publishing companies are struggling to maintain their rosters against the rapacity of tech companies and their algorithms. Many, including this one, are seeking to expand into digital markets which generate less return.
Other online ventures, such as Tortoise Media, are attempting to bolt on a print offering — in this instance by taking over the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.
In November, we will celebrate the Irish Journalism Awards. It is a competition entered by many, but not all, journalists in the Republic.
The news avoiders in our society might pause for a moment to reflect on some of the issues covered by last year’s winners: Illegal nursing home charges; shenanigans about high-energy data centres; patients wrongly denied the essential drugs they need; exposing gangland activities, and revealing the arcane bonus policies of RTÉ.
Turning your back on the news, particularly in an election year, is a form of rebuff to your community. The truth, as TV once told us, is out there. It is incumbent on each of us to recognise it when we see it — and when we don’t.
Judges can garner high levels of criticism in their chosen careers, so opportunities for a few words of approbation are often welcome.
Well done to Court of Appeal president Ms Justice Caroline Costello for drawing us all up on the use of “inappropriate” slang and cultural references, and warning that their deployment can go against precision and clarity.
In this case, she was objecting to a High Court judgement in a wind farm case which warned about litigants “walking into Mordor” and one of the parties being subjected to “gaslighting”.
Mordor is the land of darkness in Middle Earth in the fantasy epic Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
Gaslighting is a form of mental abuse based on a 1940s thriller movie by the director George Cukor.
Such comments, Ms Justice Costello said, meant the judgment could “only be understood by reference to literary tropes, which may or may not be understood by a reader”, in an appeal against a decision to approve a wind farm in the Carrownagowan area within the slopes of Slieve Bearnagh mountain.
That’s us all told then, and a good reminder that not everyone in the world has read the lyrics of Taylor Swift.
We should remember the observation of the 18th century polymath Dr Johnson: “Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
Anyone hoping for a breakthrough following the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu to address the United Nations General Assembly has fallen victim to that characteristic of optimists everywhere — the triumph of hope over experience.
Few world leaders are as familiar with the podium in New York as the prime minister of Israel. He has spoken there a dozen times — the first occasion as ambassador in 1984.
In a defiantly trenchant speech yesterday, he said that the “once respected institution” was filled with “antisemitic bile” and was held “contemptible” in the eyes of reasonable people everywhere.
As on previous occasions, he brandished redrawn maps of the Middle East and warned the world about Iran and the threat of what he has deemed “militant Islam” in pursuit of a “master faith”.
Mr Netanyahu’s arrival was preceded by a White House proposal for a 21-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, which is supported by the EU, Australia, Canada, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Japan. It was studiously ignored in his address.
Instead, Israel vowed to keep striking Lebanese militants who have been launching rockets across the border in support of Hamas’s allies for nearly a year. A statement released earlier stated: “We continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might. We will not stop until we achieve all our goals, first of all the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
While there has been a frosty reception in New York from the Jewish community with a number of protests, recent events including the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, have boosted the premier’s personal popularity ratings at home.
Standing up to the world at 405 East 42nd St is unlikely to set those back.
Several relatives of the 101 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza travelled with him on his flight from Tel Aviv and attended the session, from which several Arab delegations absented themselves.
The last time Israel entered the morass of Lebanon in 2006, the conflict ended with Security Council Resolution 1701 which anticipated the withdrawal of Israeli forces to be replaced by Lebanese and UN peacekeepers.
That is how soldiers from Ireland now find themselves — in an uncomfortable position as the latest representatives of Unifil [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] holding the line in an illusory peace.
From Jerusalem’s perspective, the ceasefire of 18 years ago was a failure, with Hezbollah strengthening its political and military grip over the country and replenishing its armaments with supplies from Iran.
It’s unlikely that any progress can be made without Iran restraining its proxy and influencing Hezbollah to cease its daily practice of firing rockets over the border onto Israeli targets.
To that extent, President Michael D Higgins was correct in addressing his hopes for peace, if not in his tone, towards Tehran.
Seeking change there may also be a matter of hope over experience.
Israel “will not go gentle into that good night”, said Mr Netanyahu, quoting the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
On the evidence of yesterday’s speech, the world can expect more rage to ensue.
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