SUNDAY TIMES’ UNSPORTING OMISSION
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Category: Media
SINDO’S MID-LIFE CRISIS
YOU’D HAVE to wonder how many mid-life crisis columns by radio broadcasters the average Sunday newspaper actually needs? Or how “new” a columnist can be when they have already been writing for the paper for a number of years? Sindo readers certainly may have pondered these questions, as the latest columnists were unveiled with much… Read more »
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NAUGHTY STEP FOR VIRGIN MEDIA TV
VIEWERS MIGHT be forgiven for wondering if Virgin Media Television operates on the principle of, “You can’t have too much of a good thing?” Take Wednesday’s schedule, for example, when “Supernanny” Jo Frost popped up as an interviewee on two programmes on Virgin Media One, broadcast only three hours apart. Viewers of the Elaine show… Read more »
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CANCELLING CIARA KELLY
CIARA KELLY’S husband has become the latest person to incite the wrath of the Twitter “wokerati,” with his valiant endeavours to defend the Newstalk presenter’s honour. Whether Eoin O’Mahony is doing Kelly any favours by jumping in whenever she is mentioned in relation to Linda Hayden is another thing. Then again, it must be hard… Read more »
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MEDIA GUARDIANS
UNSPOKEN AGENDAS have become a hot topic in recent weeks, culminating on Sunday with Alan Rusbridger’s departure from the Future Media Commission. The former Guardian editor has been subject to barrage of criticism in the fall out from the controversy surrounding journalist Roy Greenslade and there was no shortage of column inches devoted to questioning… Read more »
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MORE RULE BRITANNIA AT THE IT
HAS THE Irish Times finally scraped the bottom of the historical barrel? Recent months have seen the paper print a stream of unhinged columns of a British and Unionist perspective. Moderate voices be damned and Goldhawk wonders if presenting its readers with increasingly the most extreme and one dimensional expressions of British identity is not… Read more »
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IMAGE PUBLICATIONS’ STRATEGY
HAVING PUT its print titles on hiatus last March, Image Publications is now hoping to entice readers to part with dosh to read its online articles. Its nascent digital offering was launched with typical Image hyperbole, promising “a new website, a new team, new faces (as well as lots of the ones you already know… Read more »
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LUCY KENNEDY’S SHUFFLE
WITH THREE radio show changes on the horizon, can we expect to see new life breathed into the morning breakfast show landscape, or will it be more of the same? Classic Hits revealed this week that it will be swapping its breakfast team of PJ Gallagher and Jim McCabe for Radio Nova’s Colm Hayes and… Read more »
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RTÉ’S SUSSEX KERFUFFLE
WHILE THE Brits are duking it out over the rights and wrongs of Oprah’s forthcoming interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, a right royal rumpus has erupted over here too. The decision by the national broadcaster to show the interview on RTÉ 2 on Monday, the day after it airs on CBS in the… Read more »
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SWELLING RTÉ’S STAFF
IS THE world of media about to receive a wholesale shake-up in relation to its relationship with freelancers and self-employed contractors? Many journalists will be interested in reports that RTÉ has offered staff contracts to 81 people, after the Revenue Commissioners raised concerns over their trading relationship with the station. This followed its analysis of… Read more »
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CILL RIALAIG’S CORRECTION
Affairs, Media, 23 February 2021
READERS COULD be forgiven for failing to notice the correction the Sindo carried in relation to the colourful Noelle Campbell-Sharp, which was discreetly tucked into the contents page of the People & Culture supplement. Razor-Sharp was unhappy at being mistakenly referred to as the owner of the Cill Rialaig artists’ retreat in Kerry in an… Read more »
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FRAMING TWINK
Affairs, Media, 18 February 2021
YOU HAVE to hand it to Twink, aka Adele King, who certainly knows how to command the attention of those on high when highlighting her personal gripes. Her penchant for theatrics and adding colour to media outings can be the only justification for the lengthy airing RTÉ’s Liveline gave her this week, which resulted in… Read more »
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INM’S DIGITAL TAX PITCH
Affairs, Media, 12 February 2021
WRITING IN the Irish Times, Séamus Dooley explained how the NUJ is proposing a windfall tax of 6 per cent on tech giants like Facebook and Google. Applying a digital tax mirrors what is happening in Europe, where the OECD is orchestrating negotiations with over 130 countries to adapt the international tax system to reflect… Read more »
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IRISH TIMES GREENWASHING
Affairs, Media, 10 February 2021
CONGRATULATIONS ARE order for super conglomerate Nestlé, whose positive commitment to the planet is not often a feature of the headlines. Less praise should be reserved for Environmental Editor Kevin O’Sullivan who has reproduced the infamous polluter’s marketing in the Irish Times business pages. Disappointed rugby fans can find something to cheer as the paper… Read more »
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VANDERMEERSCH KNEADS THE FLYNNS
Affairs, Media, 27 January 2021
THE GOOD denizens of Greystones will undoubtedly be relieved to hear that the Happy Pear twins have saved it from international disgrace on the bread front. Mediahuis Ireland publisher, Peter Vandermeersch, recently moved to the Wicklow coastal town, and was dismayed to find it “almost a wasteland” in terms of dough-related output. The Dutch-Belgian publisher… Read more »
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IMAGE PROBLEMS
Affairs, Media, 13 January 2021
GOLDHAWK UNDERSTANDS that the keys to the Dun Laoghaire office of Image Publications Ltd (IPL) have been handed back. If this is true, it doesn’t augur well for the future of the company’s print titles – Image, Image Interiors & Living and Garden Heaven. Then again, most publishing companies’ staff are working from home these… Read more »
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NO PRIME SPOTS FOR PRIME TIME
Affairs, Media, 11 January 2021
THE LESSONS in diplomacy Richard Downes gleaned while reporting from war zones may come in useful in his new position as editor of Prime Time. Especially as his new appointment sees him leapfrogging over Paul Tanner – deputy editor since 2016 – to take the top position. Downes has been a reporter on RTÉ’s flagship… Read more »
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MARY KENNEDY’S EGO BOOST
Affairs, Media, 4 January 2021
OBVIOUSLY IT’S a slow time of the year for news, which is the only explanation we can think of for the Sindo inflicting yet another turgid interview with Mary Kennedy on us. The fact that she simultaneously appeared on the back page of the People & Culture supplement – in a full-page osteoporosis treatment advertisement… Read more »
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THE MAN – AND WOMEN – IN THE MIRROR
Media, 30 December 2020
WHILE MOST papers make a song and dance about their senior appointments, they do things a bit differently chez the Irish Sunday Mirror. Perhaps the quiet ushering in of Sylvia Pownall as the paper’s new editor last month is the approach favoured by British owners Reach. Stiff upper lip and all that. The senior appointment… Read more »
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A WHOLE LOTTIE INFLUENCING AT 2FM
Affairs, Behind the Scenes, Media, 8 December 2020
AS SHE beeps at them while driving her brand new wheels through the RTÉ car park, brand ambassador and 2fm entertainment presenter, Lottie Ryan, must surely attract envious glances from colleagues. Or maybe naked jealousy, since there appears to be a recent relaxing of the national broadcaster’s previously iron-cast rules forbidding presenters from entering into… Read more »
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HACKED OFF AT THE JOURNALISM AWARDS
Affairs, Media, 23 November 2020
THE NEWSBRANDS Journalism Awards were conducted virtually this year, which allowed hacks who failed to bring home a gong the opportunity to present their best loser face via Zoom. While the annual back-slapping event has become famous for its post-ceremony tiffs over the origin of stories – and newly-departed Mirror editor Jumbo Kierans will be… Read more »
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POLLING PROBLEMS
Affairs, Media, 6 November 2020
IRISH TIMES Washington hack Suzanne Lynch had something of an epiphany as the votes were counted this week. America’s Election 2020 is the latest political event to confound predictions. Not long after the first results arrived on Tuesday night, Lynch on social media suggested that “serious questions should be asked about polls and the role… Read more »
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RTE’S FAKE NEWS
Affairs, Media, 4 November 2020
Did RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes wince on hearing Steve Bannon interviewed on Radio One Tuesday evening? The former Trump strategist appeared on Drivetime this week to offer an, erm, alternative view, of events in America. “Its great to have you on”, announced Cormac Ó hEadhra, as the host introduced the myth of Bannon as… Read more »
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RTÉ RECORD BREAKERS
Affairs, Media, 30 January 2020
FEARS THAT the RTÉ newsroom is dominated by subversives were put at ease on Wednesday following a positively glowing report on government’s housing efforts. In breathless tones, the story variously alerts readers to the “biggest drop ever recorded in the homeless statistics” and “the largest recorded monthly drop”. Behind it all, the number of people… Read more »
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BRUTON’S CONFUSION
Affairs, Media, 30 January 2020
CONFUSION SET IN last night when Minister Richard Bruton claimed that an Irish Times story about the fate of Catherine Noone was a “fabrication”. Around half seven on Wednesday evening the IT published a report by Fiach Kelly detailing Fine Gael’s difficultly in dealing with their embattled candidate. The article said that Fine Gael had… Read more »
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IRISH TIMES SLIPPERY FISH
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, Media, 7 January 2020
HOW CURIOUS to see that aquaculture has found its champion in Stephen Collins at the Irish Times. The former political editor took a break from the usual diet of electoral analysis and Leinster House intrigue last week in order to advocate on behalf of beleaguered salmon farmers. No fish out of water, Collins was armed… Read more »
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FIFTH COLUMNIST FINTAN
Affairs, Media, 19 December 2019
THE Irish Times has been in full-on battle mode against proposals for a citizens’ assembly to prepare for a border poll and has published a stream of articles from conservative southern politicians and journalists aghast at the prospect. But the already nervous partitionists at the IT were most disconcerted to see that their political oracle,… Read more »
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SOLIDARITY WITH RTÉ
Affairs, Media, 18 November 2019
IVAN YATES and Matt Cooper thundered recently about the inept, spendthrift, tax-funded RTÉ on their Virgin One The Tonight Show as the private TV station piled the pressure on its crisis-ridden broadcasting rival. The two presenters made much of RTÉ’s cost base and double funding via the licence fee and advertising, with Cooper dismissing the… Read more »
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RTÉ SPLIT: DEE VS MOYA
Affairs, Media, 15 November 2019
YOU HAVE to feel sorry for RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, who is faced with the wrath not only of her staff but also the RTÉ board, which has serious doubts about her and the other executives responsible for the plan to save RTÉ. The scoop about the plan, secured by Irish Times hack Fiach… Read more »
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THAT BIG MIRROR SCOOP
Affairs, Media, 14 November 2019
As anticipation builds ahead of tonight’s Newsbrands Journalism Awards, it is worth recalling Conor McGregor’s alleged ‘love child’ and the internal wrangling over whether the story should be shortlisted for ‘scoop of the year’. Goldhawk has previously detailed the fractious debate among showbiz judges regarding the story’s eligibility and a dispute which eventually led to… Read more »
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INM’S BELGIAN BEER INTERVIEWS
Affairs, Media, 6 November 2019
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT editor Cormac Bourke’s “new role” as editor of the Irish Independent was announced in the Sindo recently, with Cormac quoted as looking forward to the “new challenge”. The Sindo published a (nearly) exhaustive list of Bourke’s editorial roles, which include various editorial roles at the Indo and other non-INM titles. All of which… Read more »
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JOURNO AWARDS EGO FEST
Affairs, Media, 4 November 2019
DIGITAL-SAVVY hacks got into the Newsbrands Journalism Awards website some weeks ago (the gong circus is to be held in the Mansion House in a fortnight) and accessed the articles submitted – intended for shortlist judges’ eyes only. The security breach enabled some journalists to scrutinise competitors’ articles, however the really creative work was contained… Read more »
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RTÉ VS OIREACHTAS
Affairs, Media, 30 October 2019
A MOST interesting and possibly expensive conflict between RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigates programme and members of an Oireachtas committee will play out in the High Court unless somebody blinks in a forthcoming libel case being taken by a well-known greyhound trainer against the station. Much of PT’s special on the greyhound industry focused on the… Read more »
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CIARA KELLY’S MISERY
Affairs, Media, 25 October 2019
WOE BETIDE anyone not joining the week of national mourning following Ireland’s unceremonious exit from the Rugby World Cup in Japan. The loss was taken badly by Newstalk’s Ciara Kelly on Twitter who was agog that not everyone was behind the team. The celebrity doctor-turned-radio host took particular issue with journalists Ewan McKenna and Bryan… Read more »
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WHAT’S A HYBRID CAR?
Affairs, Business Briefs, Media, 25 October 2019
Earlier this month, RTÉ’s website ran a scoop, headlined, ‘Toyota to drop petrol versions of Corolla and C-HR’. Motoring editor Donal Byrne explained that the Japanese manufacturing giant expects 92% of its cars to be “fully hybrid by the end of next year”. Toyota Ireland’s CEO, Steve Tormey, called it “a brave move given the… Read more »
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PHANTOM OUTRAGE
Affairs, Media, 23 October 2019
WHO KNOWS if Irish politics will ever recover from the revelation that TDs often vote for absent colleagues. The once unblemished reputation of Dáil Éireann has been rocked this week with news that at least some inhabitants are duplicitous chancers, prone to cut corners. Even by Fianna Fáil standards, not since the dark days of… Read more »
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