Eoghan Harris terminated

amandstu · 13-05-2021 12:24pm

It would be interesting if some of us on this kind of a forum had a little indicator that their identity was visible to all

A little foolish perhaps but those who did do might be afforded little greater credibility in their views.

13-05-2021 12:27pm

FrancieBrady wrote: »

How do you know?

No successful journalist would write for a magazine who won’t even name the writer of the piece. It’s a grubby little pamphlet that Prendiville used to settle scores for his mates. It would be interesting to find out who has ‘contributed’ to it over the years. We know Eoin O’B did.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/in-defence-of-veronica-her-colleagues-and-her-friends-26231746.html

FrancieBrady · 13-05-2021 12:40pm

Deleted User wrote: »

No successful journalist would write for a magazine who won’t even name the writer of the piece. It’s a grubby little pamphlet that Prendiville used to settle scores for his mates. It would be interesting to find out who has ‘contributed’ to it over the years. We know Eoin O’B did.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/in-defence-of-veronica-her-colleagues-and-her-friends-26231746.html

Again: How do you know who writes for the Phoenix?

We get you don't like the Phoenix (which, I think is exactly how you are intended to think by it's editors...just a wild guess

) but other than that you know nothing.

skimpydoo · 13-05-2021 12:44pm

Deleted User wrote: »

No successful journalist would write for a magazine who won’t even name the writer of the piece. It’s a grubby little pamphlet that Prendiville used to settle scores for his mates. It would be interesting to find out who has ‘contributed’ to it over the years. We know Eoin O’B did.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/in-defence-of-veronica-her-colleagues-and-her-friends-26231746.html

I have written for Phoenix and countless other journalists have too. Sometimes a pay check is more important than the byline.

Fann Linn · 13-05-2021 12:49pm

Is it worse than the Indo? For me that is the benchmark.

Scoundrel · 13-05-2021 12:54pm

Deleted User wrote: »

It’s a vile little magazine with a tiny readership. No successful hack would want to write for it.

Why do you get so bound up by it then?

Cilldara_2000 · 13-05-2021 1:09pm

Deleted User wrote: »

No successful journalist would write for a magazine who won’t even name the writer of the piece. It’s a grubby little pamphlet that Prendiville used to settle scores for his mates. It would be interesting to find out who has ‘contributed’ to it over the years. We know Eoin O’B did.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/in-defence-of-veronica-her-colleagues-and-her-friends-26231746.html

The Economist is a highly regarded newspaper that has never put their journalists' names on their articles.

FrancieBrady · 13-05-2021 1:16pm

Scoundrel wrote: »

Why do you get so bound up by it then?

Not because it is necessarily bad journalism, but because it is ideologically opposed to the Doc's political views and favourtes, I suspect.

13-05-2021 1:17pm

Scoundrel wrote: »

Why do you get so bound up by it then?

I don't. Most people don't. It's got a tiny and shrinking readership. I just don't think a magazine taking potshots at people they don't like (some of it extremely nasty and personalised), and then not even putting in the name of who wrote the piece is cowardly enough. It's the same type of thing that Harris was up to.

Now I'm no computer guru like some people on this site, but I did read recently that OpenAI GPT-3 can predict with over 99% certainty who wrote an article based on being provided with a dataset of previous articles and who wrote them.

I'm sure some enterprising data journalist might scrape the Phoenix archive, and use technology to find out who might have been behind some of the poison pen articles written over the years. See if any politicians were using it to settle some scores for example.

amandstu · 13-05-2021 1:18pm

Did the Sindo cut Harris loose out of principle or expediency?

(I didn't get the paper with that story and didn't read their side of this)

iffandonlyif · 13-05-2021 1:20pm

Cilldara_2000 wrote: »

The Economist is a highly regarded newspaper that has never put their journalists' names on their articles.

Quite a difference between the sober analysis of The Economist and the sneering gossiping of the Phoenix. The Economist at least is open about its writing staff.

13-05-2021 1:22pm

amandstu wrote: »

Did the Sindo cut Harris loose out of principle or expediency?

(I didn't get the paper with that story and didn't read their side of this)

Seemed like common knowledge from the journos, he did reveal polling data before it went to print though. So firstly, it made him identifiable as an indo journalist and secondly I doubt they were happy with him coming out with a reasonably big story from the account. Fact it's so heavily associated with abuse made it more toxic.

jmcc · 13-05-2021 1:32pm

amandstu wrote: »

Did the Sindo cut Harris loose out of principle or expediency?

Being cynical, he was a problem looking for a solution. I think that the Sindo and Indo are being reorganised to take on the Irish Times for the weekend/Sunday market. Due to the legal actions against the sockpuppet accounts, the solution presented itself. IN&M/Mediahuis needed clear blue water between itself and Harris to prevent itself being dragged into the legal mess.

Regards...jmcc

amandstu · 13-05-2021 1:46pm

jmcc wrote: »

Being cynical, he was a problem looking for a solution. I think that the Sindo and Indo are being reorganised to take on the Irish Times for the weekend/Sunday market. Due to the legal actions against the sockpuppet accounts, the solution presented itself. IN&M/Mediahuis needed clear blue water between itself and Harris to prevent itself being dragged into the legal mess.

Regards...jmcc

What if Harris is largely exonerated in the court case?Will he then have a claim for wrongful dismissal?

zanador · 13-05-2021 1:48pm

amandstu wrote: »

What if Harris is largely exonerated in the court case?Will he then have a claim for wrongful dismissal?

I dont think the two are connected. They fired him for his actions not on the basis he'd be sued for them

amandstu · 13-05-2021 1:50pm

zanador wrote: »

I dont think the two are connected. They fired him for his actions not on the basis he'd be sued for them

Fired him for leaking?

jmcc · 13-05-2021 1:52pm

amandstu wrote: »

What if Harris is largely exonerated in the court case?Will he then have a claim for wrongful dismissal?

You may be conflating two very different things. The official Sindo line is that he leaked poll data via the Pym account and that his comments were unacceptable as were the methods he used to publish them. That is why he was fired.

The journalists taking the cases against Harris are taking them for defamation and abuse. It wasn't just those comments that got him fired from the Sindo.

Regards...jmcc

amandstu · 13-05-2021 1:59pm

jmcc wrote: »

You may be conflating two very different things. The official Sindo line is that he leaked poll data via the Pym account and that his comments were unacceptable as were the methods he used to publish them. That is why he was fired.

The journalists taking the cases against Harris are taking them for defamation and abuse. It wasn't just those comments that got him fired from the Sindo.

Regards...jmcc

So leaking (and using an anonymous account) and
also unacceptable comments?

Do we know what those comments were?

jmcc · 13-05-2021 2:07pm

amandstu wrote: »

So leaking (and using an anonymous account) and
also unacceptable comments?

Do we know what those comments were?

I think that the links to the record of the comments for the Pym and Dolly White accounts have been posted up-thread.

Regards...jmcc

FrancieBrady · 13-05-2021 2:35pm

jmcc wrote: »

I think that the links to the record of the comments for the Pym and Dolly White accounts have been posted up-thread.

Regards...jmcc

Aoife Moore also spoke very specifically of 'messages' she had received. There could be a lot more that went on that is not in the archives - which are the public comments.
Would somebody of Moore's generation confuse 'messages' with 'comments'?

amandstu · 13-05-2021 2:43pm

jmcc wrote: »

I think that the links to the record of the comments for the Pym and Dolly White accounts have been posted up-thread.

Regards...jmcc

I went back to the start of the thread....

So is it the "Provo,sectarian poison" comment on the BJP account that form the basis of the Sindos decision to fire Harris ?

That comment regarding Paul Larkin's article in the Irish Times.

Were there other comments or would that be the principal one ,one that Larkin might feel picked him out as a terrorist sympathizer?

jmcc · 13-05-2021 2:54pm

amandstu wrote: »

I went back to the start of the thread....

So is it the "Provo,sectarian poison" comment on the BJP account that form the basis of the Sindos decision to fire Harris ?

The leaking the details of a confidential poll that he and other Sindo people had been given before publication and the use of anonymous sockpuppet accounts. The details on these accounts had been requested from Twitter by Larkin's solicitors. Things cascaded from that point.

Regards...jmcc

amandstu · 13-05-2021 2:55pm

And would the Sindo have regarded this as a breach of trust because Harris approached the subject one way in his public article and went further (arguably defamatory) when he thought he was being anonymous?

amandstu · 13-05-2021 2:57pm

We cross posted.It is the "comments" that were in the mind of the Sindo I am interested in

jmcc · 13-05-2021 3:11pm

amandstu wrote: »

And would the Sindo have regarded this as a breach of trust because Harris approached the subject one way in his public article and went further (arguably defamatory) when he thought he was being anonymous?

The editor of the Sindo, Alan English, laid out the reasons for firing Harris. It would be best to read that article.

Regard...jmcc

Jaysci20 · 13-05-2021 3:19pm

Harris was sacked because the paper wishes to start cosying up to the nationalist agenda. I expect them to make approaches to to Aoife Moore to join their ranks very soon.

Faugheen · 13-05-2021 3:28pm

Jaysci20 wrote: »

Harris was sacked because the paper wishes to start cosying up to the nationalist agenda.

Well this is quite frankly nonsense considering the same paper was running a one-man hunt on the Sinn Fein database.

Harris was sacked because he was trolling people using an anonymous account.

Jaysci20 · 13-05-2021 3:30pm

Faugheen wrote: »

Well this is quite frankly nonsense considering the same paper was running a one-man hunt on the Sinn Fein database.

Harris was sacked because he was trolling people using an anonymous account.

The process of transformation has started there. Watch as the decks there are cleared, one by one, following any convenient misdemeanor

Faugheen · 13-05-2021 3:39pm

Jaysci20 wrote: »

The process of transformation has started there. Watch as the decks there are cleared, one by one, following any convenient misdemeanor

Sure. I look forward to their staunch Pro-SF journalists Philip Ryan and Hugh O'Connell waxing lyrical about Dame Mary Lou in the coming days.

I also look forward to subscriptions on the Independent coming with free microchips to allow Bill Gates to track your movements.

Jaysci20 · 13-05-2021 3:42pm

Faugheen wrote: »

Sure. I look forward to their staunch Pro-SF journalists Philip Ryan and Hugh O'Connell waxing lyrical about Dame Mary Lou in the coming days.

I also look forward to subscriptions on the Independent coming with free microchips to allow Bill Gates to track your movements.

"For years we have been bled white - now it's payback time"

Amazing how a paper can change its stance or direction

Eoghan Harris terminated

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