Todays (3rd March) Indo

flogen

Well, it's finally sunk to the LCD in Journalistic terms. After weeks of front page news features I didn't think the Independent could get much less readable, that is until I spotted this piece of smug "Journalism" today.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1350874&issue_id=12157

The Irish Independent is a really good newspaper
Who says so?The Irish Times
THE exclusive story by Security Editor Tom Brady on the luxury lifestyle of Garda Jerry McCabe's killers in jail dominated the airwaves yesterday morning. In their review of the morning papers several station presenters praised Brady's story and our leader page comment.

On his morning show on NewsTalk 106, host Eamon Dunphy asked his guest, columnist John Waters of the Irish Times, what was running in the papers.

Waters: Interesting . . . the Irish Independent have a good story in the front 'IRA killers lay down law in jail'. This is about a report by the Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, about the conditions in which the killers of Garda McCabe are living in Castlerea prison and they have their own separate houses and they have extraordinary, quite remarkable conditions (to) live in. They have TVs in every room, it seems to (be) just like a holiday - I mean this is a cliché in a way, but it beggars belief. There is a very good leader in the Independent as well; the Indo is very good on this. I think the Indo is a really good newspaper these days.

Dunphy: It is an extremely good newspaper, when you consider also the way some of the other titles would have gone. I mean its news sense is superb.

Waters: Very, very good news sense.

The above are edited extracts from the show

Later in the show, Eamon Dunphy told his listeners: Lots of interesting comments coming in. Just one from Joe now: "Eamon, I'm normally an Irish Times buyer, but because of your recommendation this morning, I will buy an Irish Independent tomorrow. Seeing as they have not been kind to you on occasion, it must be good if you are recommending it. Thanks for the tip." That's from Joe. Well, you have to call it as you see it Joe, and it is a very good newspaper, the Irish Independent and in a news sense, the best around at the moment, but things can change.

Easily the worst article I have ever come across in a so-called Newspaper. I used to be an avid fan of the Independent but since the metro edition I've noticed it becoming less and less of a read, while The Irish Times interests me more and more, perhaps its a change in my attitudes or perhaps its a change in style but this cements my decision to switch from the Indo to anything else.
Now, I'm not sure what newspaper John Waters and Eamon Dunphy have been reading (of if they're both fishing for a job) but surely this up-their-own-arse attitude will disprove any notion of the Independent being a "really good newspaper". For a start I find it hard to rate a newspaper that doesn't put news on the front page. The fact that they are basking in the apparent praise of another journalist is just rediculous.
As a friend pointed out today, the fact that they are so proud of this praise (not by the Irish Times, mind you, just by one of its journalists) only highlights their inferiority. If they saw themselves above or on a par with the Times then their praise wouldn't matter, can you imagine The Irish Times shouting from the hills when an Indo journalist says their paper is really good? No, because it doesn't matter. To paraphrase Maynard James Keenan, that's like the principal getting praise from the fat canteen lady.
This piece is a childish and tabloid article written for a childish and tabloid newspaper, the fact that they still print in broadsheet format is just coincidental (and I suspect something they will soon dispose of).

And to think, all that time I wasted trying to defend The Irish Independent.... pfft. (not to say that they don't have good pieces from time to time, but that means nothing about the overall paper, Paul McWilliams and The Star probably do the best crime investigative journalism in the country but it's still a rag).

flogen

ron.burgundy

I agree Flogen ... blooming disgraceful. It makes you want to read the tabloids!

Genghis

I heard Dunphy making some of those comments, and I was surprised. For a start I disagree with the notion that the Indo is the best newspaper around, I think flogen has illustrated that very well; it is a poor cousin of what is becoming Ireland's only quality broadsheet, the Irish Times.

Secondly, when you look at the stable of other titles in the Independent stable - I'm thinking here of the thrashy Evening Herald and the Sunday Independent - when you can see the Independent moving in the same direction, you have to wonder about how long it will be even considered in the same bracket as the Irish Times.

Finally, with the anti-Eamo bias of the Independent group, I was surprised to hear him praising them so - in fact, having missed the start of the item I had put his comments down to sarcasm.

monument

flogen wrote:

but surely this up-their-own-arse attitude will disprove any notion of the Independent being a "really good newspaper".

The Irish Times (my daily paper) is so far up its own arse it’s unbelievable.

As in my post on the bastard / Myers thread...

Now the IT has to issue a proper apology, Myers wrote the article, but somebody had to have looked to over before it went to print – I am not impressed with the paper’s response, it’s an excuse which starts with at best a marketing line, at worst a disturbing mindset at the Times…

Irish society has changed hugely in recent decades and at a pace that has been breathtaking. Much of this change has been led by the Irish Times.

It goes on to say the “Stigmatising social differences is no longer acceptable as in one was and rightly so” and they regret “any offence caused” but they printed it, they let it through the net.

And, I think I'll have to pick 'at worst a disturbing mindset at the Times'.

sceptre

Waters (from Castlerea - the poor side as he never tires of reminding us) who writes for the Times says there's a story on the prison in Castlerea in the Indo and it's quite good and he reckons the Indo is good lately. The Indo turns that into "The Irish Independent is a really good newspaper. Who says so?The Irish Times". Er no, lads, that would be a lie.