Gript-A source of misinformation. **Read OP before posting**

He's not that intelligent in interviews at all. He fùcked up in this one.

You're confusing contrarian with open minded.

Someone who is open minded could very well accept the 'established facts' because this is where most of the evidence leads them.

Being open minded means being willing to look at new data and new evidence and review your opinion accordingly.

It means approaching each position on its merits not prejudging something based on an existing set of biases.

Gript are the opposite of open minded. They have arrived at a position, and exist mainly to promote that position, that immigration is bad for the country and are curating a news feed that shows immigration in its worst light by highlighting all of the negatives with very little context.

Hope the Grift team and supporters are happy with the result

Again, you are putting words in my mouth....

Not for one second did I say Gript were open minded, that in and of itself is an absurd assertion.

We do however need alternate views on vital topics of public interest, something lacking in Irish media, and if we are honest, something that has always been lacking in Irish media.

Frankly I find it astonishing after the period between 2020-22 that anyone can with a straight face suggest we already have that open minded balance or dialogue in our media...the purpose of media is to hold authority to account (or so they say), what we get is the opposite, and as a result none of us are best served.

The immigration issue is a topic of vital interest, but the real issue is our accommodation crisis and welfare dependency and how that impacts the tax payer, the last public figure to challenge that was decried as a far right populist!!! Let's be honest here, we do not handle alternate views here in this country well, it gets the better of us every time, no wonder the authorities of the past got away with so much abuse/corruption. Calling people with opposing views nasty names is infantile and all prelevant in our media and political class, the very opposite of what you could expect from open minded people at a time when the crises are mounting and affecting more and more people.

No, I don't presume at all that they've published anything about that place. Can you really not see the big picture?

How do you know that?

Very tenuous guilt by association.

Of course I see the big picture Andrew. You and your fellow travellers lump anyone with any concerns re aspects of immigration to Ireland into one tediously predictable "fAr RiGhT" grouping allowing for zero nuance. Draw attention to the unprecedented number of people entering the country illegally? You're the same as those who burnt this building! Gript never mentioned this place? Well, it's still their fault because..... something.

It's all a sadly obvious tactic to shut down any discussion on the topic outside of certain allowable slants.

Do you not see the bigger picture Andrew? Call anyone with opposing views on any topic as Far Right and accuse them of terrorism isn't going to resolve any issue and we are in a number of crises, accommodation crisis, health system crisis, welfare abuse crisis that all require urgent action!

Unprecedented? do you perhaps mean an increases? it the same with the poster talking about a welfare crices? is there a welfare crices?

The language used is always interesting.

Do you think the Russians are behind them?

Anything is possible, but I'd have guessed that US far right funding is more likely, given McGurk's connections to Ganley and his US business connections.

Do you not?

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/the-american-dark-money-behind-europes-far-right/

No I don't...you are going to have to do better than an article from another privately funded organisation if you want your accusation to be taken seriously....

What in the world does free speech have to do with this? You clearly have no understanding of the concept.

Nah! The press release recyclers, bloviating opinionators and future government press officer appointees are always eager to downplay any bad story that affects the government. That's the big difference between the Irish media and the media of the Woodward and Bernstein era. H. L Mencken wrote that the relationship between a journalist and politician should be like that between a dog and a lamppost (paraphrasing). With the Irish media, it seems to be the other way around.

Free speech means free speech not state-approved "facts" from the kind of little **** who would have been gleeully informing the teacher about who was doing what when in school.

As for "rigorous investigation", you really must be joking. Most journalists don't have the time to do "rigorous investigation" because the old "yesterdays' news tomorrow" business model of old print media has been blown away by the always-on Internet and its near real-time publishing model.

As for "peer reviewed" text, the way that the Irish media jumps on really dodgy "studies" that confirm their biases is even worse. Sure, Gript will do the same but its reach is tiny in comparison.

If you want to know how the Irish media would have dealt with Nixon had he been an Irish politician, look at how Varadkar's leaking of that document was dealt with by the Irish media and how they tried to discredit those who broke the story. Then look at how the Irish media tried to discredit OnTheDitch when it started doing real journalism about politicians. Gript has its faults but the Irish media, as a whole, is in far worse shape and it is a much greater danger because gullible people believe what they see, hear and read without any application of critical thinking.

This goes back, in some respects, to the Far Left infiltration of the Dublin media (especially the well documented activities in RTE) by the Official Sinn Fein/Workers Party and its activists. Things didn't turn out the way that all those wannabe Stalinist kommissars expected when the Soviet Union collapsed so they reinvented themselves as "democratic socialists" and then did the same thing to the Labour Party with absolutely predictable results. (From 37 seats in 2011 to 7 in 2016.) The gaslighting of the Irish public about the politically non-existent "Far Right" and even Gript has been quite effective but the cracks are beginning to show. Credibility, for the Irish media, is now a major problem and there are those on the Left and Right who will take advantage of that.

The reality of investigative journalism is a lot different to the expectations of some here. Most journalists are simply unable to handle the uncertainty and don't have the necessary persistence. It is hard work. "All The President's Men" is a good movie and it does show a lot of the problems involved such as trying to confirm facts, verify sources, the mistakes and the threats. It is still just a movie. For balance, watch "The Paper". Even if investigative journalists do a good job on the story there is no guarantee that it will be published. It could get spiked for legal reasons or business reasons.

As for Free Speech, the US Constitution is not the Irish Constitution.

Regards...jmcc