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

The media are far too cosy and “in bed” with the politicians in this country.

it’s a club with unwritten rules, the hacks ultimately want to get the nod for a lucrative spell as a Minister special advisor or media advisor - so they play the game and don’t rock the boat too much - lest they be blacklisted.

The likes of Gript are the noisy neighbours coming to gatecrash the party and actually, you know, hold politicians to account and ask them questions they don’t want to answer !

We need more Gripts, On the ditch, etc in this country - not less.

It's well documented that most of these loss making hard right outlets are funded by shady American billionaires with very right wing agendas.

If Gript had to rely on it's pathetic pool of readers to keep going it would have folded years ago.

Peddling hate for a living can be a nice little earner if you have the right friends.

If it weren't for the hard right agenda of outlets like Gript I would agree with you. Replacing a cosy cabal of media pyschophants with a paid for hard right shout box is not progress.

People really need to stop labelling everything right of People Before Profit as “hard right”.

It demeans the actual risks of genuine hard right politics.

Journalists "manage up" to Ministers in order secure lucrative PR roles while national leaders "manage up" to the European Council and other supranational bodies to secure roles such as EU Commissioner.

This focus on pleasing 'superiors' is corrupting. Technically national leaders are meant to represent nations and their populations, not globalist factions outwith those nations.

Lost in this discussion is the fact that from the Establisment pov, The Phoenix (left-Republican) and Village magazine (alternative left) are arguably as much a thorn in the side as any right-wing webzine.

See Varadkar's ongoing feud with the Editor of Village magazine, who is suing Varadkar for defamation.

What people may not know, or at least I haven't seen much discussion of it here, is that independent media regardless of political orientation tend to go hard on the Establishment. Village publishes all sorts of inconvenient information on the British and Irish intelligence services' meddling in Northern Ireland and all kinds of other taboo things which you won't find on RTE and the Irish Times. As well as unflattering critical appraisal of big media, including not just political but e.g. Kevin Kiely's criticism of the Irish Times "Culture" section.

Partisanising the divide between independent media and corporate media is convenient for conformist political liberals, since all serious criticism then gets labbelled as "right-wing" or crypto-Russian subversion or whatever.

This to be honest.

Like, Gript is going to report on things that matter to them and their readers because other outlets don't.

If there is a vacuum, others will fill it.

I find the fascination with Gript by those who hate it more amusing then Gript itself.

Politics aside gript is more akin to a poorly written blog than a news source.

Fair play to him though. There is a market for such nonsense.

There is no “non stop feed of immigrant hate” on Gript - total hyperbole and deliberate misrepresentation on your behalf.

Yes, Gript advocates for a tightened, controlled immigration system.

Middle of the road conservative policies.

Stop building up Gript as some sort of hard right monster. It’s simply not.

So The Ditch web site is ultimately aiming to destroy liberal democracy?

What about other independent left-leaning media like Village and The Phoenix? Subverters of liberal democracy in the hopes of creating a regime of mass criminality and chaos or legitimate critics of mainstream political liberalism, in your opinion?

The paymasters will take whatever they can get, but don't underestimate the power of appealing to CT goons - there are a hell of a lot of them about.

My problem is their peddling of lies - not their existence.

While I don't love The Ditch, claiming that a small left-wing pro-Palestinian webzine that investigates planning permission is "in league" with opposite right-wing webzines to subvert democracy is going too far imo.

Independent media allow non-mainstream perspectives to be heard. You mightn't like that but it's a free country so just lump it.

An allergy to any criticism of the Government or political liberalism is going to cause you grief. Leo Varadkar isn't Louis XIV, the Sun King. If you don't like hearing the Government criticised... maybe get a different hobby than consuming political gibberish every waking moment? You could kayak or something.

maybe get a different hobby

Or Collecting mugs. This one is a bit pricy at a tenner. But it's hilarious!!! I'd literally spit my tea out reading that.