It’s often said you learn something new every day. Quite rightly so too. Even if the manner in which information is imparted has altered seismically during my lifetime. Depending on the day of the week, my late father bought a minimum of two newspapers a day. Extras on a day the Irish Farmers Journal or The Irish Field were required.
Probably like most people, news and/or Current Affairs didn’t really interest me until I was in my late teens or early 20s. It probably ratcheted up several levels when becoming involved in politics at a local level. Though sadly that had to be curtailed due to the candidate one was working with and yours truly getting abused whilst out on the canvas for “Using the wheelchair to go after the sympathy vote”.
Utter bullsh**. The occupant of this seat has always been capable of making his own decisions, was very much there of my own free will and would do so again until the cows come home if help was required. Anyway, from a writing or journalistic viewpoint, personally speaking, the greatest manner in which to broaden the knowledge base and workable areas here has always been by observation of other practitioners of the craft.
Whether that be the likes of Con Houlihan, Hugh McIlvanney or David Walsh from a sporting perspective or people such as Matt Dempsey and Paddy O’Keeffe in terms of agriculture and agri-business journalism, it has always been the observation in this seat that from consuming the work of those most admired in the trade could betterment be attained close to home.
As for news media, the fact that we only had the two RTE stations at home meant my knowledge of and by extension interest therein wouldn’t have extended past Eamon Lalor and Sean Duignan on RTE News, or David Hanley on Morning Ireland on Radio 1 and Today Tonight was about as far as it went. Until the additional channels were added to the possibilities at home.
However, initially at least, the idea of 24 hour ‘rolling’ news channel (Sky News) wouldn’t have lit a spark here at all. In fact, it would been considered repetitive and boring. Like everything in life, though, it only takes something to which you can relate to ratchet up interest in a given subject area. For me, 9/11 was that hurdle crossed. Having been in Brady’s when the two planes hit the World Trade Centre, after watching a couple of hours coverage on Sky News there, the channel was left rolling at home for God knows how long.
Shortly thereafter, of course, came the US/UK led invasion of Iraq and Afghanastan – flawed though the intelligence prompting said operation was. It was at that stage that it was copped yours truly was a political/current affairs news junkie.
Thus, Sky News presenters like Emma Crosbie and Martin Stanford and Simon McCoy and Kay Burley and Jeremy Thompson and Lorna Dunkley and Julie Etchingham became very familiar faces throughout the day. So too some of their weather anchors including Francis Wilson, Jo Wheeler and Ireland’s own Lisa Burke.
As well as all of the above there was a time when a plethora if not all of the Sky News correspondents and reporters could be rhymned off like the flick of a switch. Journalists including but not limited to Emma Hurd, Peter Spencer, Thomas Moore, Martin Brunt and Dominic Waghorn.
For whatever reason, and it honestly cannot be recalled when or why, the habit of watching Sky News drifted away. A lot of the familiar faces seemed to disappear from the channel. Grainne Seoige – who fronted the ultimately doomed Sky News Ireland – and Lisa Burke among them. It was probably on hearing that the station’s Political Editor and journalistic powerhouse Adam Boulton had bolted that interest in Rupert Murdoch’s news network completely went redundant.
Primarily because the programming on the channel appeared to have gone to pot. With more time seemingly devoted to going through what it says in the following day’s papers. Boulton even cited the change in direction the station had undergone as his reason for vacating it having been one of the original team that launched the station back in 1989. Yet as much as the quality of output from the medium has woefully regressed, when the atrocities erupted in Ukraine a few weeks ago, 501 was the first channel went for.
Admittedly only for a while. Now, look, any rolling news channel is going to spew a certain amount of repitition, but, however they manage to do it, CNN could tell you the one story six times but make it sound different and leave you learning something new each time.
***
Speaking of learning something new, when a large portion of the world was shut down due to Covid-19, it was a matter of finding different things to occupy the mind. For me, part of that was Rolling Down Memory Lane but such was the length of time things were in shutdown mode that other avenues had to be explored to keep the mind sane.
One leg of that was finding a variety of television to watch. Another branch out from that was getting up to speed with things like Netflix and Discovery+ and Disney+. Not to mention figuring out to stream things like YouTube to the television. One channel encountered detailed some of the most infamous true crimes cases in Ireland.
Undoubtedly the most poignantly moving part of that was the episode pertaining to the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. This corner has absolutely no intention of harrowing up the nuts and bolts of the case here. The only reason it finds its way in here was that I had never heard the comments of then Taoiseach John Bruton about the crime.
The Fine Gael leader termed the brutal slaying “An attack on democracy”. That was only one of inumerable ways the heinous act which caused revulsion and terror in equal measure could characterised. Perhaps it was fate, then, that Paul Williams’s documentary was seen for the first time during the same week Sky News Correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his crew came under fire from Russian troops in Ukraine.
Ramsay is one of a few of the old stock still in situ from when last I was properly attuned to the channel and, in fairness to them, they have never been afraid to put people on the front line of whatever horrors were and are unfolding in the world.
However, Ramsay and his colleagues coming under fire is indeed another attack on democracy. Where the two stories overlap is thus – in both instances the perpetrators wanted to silence those who were outing the truths they didn’t want released.
The killing of Veronica Guerin was a seminal moment in Irish history. Irish policing and journalism in particular. Taking the hard working, courageous reporter out of the equation may have been seen as a sordid victory for those on the dark side. But in reality, it backfired spectacularly on them. Mercifully for the rest of us.
Likewise, Vladimir Putin might think by silencing the ‘Western’ media it might make his illegal occupation of a sovereign nation that little bit easier. Foolhardy on his part. People are much better informed nowadays. News unrecognisably more available. Keeping people up to the second with world affairs.
Putin won’t be able to quell the entire global media or a people rising from the ashes of what’s going on around them in the long term. Hopefully sooner rather than later bad press will be the least of his worries.
Leave a Reply