The media is failing people by avoiding inconvenient truths, writes Paul Allen.
The Irish thrive on blaming others for their woes. We blame the British, the Catholic Church and just about anyone else that saves us from embracing collective responsibility for our own missteps. But it is high time for people to grow up. We claim we want the truth, but it would appear that we can’t handle the truth.
Enda Kenny is now facing a backlash for telling people something they desperately don’t want to hear yet alone believe — we are all to blame for the economic crisis.
The Taoiseach told a gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the problem with Ireland’s economy was that “people went mad borrowing” in a climate where greed saw the system spiral out of control and ultimately crash.
This is of course an oversimplification of our economic downfall, yet it is in essence relatively accurate. The poor judgement of our political leaders and the corrupt nature of certain financiers and developers was all driven by a collective giddy greed that gripped our nation at the height of the boom. The vast majority of us were crying, “more, more, more” when in fact we should have been increasing taxes and cutting our spending levels.
Speak with any rational Irish person about this and they will agree that while the levels of blame rise significantly depending on your role in the crash, we all ultimately have to take a certain amount criticism.
But to utter such words in public is tantamount to treason. This warped view of reality is being fed into and fuelled by a media that constantly uses politicians, developers and bankers as scapegoats.
Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar condemned this cynicism and highlighted how the media offers a “sugar-coated” truth rather than exposing the real facts. He is right.
The media has become so cynical of politicians and their roles, that it is affecting the balance portrayed in the pages of our newspapers and the broadcasts of our national news.
It is so easy to blame whoever is public enemy number one at any given moment, whether it’s Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Fingleton or Sean Dunne. However, these people did not operate in a vacuum and were part of a culture that was allowed flourish during the boom years.
Admittedly Enda Kenny did make a major error of judgement, but it was not telling the truth in Switzerland. It was telling Irish people what they wanted to hear seven weeks ago when he said — “You are not responsible for the crisis.”
We all criticise politicians for feeding us lies before an election and then once in office breaking these promises. But maybe this says more about us than it does about them.
So now as the media turns on Enda and Leo for telling the truth, at least Irish people will now have two others to blame for their woes.
The Taoiseach’s ‘state of the nation’ speech was more a poor exercise in public relations than a worthwhile political statement, writes Paul Allen.
Enda Kenny was going to be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. People wanted the truth, but the fact is people can’t handle the truth.
The Taoiseach’s ‘state of the nation’ address turned out to be the “this is going to hurt” pep talk a dentist might give before extracting teeth. We all knew regardless of how soft and palatable his words, the after affect was going to hurt like hell.
However, this carefully stage-managed affair suffered from one key blunder. While Enda’s tone was soft and his facial gestures gentle and compassionate, his two clenched fists placed on the desk in front of him told the truth of his internal turmoil.
The Taoiseach knew his hands were tied. That is why his speech was far from a direct, comprehensive and truthful evaluation of where the country stands given Europe’s turmoil. Instead, it was a healthy serving of clichés all-round.
“We live in exceptional times,” we were told, “and face exceptional challenges.” Later on it was the tired “difficult choices are never easy.” Thankfully we were spared “there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
Charlie Haughey’s state of the nation address was remembered for all the wrong reasons, so Fine Gael’s handlers presumably wanted to ensure Enda’s speech did not leave such a lasting impression.
So, as is the problem with most political speeches, it was light on content and heavy on ‘stating the bleeding obvious’.
We were told that jobs are central to this budget because “work plays such an essential role in our lives.” Truly insightful stuff indeed.
But Enda went further — “Work gives us focus. Work gives us independence. Work gives our families hope and confidence.”
Now those sentences should have had black hoods thrown over them, been taken outside and then shot along with what ever clown wrote them.
There is certainly something about Enda, but it is not his charisma. By his own admission he is not a great orator, so by spurting out such drivel he tended to come across a little on the patronising side.
The production was also extremely poor from the camera angle to the lighting. Indeed, when one considers the magnificent room in which Enda was sitting and the Michael Collins painting which hangs over the fireplace, sadly the Taoiseach looked more like he was sitting in the courtroom of Judge Judy than a magnificent state office.
Even though Enda promised this was going to be a “job’s budget,” the truth of the matter is governments don’t create jobs. All governments can do is create the environment to create jobs and in fairness some of the steps briefly outlined could well go towards achieving this.
But the truth that may have been lurking between Enda’s clenched fists is that this budget is more to do with appeasing the Bundesbank rather than the people of Ireland.
The Taoiseach did make it clear that “as an island nation we cannot operate in isolation” and underlined the importance of our membership of the EU. However, he did not tackle the fact that until the catastrophe that hangs over the Euro is diverted and Europe gets its economy back on track, there is little we can do but tighten our belts and keep our fingers crossed.
Mary Lou McDonald accused Enda’s address of being merely “a softening up exercise.” This analysis is bang on. And it certainly was successful given the 1.1 million people who tuned in.
In fact, it is a pity RTE do not run repeats of Enda’s address to help prop up its Christmas schedule. This would not only help boost viewership figures, but would be very cost effective. In fact, they could intersperse it with apologies to Father Reynolds.
As I have recently discovered the people of Ireland are truly sick to the back teeth of RTE’s overpaid stars, so maybe a daily dose of Enda might make them realise you get what you pay for.
For every action in Ireland there is an opposite and equal criticism. Indeed, if cynicism was an Olympic sport, we’d be untouchable.
But while the national mood of mourning continues to fester, the international media has begun to cautiously cheerlead our economic performance as we struggle out of the doldrums.
“Never mind the crushing grip of domestic austerity or the ravages of tightening monetary policy, the Irish economy is growing,” wrote the Wall Street Journal this week commenting on what it sees as “Ireland’s economic miracle”.
A few weeks earlier The Financial Times even suggested that “Ireland’s unexpected economic comeback” could provide the blueprint for other struggling European economies.
While dour forecasts dampen expectations around the eurozone, the pulse of the Irish economy is proving stronger and stronger.
“Ireland’s gross domestic product expanded by 1.3pc in the first quarter over the quarter before, boosted by strong exports,” highlighted the Wall Street Journal. “Continued export growth since suggests the Irish economy’s recovery is entrenched. In June, Ireland’s trade surplus came in at a record €4.08 billion, up 8pc on the previous month.”
Yet, in Ireland there are few cheerleading or even acknowledging the success so far achieved in nurturing our ailing economy back to health.
Yes, our recovery is still fragile, but nonetheless it is the envy of many of our neighbours who are fearful of slipping back into recession.
The problem is we are too busy, as Patrick Kavanagh once noted, sailing in “the puddles of the past” to be optimistic about our bright future.
So, while we were being described as economic wunderkids in the international press, former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen were being dragged back through the mud by the founding president of the University of Limerick Dr Ed Walsh for handling the Irish economy like “intoxicated joyriders.”
However, attacking the well-documented exploits of Ahern and Cowen at this stage is tantamount to shooting fish in a barrel. It is time to move on.
It is hard to imagine, even though Arsenal got a 8-2 drubbing from Manchester United at the weekend, that Arsene Wenger will allow his side wallow in defeat. His and his team’s focus will immediately go to the next match.
Like a boxer that has been knocked down and received a mandatory count, it is vital we stand up and fight rather than licking our wounds and live in fear of defeat.
While the fundamentals of the Irish economy remain strong, the key lies in consumer and small business spending. The problem is that when confidence is low people don’t spend. Thus economic pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
George Orwell in his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, wrote, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
But it is not only politicians that can weave a false reality out of thin air. The media also plays a part in fabricating a reality that is not broadly true.
When the foreign press used images of piebald ponies, homeless people and ghost estates to try to capture modern Ireland during the visits of President Obama and the Queen, they were rightly criticised for their one-dimensional portrayal. But now the Irish media seems to have followed suit. No news may be good news, but open an Irish newspaper or tune in to the broadcast media and it won’t be long before you are tempted to cry a river.
Yes, there are people out of work and living in dire straits. However, this is not the norm and while their cause needs to be championed their plight should not be used to conjure a picture of a ‘down and out’ Ireland.
It may not make great headlines in the current climate, but it looks possible that Ireland could well be the star economic performer of Europe over the coming years. But it appears no one wants to shout about it too loudly.