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| Photo: Irish Politician Paul Murphy. |
The right-wing Catholic media news outlet Gript has once again been at the centre of controversy following the decision of two left TDs (members of parliament) to refuse to answer questions from journalists working for this outlet. They accused the outlet of not being a real media outlet, having engaged in assault and of propagating lies and fomenting anti-migrant sentiments as reasons for refusing to deal with them. More problematically the same TDs have endorsed what they term the “normal” media in explaining why they will deal with other media outlets and not this particular one.
No one is under any obligation to deal with the media in general or a particular paper or TV channel. The good people of Liverpool launched a boycott of The Sun newspaper following its vile, defamatory disgusting false coverage of the deaths of 96 people at Hillsborough. The Sun without a scintilla of evidence had falsely accused fans of urinating on police officers tending to the injured and stealing from the dead. Not surprisingly it led to a wave of revulsion at The Sun’s vilification of the fans and its lies. To this day the boycott of The Sun in Liverpool is in place and completely justified. The Liverpool Football Club has also applied the boycott and has refused to deal with The Sun.
In 2017, the inquest into the deaths found that they were unlawfully killed. It was manslaughter due to the gross negligence of the police. The families approached Liverpool FC and the club decided not only not to deal with The Sun but to ban it from the grounds.[1] The reasons behind this decision were clear, easy to understand and the gulf between The Sun - or as it is more popularly known The Scum - and other media outlets on the issue was as clear as day. The differences between Gript and the Daily Mail, the Irish Independent or even the Irish Times on certain issues is not at all clear, because in many ways the differences are few and far between.
To be clear, there is no doubt that Gript is a right wing conservative Catholic media outlet. The problem is that many of the allegations levelled against it could be levelled against the media outlets that Paul Murphy TD has endorsed. Amongst the reasons given are that they would not:
Much of what he says can be said of all the tabloid press, and even newspapers like The Irish Times or the Independent. Underhand tactics, pretending to be someone else or misrepresenting yourself, have been standard tactics applied by all media in Ireland and also in Britain. He further accused Gript of backing obnoxious candidates in the elections and jocularly asked the journalists whether they could see their media doing the same. Paul has a short memory. It was standard practice of the Mirror newspaper to back the British Labour Party in elections. In Ireland for many years Fianna Fáil could rely on the Irish Press, founded by Eamon DeValera to back it in elections. Last year in the US there was great controversy over some newspapers breaking with the tradition of backing a candidate. For the first time in 30 years the Washington Post did not back a candidate.[2] Even in Britain in 2024, most major newspapers explicitly backed candidates on their front page, others in their editorials. The Sun, even switched allegiances and called for a change, as did the Financial Times and the Mirror backed Labour again.[3]
He has also accused Gript journalists of being activists and that is true, some of them are right wing activists. But there are many left-wing activists in the Irish media, Una Mullally describes herself as such, the late Nell McCafferty was also a feminist activist, Suzanne Breen, the current political correspondent of the right wing newspaper the Belfast Telegraph has been a long-time advocate of extending the 1967 Abortion Act to the north of Ireland and then there is Eamon McCann who belongs to the same political alliance that Paul Murphy is involved with and was once elected to the Stormont Assembly. He is perhaps the most famous Irish journalist and activist and even politician, and despite his left-wing credentials he has written for right wing newspapers such as the Belfast Telegraph.
…legitimise or normalise a platform built on rage-bait, misinformation, and a consistent refusal to disown or distance itself from violence.
This among the countless other examples which differentiate Gript from other genuine news outlets, like their donations to right-wing parties or their platforming of individuals who attempted to infiltrate and smear the repeal campaign, is why we will be giving them no comment in future. It is our belief doing otherwise will negatively contribute to the dangerous political climate across Ireland effecting many groups targeted by Gript’s editorial line.
Much of what he says can be said of all the tabloid press, and even newspapers like The Irish Times or the Independent. Underhand tactics, pretending to be someone else or misrepresenting yourself, have been standard tactics applied by all media in Ireland and also in Britain. He further accused Gript of backing obnoxious candidates in the elections and jocularly asked the journalists whether they could see their media doing the same. Paul has a short memory. It was standard practice of the Mirror newspaper to back the British Labour Party in elections. In Ireland for many years Fianna Fáil could rely on the Irish Press, founded by Eamon DeValera to back it in elections. Last year in the US there was great controversy over some newspapers breaking with the tradition of backing a candidate. For the first time in 30 years the Washington Post did not back a candidate.[2] Even in Britain in 2024, most major newspapers explicitly backed candidates on their front page, others in their editorials. The Sun, even switched allegiances and called for a change, as did the Financial Times and the Mirror backed Labour again.[3]
He has also accused Gript journalists of being activists and that is true, some of them are right wing activists. But there are many left-wing activists in the Irish media, Una Mullally describes herself as such, the late Nell McCafferty was also a feminist activist, Suzanne Breen, the current political correspondent of the right wing newspaper the Belfast Telegraph has been a long-time advocate of extending the 1967 Abortion Act to the north of Ireland and then there is Eamon McCann who belongs to the same political alliance that Paul Murphy is involved with and was once elected to the Stormont Assembly. He is perhaps the most famous Irish journalist and activist and even politician, and despite his left-wing credentials he has written for right wing newspapers such as the Belfast Telegraph.
In Britain of course there are people such as Owen Jones and Ash Sarkar, two political activists and journalists that Paul might feel some affinity with. Paul Murphy lays claim to being a Marxist, though he doesn’t use that term in his election literature. One of the most famous left wing activist journalists in history was one Karl Marx, whose first job was as a journalist for the Rheinische Zeitung, a post he took up in 1842 and throughout his life he contributed to many newspapers including the New York Tribune. The NYT was at the time the largest newspaper in the world with a circulation of over 200,000 and unashamedly political as the primary anti-slavery organ in the USA.[4] Something I am sure Paul Murphy would approve of.
In the US media donations to political parties are par for the course, not so much elsewhere. In Ireland and the EU there is a lack of transparency around donations, so we are not entirely clear about who donates what to whom.[5] However, the cross over between the media and politicians is brazen and accepted. Right wing Senator Michael McDowell is a regular contributor to the Irish Times, he has previously served as a TD and also as Minister for Justice and it was under his mandate, in an arguably virulently racist campaign, that the Irish constitution was changed to remove the automatic right of children born in Ireland to Irish citizenship. Geraldine Kennedy worked as a journalist at a variety of newspapers including the Irish Times, becoming its first female editor in 2002, having taken a break from journalism to be a TD for the ultra-neoliberal Progressive Democrats, the same party McDowell was once in. Liz O’Donnell is also another Irish journalist politician from the same right-wing fold.
There are times Paul Murphy comes across as being as thick as two short planks, but he is not. He is intelligent and occasionally shows that in the Dáil (Irish parliament) debates. But he is a cynic and worse still, despite his claims to being a Marxist he is a liberal who believes that there is some mythical bourgeois media out there that is neutral, honest, does not engage in click bait, does not stoke up hatred/fear/mistrust of migrants and does not have a political axe to grind. The evidence does not support the claim. Gript denies it is racist and points to the Press Council etc, as proof of that. They are relying on a regulatory definition of racism, whereas Paul Murphy is, like myself and most of the readers using a more political definition, one which would, or at least, should include the Irish state itself. This is not problematic at all, though it is for Murphy who believes in this pure media that he does answer questions from. However, Gript are not the only ones who can be accused of stoking up racial fears. Lucy Michael in her study on the Irish media Normalising Racism in the Irish Media, published in 2019 as part of a wider study Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands (sic) looked at the role played by the Irish media. It does not make for happy reading and seriously undermines Murphy’s “normal” or “genuine” media argument.
In it she states that:
She goes on to cite examples from a range of newspapers such as the Sunday Independent, Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, the (Irish) Daily Mail, The Irish Times, TV3, FM104, The Sun, 4FM, RTE 1(including the flagship show The Late Late Show), Irish Examiner and The Kerryman. A partial but somewhat longer list than Paul Murphy would have us believe.
One other issue Murphy mentioned was Gript’s support for the genocide in Gaza. It is true that they are arch Zionists, and the editor McGuirk has travelled to Palestine to meet with Zionists in Tel Aviv. Gript are opposed to migration unless it involves Yanks going to Palestine to steal land at gunpoint. Again, I would like to know which media outlet hasn’t supported the Israelis or downplayed their crimes. Jonathan Cook has amply demonstrated just how complicit all of them have been.[7] RTE couldn’t even deal with the Kneecap controversy in an even-handed manner. If de facto support for Israel was a reason for not taking questions from a media outlet, Murphy would have no media outlets to talk to.
But the media outlets he endorses as worthy of his respect are the same ones who over the years opposed divorce legislation, gay rights, contraception, abortion to name just a handful of issues. They virulently opposed the introduction of such legislation, then dragged their heels and when the campaigners had almost won, they acted as if they had always supported these campaigns. They were initially reluctant to deal with the judicial frame ups of the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, or the existence of the Heavy Gang. They normalised the British army’s actions in Ireland. They opposed workers’ rights, strikes and other campaigns. Yet for Murphy this is the genuine press that he will deal with.
Part of the problem here is that on the Irish Left, what is right-wing, what is far-right and what constitutes fascism is not discussed though the terms are bandied about a bit. Any attempt to discuss this is met with howls of moralistic anger and holier than thou commentary. It is not a minor point as a key difference between fascists and other right-wing elements is that fascists need to be beaten off the streets, not cancelled, not snubbed.
There is a saying attributed to Trotsky which goes that if you can’t convince a fascist, acquaint his head with the pavement. The first part of that is convince. Trying to convince Gript staff is most likely a waste of time, but the people they speak to, do have to be convinced, or the attempt should be made. Murphy prefers to grandstand and engage in virtue signalling, something he and his organisation are past masters at. The actual Trotsky quote is a little bit different and addresses the moment when we are dealing with actual organised fascists, rather than just right wing xenophobic Catholic conservatives.
But when push comes to shove, there is one thing certain, Paul Murphy and Coppinger won’t be doing any of the pushing or shoving. They and their organisations have always been at pains to point out how reasonable, pacific and generally law abiding they are. Should anyone ever get around to pushing anyone, Murphy will be the loudest in his denunciations. And the proof is in the pudding. A number of years ago when the Gardaí up and down the country were supervising evictions carried out by former British army and Loyalist thugs, a number of people decided to teach actual fascists evicting people at the behest of the banks a salutary lesson. In 2018, a masked group attacked security guards at a farmhouse eviction site in Roscommon.[9] Three of those involved were later convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, a rather severe sentence given what they had done. They were condemned by all the parties in the Dáil, no one spoke up for them, including Murphy. An act of cowardice on his part, the other left deputies and of course Sinn Féin.
Grandstanding and virtue signalling are no substitute for real policies and mobilisation. The far-right mobilised thousands recently in Dublin and the counter demo was very small in comparison. Murphy looked good addressing an even smaller crowd behind a ring of people facing out towards the racists shouting Get Them Out! and also the ring of Gardaí. It was all performative. Mobilising people is what is needed, not virtue signalling.
The reasons given by Murphy may one day rebound on him, as we have found with the hate speech idea where we now find ourselves accused of hate speech right across Europe for defending Palestine and opposing the genocide. This rubbish about genuine media may come back against the Left. An Phoblacht the Sinn Féin newspaper had to run that gauntlet many years ago and the political nature of some websites that have exposed the Irish state’s collaboration with genocide has been cited many times, claiming they are not a genuine news outlet.
Murphy can refuse questions from Gript if he wants, it is his right. But there is no equivalent to Hillsborough and the actions taken against The Sun, at least none that have been advanced by Murphy. It just makes him look good to a small section of his support base and gives Gript and the far right likes of McGregor an easy victory. They can point to Murphy’s refusal to deal with issues.
There are no consequences for him and the contradiction of taking questions from the rest of the media will barely register. Ideas are fought with ideas and sometimes with actual bodies. Virtue signalling is a middle-class past time for those who are not serious about dealing with the right, the state, or actual fascists.
References
[1] The Guardian (10/02/2017) Liverpool ban Sun journalists over Hillsborough coverage. David Conn.
[2] The Guardian (25/10/2024) Washington Post says it will not endorse candidate for first time in 30 years. Anna Betts.
[3] Press Gazette (04/07/2024) General election 2024 endorsements: Most of Fleet Street votes Labour. Dominic Ponsford et al.
[4] The Jacobin (05/05/2018) Marx the Journalist: An interview with James Ledbetter. Steven Sherman. https://jacobin.com/2018/05/karl-marx-journalism-writings-newspaper
[5] The Journal (30/05/2024) Hidden Figures: Source of political money disclosed for just 8% of donations over four years.
[6] See Chapter 10, Lucy Michael in Normalising Racism in the Irish Media in Fanning, B. & Michael, L.(2019) Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands. Manchester. Manchester University Press.
[7] See.
[8] Trotsky, L. (1934) Ultra Left Tactics in Fighting The Fascists. Writings of Leon Trotsky, Supplement (1934-1940) New York. Pathfinder Press. p.457.
[9] The Guardian (17/12/2018) Masked vigilantes attack guards at Irish farmhouse after eviction. Rory Carroll.
In the US media donations to political parties are par for the course, not so much elsewhere. In Ireland and the EU there is a lack of transparency around donations, so we are not entirely clear about who donates what to whom.[5] However, the cross over between the media and politicians is brazen and accepted. Right wing Senator Michael McDowell is a regular contributor to the Irish Times, he has previously served as a TD and also as Minister for Justice and it was under his mandate, in an arguably virulently racist campaign, that the Irish constitution was changed to remove the automatic right of children born in Ireland to Irish citizenship. Geraldine Kennedy worked as a journalist at a variety of newspapers including the Irish Times, becoming its first female editor in 2002, having taken a break from journalism to be a TD for the ultra-neoliberal Progressive Democrats, the same party McDowell was once in. Liz O’Donnell is also another Irish journalist politician from the same right-wing fold.
There are times Paul Murphy comes across as being as thick as two short planks, but he is not. He is intelligent and occasionally shows that in the Dáil (Irish parliament) debates. But he is a cynic and worse still, despite his claims to being a Marxist he is a liberal who believes that there is some mythical bourgeois media out there that is neutral, honest, does not engage in click bait, does not stoke up hatred/fear/mistrust of migrants and does not have a political axe to grind. The evidence does not support the claim. Gript denies it is racist and points to the Press Council etc, as proof of that. They are relying on a regulatory definition of racism, whereas Paul Murphy is, like myself and most of the readers using a more political definition, one which would, or at least, should include the Irish state itself. This is not problematic at all, though it is for Murphy who believes in this pure media that he does answer questions from. However, Gript are not the only ones who can be accused of stoking up racial fears. Lucy Michael in her study on the Irish media Normalising Racism in the Irish Media, published in 2019 as part of a wider study Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands (sic) looked at the role played by the Irish media. It does not make for happy reading and seriously undermines Murphy’s “normal” or “genuine” media argument.
In it she states that:
A small and highly visible range of columnists in the largest Irish newspapers regularly vilify Muslims, Roma and Travellers, particularly drawing on ideas of barbarism, cultural genocide and population control, and defiantly testing the legal limits of incitement to hatred.[6]
She goes on to cite examples from a range of newspapers such as the Sunday Independent, Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, the (Irish) Daily Mail, The Irish Times, TV3, FM104, The Sun, 4FM, RTE 1(including the flagship show The Late Late Show), Irish Examiner and The Kerryman. A partial but somewhat longer list than Paul Murphy would have us believe.
One other issue Murphy mentioned was Gript’s support for the genocide in Gaza. It is true that they are arch Zionists, and the editor McGuirk has travelled to Palestine to meet with Zionists in Tel Aviv. Gript are opposed to migration unless it involves Yanks going to Palestine to steal land at gunpoint. Again, I would like to know which media outlet hasn’t supported the Israelis or downplayed their crimes. Jonathan Cook has amply demonstrated just how complicit all of them have been.[7] RTE couldn’t even deal with the Kneecap controversy in an even-handed manner. If de facto support for Israel was a reason for not taking questions from a media outlet, Murphy would have no media outlets to talk to.
But the media outlets he endorses as worthy of his respect are the same ones who over the years opposed divorce legislation, gay rights, contraception, abortion to name just a handful of issues. They virulently opposed the introduction of such legislation, then dragged their heels and when the campaigners had almost won, they acted as if they had always supported these campaigns. They were initially reluctant to deal with the judicial frame ups of the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, or the existence of the Heavy Gang. They normalised the British army’s actions in Ireland. They opposed workers’ rights, strikes and other campaigns. Yet for Murphy this is the genuine press that he will deal with.
Part of the problem here is that on the Irish Left, what is right-wing, what is far-right and what constitutes fascism is not discussed though the terms are bandied about a bit. Any attempt to discuss this is met with howls of moralistic anger and holier than thou commentary. It is not a minor point as a key difference between fascists and other right-wing elements is that fascists need to be beaten off the streets, not cancelled, not snubbed.
There is a saying attributed to Trotsky which goes that if you can’t convince a fascist, acquaint his head with the pavement. The first part of that is convince. Trying to convince Gript staff is most likely a waste of time, but the people they speak to, do have to be convinced, or the attempt should be made. Murphy prefers to grandstand and engage in virtue signalling, something he and his organisation are past masters at. The actual Trotsky quote is a little bit different and addresses the moment when we are dealing with actual organised fascists, rather than just right wing xenophobic Catholic conservatives.
The tactical, or if you will, “technical,” task was quite simple — grab every fascist or every isolated group of fascists by their collars, acquaint them with the pavement a few times, strip them of their fascist insignia and documents, and without carrying things any further, leave them with their fright and a few good black and blue marks.[8]
But when push comes to shove, there is one thing certain, Paul Murphy and Coppinger won’t be doing any of the pushing or shoving. They and their organisations have always been at pains to point out how reasonable, pacific and generally law abiding they are. Should anyone ever get around to pushing anyone, Murphy will be the loudest in his denunciations. And the proof is in the pudding. A number of years ago when the Gardaí up and down the country were supervising evictions carried out by former British army and Loyalist thugs, a number of people decided to teach actual fascists evicting people at the behest of the banks a salutary lesson. In 2018, a masked group attacked security guards at a farmhouse eviction site in Roscommon.[9] Three of those involved were later convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, a rather severe sentence given what they had done. They were condemned by all the parties in the Dáil, no one spoke up for them, including Murphy. An act of cowardice on his part, the other left deputies and of course Sinn Féin.
Grandstanding and virtue signalling are no substitute for real policies and mobilisation. The far-right mobilised thousands recently in Dublin and the counter demo was very small in comparison. Murphy looked good addressing an even smaller crowd behind a ring of people facing out towards the racists shouting Get Them Out! and also the ring of Gardaí. It was all performative. Mobilising people is what is needed, not virtue signalling.
The reasons given by Murphy may one day rebound on him, as we have found with the hate speech idea where we now find ourselves accused of hate speech right across Europe for defending Palestine and opposing the genocide. This rubbish about genuine media may come back against the Left. An Phoblacht the Sinn Féin newspaper had to run that gauntlet many years ago and the political nature of some websites that have exposed the Irish state’s collaboration with genocide has been cited many times, claiming they are not a genuine news outlet.
Murphy can refuse questions from Gript if he wants, it is his right. But there is no equivalent to Hillsborough and the actions taken against The Sun, at least none that have been advanced by Murphy. It just makes him look good to a small section of his support base and gives Gript and the far right likes of McGregor an easy victory. They can point to Murphy’s refusal to deal with issues.
There are no consequences for him and the contradiction of taking questions from the rest of the media will barely register. Ideas are fought with ideas and sometimes with actual bodies. Virtue signalling is a middle-class past time for those who are not serious about dealing with the right, the state, or actual fascists.
References
[1] The Guardian (10/02/2017) Liverpool ban Sun journalists over Hillsborough coverage. David Conn.
[2] The Guardian (25/10/2024) Washington Post says it will not endorse candidate for first time in 30 years. Anna Betts.
[3] Press Gazette (04/07/2024) General election 2024 endorsements: Most of Fleet Street votes Labour. Dominic Ponsford et al.
[4] The Jacobin (05/05/2018) Marx the Journalist: An interview with James Ledbetter. Steven Sherman. https://jacobin.com/2018/05/karl-marx-journalism-writings-newspaper
[5] The Journal (30/05/2024) Hidden Figures: Source of political money disclosed for just 8% of donations over four years.
[6] See Chapter 10, Lucy Michael in Normalising Racism in the Irish Media in Fanning, B. & Michael, L.(2019) Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands. Manchester. Manchester University Press.
[7] See.
[8] Trotsky, L. (1934) Ultra Left Tactics in Fighting The Fascists. Writings of Leon Trotsky, Supplement (1934-1940) New York. Pathfinder Press. p.457.
[9] The Guardian (17/12/2018) Masked vigilantes attack guards at Irish farmhouse after eviction. Rory Carroll.
⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.
There are some great points in this article although I disagree with the Trotsky quote as I am not sure how that applies to Gript. I would not call Gript Fascist. The term is heavily misused as the article notes. Now it's generally used to refer to something not liked by the liberal left.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked by Murphy and Coppinger's response to the fall out on social media afterwards. But it was also revealing - presumably they get their US Democrat AOC style politics from social media too. Not many traditional leftists floating around nowadays.
The fella who asks questions for Gript doesn't seem particularly bright (no harm to him). You can disarm people like this with a bit of charm and solid rebuttals. Irish politicians are so used to their moralistic badgering going unchallenged that they don't know what to do when asked carefully worded questions by Gript reporters.
The fella that was asking the questions for Gript is Ben Scallan and he is a very capable and thorough journalist nothing dim about him and his forte is asking politicians the questions nobody else will ask them and this is essentially why Coppinger refused to answer him because they can’t .
DeleteYes, that's right. Perhaps my original comment was a bit unfair but I find his questions long winded and often poorly worded. Good to see politicians squirm though.
DeleteDespite its apparently novelty I don't think his approach is all that original. It just seems that way because the media in this country is laughably poor. Murphy, Coppinger and the rest of the establishment prefer to live in their own world.
This is the type of piece the cancel cabal want suppressed. Even if we are to disagree with every idea expressed in it there is no reason whatsoever for it to be cancelled.
ReplyDeleteAre Gript fascist? They tick some of the boxes but so does the Woke and they don't get characterised as fascist. On the ideological spectrum they are closer to the fascist end but that means absolutely nothing. Right wing conservatives are always closer to the fascist end. But if we take fascistic traits, one being the intolerance of difference, Gript does not endorse cancel culture but many on the Left do; same for the Woke.
I don't agree with Gript but I don't see them as fascist. The term has just become a lazy way of calling people scumbags. To me, Gript is what its says on the tin, not what it says on the label Paul Murphy and his colleagues wrap the tin in.
That said, I would never regard Paul Murphy as a coward. I don't think he should be slurred like that. He has shown great political and moral courage along his political journey. Even if the author of the piece resents him for his so called liberalism, the fact remains that liberals can show as much courage as the Left.
One of the sustaining emotional influences in my political journey has been Helder Camara. He always said he was not a Marxist but a socialist. That in the eyes of many would place him in the Liberal camp. Yet, who could deny his courage?