Just under one year ago, on 4 May, I posted the first tracks of the Freelance Forum 2020 podcast series to Soundcloud. Over the past ten years, I’d made recordings of different sessions at Freelance Forum events, and later uploaded them, but it was a hapazard exercise. Some sessions were never recorded, some recordings failed… Continue reading Revue: Soundings

Two decades ago, a Downing Street spin doctor got into trouble for sending out a memo on September 11 for suggesting it might be “a good day to bury bad news”. Since then, the media lens has become even more myopic, regularly monstering a single story for ratings, and ignoring everything else. As the news… Continue reading Revue: Below The Fold

Not many people remember it, but there was a time when the only hipsters in Ireland were Pat Kenny and Larry Gogan Back in the days before 2FM, even before there were pirate radio stations, Pat and Larry were the long haired hippie weirdos of national broadcasting. So one day, Eamon de Valera died. President… Continue reading Revue: Memento Mori

The Four Horsemen, Revised Edition. Death Pestilence Famine War

Revue is a newsletter app, and they recently hooked up with Twitter. I sent out this article on Friday 26 March. Punditry: How I got it wrong About five years ago, I found myself on a radio roundtable panel giving my opinion on the week’s events. And I got it wrong. Spectacularly, undeniably wrong. Donald… Continue reading Revue: On Punditry

Revue is a newsletter app, and they recently hooked up with Twitter. I sent out this article on Friday 19 March. The EU needs an EU wide shared news outlet. Something set up to overcome the language barriers between us, so that, for example, Irish people aren’t at the mercy of politicians defining how well… Continue reading Revue: Hello World

It’s been a year. One year ago last week, I cancelled the Freelance Forum. At the time, the optimistic plan was to reorganise the same event later in the year. It soon became clear that wasn’t going to work. Instead, we moved online as a series of podcasts. Fourteen episodes in the Spring, three more… Continue reading Year Two

This Is QNN QNN feels a little on the nose, so I doubt I’m the first to think of it. I’m sure there are people out there using it as a handy name for media platforms supplying Q-Anon-inspired Qonspiracy theorists with grist. As an aside, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more about Gaia as the… Continue reading From Gaia to QNN

Words matter. As journalists, we have to believe that. When the tánaiste goes on a flagship RTÉ Current Affairs programme to undermine the advice of public health experts, it matters. When the taoiseach promises everyone they can have a “very special” Christmas, words matter. When the cabinet dithers and postpones lockdowns while they know people… Continue reading Personal Responsibility

This is the second attempt in a decade to reorganise RTÉ funding, after the earlier proposal for a universal “screen” fee foudered on anti-tax sentiment. This idea is likely to sink too. RTÉ just isn’t that popular with politicians. The broadcaster’s news division, even under current cutbacks, has a habit of asking awkward questions just… Continue reading Screen Grabs