In a comical piece today, one Irish website has written a ‘fact check’ in a deliberate effort to take the growing heat off of Simon Coveney’s shocking visit to Turkey last week.
In this ‘fact check’ article, it is alleged that there was no direct order from the government not to cover the story, conflating that with the fact that there appears to have been a conspiracy to hide it from the people.
It claims that the media did cover the story, but they did not cover it while he was there or immediately after. One small Irish Times article made a passing reference the week before. One RTE article made a passing reference the week after. This is presented as irrefutable evidence that the public was informed. Contradicting themselves, they then say that there were bigger stories to deal with at the time and the media chose not to cover it. Considering the fact that people were being arrested for going to the beach and this was making headlines, it is nonsense to assert that the public would not have been interested in Coveney’s pointless trip to Turkey to talk about some other country’s business. The fact that the pro government media are even having to do this on his behalf now is indicative of the level of public interest in the story.
The ‘fact checker’ then claims that Coveney’s trip was covered by the Turkish Embassy’s Twitter account hence there was no ‘blackout’. This account has only 3,000 followers, it was no risk to pose it there. Such an important trip could not be ignored by other accounts except by intention.
Some media outlets actually spent Coveney’s 3 day trip posting different quotes about local issues in his constituency, if someone were to read them, they would get the impression that he was at home and worrying about issues in his locality rather than in Turkey.
The best part is the ending of the ‘fact check’. They tell us that journalists were not told about the trip beforehand and that the Department of Foreign Affairs didn’t answer their emails on why this had happened. If you’re confused, that’s the intention.
It is also claimed that Coveney didn’t agree to take more migrants, but his exact words were that it would support Turkey in its effort to relocate millions, if you think that that won’t involve accepting migrants then we don’t know what to tell you. When the Turkish Minister stated that Ireland supported Turkey’s entry into the EU, Coveney didn’t correct him.
It is no surprise to see pro government media behaving this way. It comes on the same week that one major Irish news outlet made it public that they were begging the state to keep them afloat, citing ‘existential threats’. The out of touch elitists also called for taxpayers to pay for newspapers to be delivered to people’s homes.
The media in Ireland have behaved disgracefully during the past year, refusing to question the government on anything, even defending the erratic behaviour of Leo Varadkar in the Phoenix Park last summer.
It is easy to understand why this is happening. Many politicians in recent years have hired journalists who have been loyal to them, either on committees or as personal advisers. It is a really repulsive state of affairs but that is the sort of country that Ireland has become unfortunately.
The ‘fact check’ also quoted Catholic Arena, regarding calling Coveney’s trip a 3 day holiday (which it must have been if the work was not essential enough to be headlines news?) but interestingly left out our (correct) claims that Christians and LGBT activists were imprisoned during his visit and he said nothing. Funny how that works.