A Chara, As a Fianna Fail supporter. I have continued to buy your newspaper since I regarded its content as being of high quality, balanced and objective much the same as the current television ads allege. Obviously, "opinion" articles will generally be fairly subjective and probably biased, and ridiculous pieces such as Fintan O'Toole's "Return of the Living Dead" (Brian Lenihan, Mary Hanafin, Eoin Ryan, Dermot Ahern?) can be read for a good laugh, or simply ignored altogether.
But of far more serious concern is the quite strident anti-Government tone which normally objective writers such as Geraldine Kennedy and Maol Muire Tynan have taken recently. I was astonished by the almost tabloid bias in most political articles on July 2nd. For example, in the article about Brian Cowen's revocation of 24 Health Board appointments, nine out of 11 paragraphs are taken up with criticism of his action. Michael Noonan is let away with the comment that Mr Cowen wishes to appoint his "own political cronies". Just what exactly did Mr Noonan think he was doing?
Mr Noonan also made the incredible statement that for Minister Cowen to rescind earlier political appointments was "unprecedented". Has he really forgotten that the first time this happened was when his former colleague Minister Lowry shafted the entire board of CIE - quickly followed by Ruairi Quinn's botched attempt to get rid of two Fianna Fail appointees to the ACC? In fact, the only unprecedented action in this sage was for Mr Noonan to appoint these people to positions that were not even vacant at the time, despite being warned of the consequences. It really is hard to believe that this selective amnesia was accidentally overlooked by your astute and perspicacious reporters.
We got a front-page story implying that Celia Larkin was taking over the whole of Dick Spring's former Office of the Tanaiste. In fact, it appears that Mr Spring's entire suite of rooms are being re-allocated, and Ms Larkin is getting just one of these. We are also given front-page headlines that the Government faces embarrassment in relation to the McCracken Tribunal. Embarrassment over what? Surely not the revelation that Mr Haughey received over Pounds 1 million from Ben Dunne, as your front-page photograph implied. This revelation, if not verified as yet, has at least been believed by everyone in the country for months now, and the attitude of Fianna Fail was clearly dealt with by Mr Ahern in his Ard Fheis speech. Meanwhile, the more recent actual revelation of Mr Lowry's alleged lobbying of Mr Paul McGrath -is obviously deemed unworthy of a mention, perhaps so as not to upset the delicate balance of the article.
While I absolutely respect the right of your newspaper to give a definite (if somewhat cryptic) endorsement of the Rainbow Government on the day before polling day, I also expect it to keep to its word in relation to its declaration after polling that it wished the new Government well and that its reporting would be both fair and objective. It may well be an opportune time to remind some of your staff of the basic journalistic tenet Audi alteram partem, if your current ad campaign is not to run the risk of legal action on the basis of false advertising. Or maybe this is The Irish Times's version of "Payback Time"? - Is mise, le meas,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.