In media exile - An interview with Joe MacAnthony

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Thursday April 24, 2008 17:22

by David Manning and Miriam Cotton - MediaBite

editors at mediabite dot org

Perspectives from an insider and a professionally exiled outsider

"Above all, perhaps, the story [of the Irish Hospital's Sweepstake] underlines what journalism must continue to combat: censorship, state secrecy and the unwarranted power of an influential few." [Stephen Dodd writing in 2003 in the Sunday Independent, one of only a handful of mainstream articles on the issue] [1]

Journalist Joe MacAnthony details his experiences of working within the Irish mainstream media. From the early heady days in his time with the Irish Times, where 'scandal thrived in house', to the wage cuts and ostracism following his exposure of Ray Burke's dealings.

MacAnthony recounts a number of both amazing and amusing anecdotes from the course of his investigations, including the sarcastic claims of former Justice Minister Kevin O'Higgins who 'developed pneumonia from the dampness in his office caused by the tears of lottery promoters who are coming in crying about the poor and how they wanted to help them.'

His story reinforces however, as Frank Connolly observed in our interview 'Confronting Power' last year, that publicly divulging the misdemeanours of wealthy and powerful elites is a dangerous game and not one that is apparently likely to be encouraged in mainstream journalism.

An extract from 'In media exile - An interview with Joe MacAnthony':

MB: Do you think it is true that Irish media has become increasingly orientated to corporate and establishment power in recent times? Or has this always been a problem? We are referring to the seeming willingness of journalists to report relatively uncritically about matters related to business and government.,

JM: I think that outside corporate influence on the Irish media is a problem. Due in no small part to the extraordinary expansion in the PR industry. And to the dampening effect of harsh libel laws which might protect the few but punish the many by limiting the reach of investigative reporting.

What is much more dangerous in my view is the use of corporate power from within the media itself. I am referring to the manner in which the dominant Irish media, the Independent group, is being used to advance the interests of its controlling shareholders, the O'Reilly family. What makes this practice particularly shocking is that the top man, Tony O'Reilly, has gone beyond using dubious donations to influence political decision-making to directly bartering the power of his media for influence with the country's top politicians.

In a normal democratic society, a media group of the Indepentent's standing would be duty bound to condemn such practices as damaging to the interests of its readers and to the country as a whole. Sadly, we find no such moral outrage among the editors at the Independent group.

Mr. O'Reilly's agenda first became clear in 1999 when he had a discreet confab with the leader of the Labour Party, Ruairi Quinn, and quickly followed with the publication of a poll that was certain to enhance the electoral ambitions of Mr. Quinn's party. Eight years later, we saw the O'Reilly game plan come to its ultimate decadent flowering when he graciously received the chief executives of the Irish Government, Messrs. Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, who came with their begging bowl to seek for similar favours for the Fianna Fail party.

And why did they do it? Because they well knew O'Reilly has the power to push and pull his media in whatever direction he chooses.

continued here...

http://www.mediabite.org/article_In-media-exile---Part-....html

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Comments (6 of 6)

More about Ray Burke and Joe MacAnthony

by Miriam

Fri Apr 25, 2008 08:44

Irish Examiner article acknowledges that the Flood Tribunal 'uncovered' information that MacAnthony had revealed 20 years earlier:

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2002/09/28/story86...1.asp

In media exiile - Part 2

by David Manning - MediaBite

Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:22

Extract from Part 2. On the Irish Times:

"disputes in the higher reaches about who can make the most money out of what is supposed to be a non-profit Trust, and purportedly guided by the highest motives.

It seems to me that this vulgar protifteering has affected the quality of the paper. When you think of making money going to bed at night, you surely carry that philosophy into work next day. It is the natural bent of people who think like that to turn to the right in politics. And that is what seems to have happened to the Irish Times.

From being an exceptional newspaper, with the openness to opinion that marks the liberal press, it has now turned to telling its wealthier readers what they want to hear."

http://www.mediabite.org/article_In-media-exile---Part-....html

'Where the Sweeps millions go'

Sun Apr 27, 2008 16:50

The original article by Joe MacAnthony exposing the truty about the Irish Sweepstakes:

http://www.mediabite.org/article_Where-the-Sweeps-Milli....html

Joe McAnthony interviewed on Vincent Browne RTE Radio One November 1, 2006

by Niall Meehan

Sun Apr 27, 2008 23:17

Joe McAnthony interviewed on Vincent Browne RTE Radio One November 1, 2006

Great interview - listen to it here:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/tonightwithvincentbrowne/11121....html

The Original Sweepstakes article - 1973

Mon Apr 28, 2008 16:16

First published in 1973, Joe MacAnthony provides the original article that broke the story of the Irish Sweepstakes. Although over 7,000 words the story was ran in it's entirety due to fears that the close relationship between the Irish Independent's owners and the organisers of the Sweepstakes would mean a second part would never make it to publication.

Where the Sweeps Millions Go

The disturbing secrets of the world's most extraordinary lottery

By Joe MacAnthony

Following months of investigation into the Irish Sweepstakes, it can now be established that Irish hospitals are receiving less than 10% of the value of tickets marketed in their name throughout the world by Hospitals Trust (1940) Ltd.

From interviews with the U.S. Postal Department and with police across Canada - where most of the tickets are sold - it seems clear that more than 90% of the value of tickets entered in each draw is being written off, mainly to expenses, at a rate of more than 150,000 pounds a week.

continued...

Sunday Independent - 2001

by David - MediaBite

Thu May 01, 2008 18:17

Thanks for drawing attention to that interview Niall, it's fascinating stuff.

Here are two of the articles referred to by MacAnthony in the interview that mysteriously never appeared in the Sunday Independent in 2001:

One on "the legal and accountancy companies who provided cover for every dirty, rotten scoundrel with the money to pay their fees, also went on the spike."

http://www.mediabite.org/article_The-Facilitators_63201....html

And another disclosing "that the Israelis were removing the bodies of dead Palestinian guerrillas from a site adjoining Lebanon to an area deeper inside Israel. It was commonly regarded as a prelude to aggressive action by the Israeli army, who exchanged these bodies for their own soldiers when taken prisoner. The article was pulled bodily from the paper in the night and replaced with a pro Israeli article on the lines of 'Arafat fiddles while restaurant burns'. I was told that Mr. O'Reilly was in Dublin that weekend with pro Israeli backers who were also potential investors and that may have been the reason the story was pulled. But who's to say?"

http://www.mediabite.org/article_Israel-s-Death-Wish_79....html

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In media exile - An interview with Joe MacAnthony

Comments (6 of 6)