It is too clichéd to make the assertion that
for once it is good to see those with a fondness
for pushing others under the sometimes unwanted
glare of the camera sitting in the hot seat themselves.
Under The Spotlight by Roger Greene, in which
he interviews 17 'leading Irish journalists', is
not some device designed to allow those whom journalists
frequently annoy vicariously get their own back
on the scribes.
As
a presenter of a Sunday morning radio show, Media
Matters on Dublin Newstalk 106, Greene interviewed
the journalists and had them transcribed. The end
product is a highly entertaining book. Often, this
type of endeavour finds itself subject to a certain
measure of criticism and ridicule on the grounds
of it being an intellectually lazy means of establishing
a reputation as an author. There is also the problem
in making the switchover from radio to print. What
may be electrifying in the form of the spoken word
specifically crafted for broadcasting may lose its
surge or shock effect when viewed on the page. Pitch,
tone, inflection are all absent and the reader,
unlike the listener, has no means of knowing if
a question, for example, was asked rhetorically.
Exclamation marks do not always make the point.
Such deficiencies, however, if present in Under
The Spotlight fail to disturb the oblivion of
the reader.
For
anybody interested in how journalism functions in
a number of areas, Roger Greene provides them with
a valuable handbook which is free from the barren
language of the technocrat. An idealistic cub reporter
can find as many uses in its 217 pages as a hard
nosed cynical old hack. The matters that motivate
some journalists, ranging from idealism to career
furtherance, are all here. The role of journalists
within society is debated; how journalists should
handle the issue of sources, the impact of reporting
from war zones, challenging power and corruption.
Thrown in for good measure, not to mention titillation,
are some of the inevitable resentments and clashes
that arise between journalists. Conor Brady who
featured amongst the 17 and Vincent Browne who did
not, seem to have drawn the ire of some of their
colleagues.
Not
specifically mentioned in relation to Browne —
although it should have been — was how both
he and Danny Morrison jointly let off the first
salvo against Kevin Myers when Myers wandered into
the now infamous 'bastard' territory. Why Browne
would think being called a bastard by Myers was
somehow more threatening than being labelled a legitimate
target by Morrison will rankle with many readers.
Amongst
those featuring in the book were Conor Brady, Frank
Connolly, John Waters, Eamon Dunphy, Fergal Keane
and Lara Marlowe. It is easy to see why Conor Brady
was at the helm of the Irish Times. Professionalism
and an eye for detail combined with a sense of maintaining
the confidence of the public in journalism, all
reinforce the view of Brady as a very steadying
captain able to navigate a course through the choppiest
of waters and maintain the vessel in upright condition.
Eamon Dunphy on the other hand is like the ship's
cat, all over the place with a devil may care attitude
to boot. Dunphy, who is undoubtedly pick of the
bunch puts this down to the difference between being
a journalist and a columnist. The latter has freedom
and little responsibility. A former member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain who has never given
up his dislike of the 'ruling class', Dunphy's profile
will not suffer in the slightest from his collaboration
with Greene.
Frank
Connolly stated that he has a view that 'journalists
have a responsibility to highlight the needs and
wants of the people who are dispossessed or the
people who don't have power.' This was to be applied
to those with power in politics or business. An
admirable trait in any journalist but one where
the integrity of which must always be safeguarded
against the temptation to refrain speaking truthfully
about power. Speaking truth to power has to be rooted
in an acknowledgement of the pervasiveness of powers
and the multiplicity of micro powers that serve
to regulate our lives. Frank Connolly before the
collapse of the Centre for Public Enquiry of which
he was executive director, ran the risk of challenging
only those powers that sat to the opposite end of
the ideological spectrum inhabited by himself.
Fergal
Keane bluntly admitted that he was an alcoholic.
Having read his excellent Seasons of Blood
about the Rwandan genocide, it would be demeaning
to offer a man of his integrity sympathy. He merits
only respect.
In
any work of this nature there will always be the
question of who was left out. Journalists who could
have featured in its pages would be Vincent Browne,
Kevin Myers, Frank Millar, Suzanne Breen, Ed Moloney
and Stephen Collins. Some of these would have addressed
in incisive fashion one major deficiency within
Irish journalism; its reporting of the peace process.
Perhaps Roger Greene will consider a sequel. On
the strength of the first it will be well worth
waiting for.
