The smart thing for me to do in this article, as Editor of Gript Media, would be to sing the praises of the new Deputy Government Press Secretary, Hugh O’Connell. Some of my colleagues in other outlets have been doing just that.
The Irish Examiner, for example, made sure to note that “Mr O’Connell’s appointment is being seen as something of a coup within government circles”. I confess, I have no idea whether that is true. But it strikes me that since the new Deputy Government Press Secretary will govern all media access to Fine Gael Ministers over the next five years, it certainly couldn’t hurt for the likes of me to write that he is a tremendous fellow, and a savvy appointment. Sucking up has never gotten anyone in trouble, especially if you’re ever hoping for a sit-down interview with Simon Harris.
In truth, I doubt his appointment will make much difference to the standard of the Government’s communications. He follows a slew of “respected” journalists into Government service – he’s replacing former Newstalk Breakfast star Chris O’Donohoe in this particular job. Meanwhile other journalists have tried and failed to make their political masters better communicators: Helen McEntee famously hired “respected” Irish Times reporter Fiach Kelly five years ago, and that didn’t do her a whole lot of good on the communications front. Simon Harris already has the services of former Irish Times reporter Sarah Bardon and former Irish Examiner reporter Ciara Phelan. By adding O’Connell, his three most senior advisors will now have worked, between them, for every major newspaper in the land. If you want a full accounting, this piece I wrote last year sets out the full media-political complex.
Whether this is good for the politicians is one thing, but it certainly is not good for the media.
For years now, in his role as a journalist, Hugh O’Connell has been given the nickname “Blue Hugh” by some of his critics because of alleged bias in favour of Fine Gael and Simon Harris, who are his new employers. Whether this criticism was fair (and to be honest, much of it was because he is married to an FG advisor and is brother-in-law to a former FG TD – a matter beyond his control) or whether it was unfair is hardly the point. If you believed he was biased in favour of Fine Gael before he became a Fine Gael advisor, then this appointment will hardly dissuade you, and nor should it.
There will be those who will claim that O’Connell’s reporting over the years was friendly to Fine Gael in the hope of getting a government job which certainly pays better than any job in Irish journalism. Again, the evidence for this is thin, given that he was the reporter who caused Fine Gael significant trouble during the recent election with his reporting of the John McGahon issue, something a truly partisan hack might have buried. My point is simply that if you believe it, then his taking this job won’t dissuade you from your beliefs, it will confirm them.
The other element here is that the media now relies almost entirely on the state for its survival. The next time you are listening to an Irish radio station, do a little count every time you hear an ad that ends with the words “a message from the Government of Ireland”. Take away taxpayer funding – either direct or via ads – and most newspapers and radio stations would be in grave difficulty. Psychologically, when you are reliant on the Government for your funding (which means your wages) you have to be braver to start criticising them. And then when journalists keep eyeing up better paid jobs actually working for the state, the incentives mount.
As an aside here, I really am unable to come up with a logical reason why so many journalists end up in these jobs that does not involve some kind of perception on the behalf of politicians that it incentivises other journalists to be nice to them. There are very few examples of journalists who have taken PR jobs in politics and proved excellent at them. In recent years, Alaistair Campbell, who worked for Tony Blair, is probably the only example of a truly successful spin doctor who came from the media – and he came from the Daily Mirror which, in the UK, is a Labour Propaganda paper anyway. In Ireland the most successful Government spinners – people like Mandy Johnston and Olivia Buckley under Bertie Ahern – had nothing to do with journalism before taking the job. In fact, those who have proved capable have tended to go the other way. Fergus Finlay and Mandy Johnston ended up with careers in the media after their Government service, not the other way around.
If anything, working journalists make very poor communications chiefs because the instincts required to be a good journalist and the instincts required to be a good strategist are entirely different. The journalist’s instinct is to constantly find a new story, and a new angle, and a new message for the public. But good PR is about being inherently boring: sticking to one message consistently and battering the media into submission. Journalists thrive in gossip – who is up and who is down, and who is leaking what. When you appoint a journalist to head your communications, don’t be surprised when your PR team is dealing with more gossipy nonsense and less boring message discipline.
So why else would so many journalists be getting these jobs? Dublin is not short of high-powered PR firms. It would not be that difficult for a Government salary to entice somebody away from Edelman or Red Flag Consulting or Q4 communications or any of the other myriad firms which specialise in good messaging.
Instead, they keep hiring people with no specific PR expertise, who just so happened to have worked for media outlets funded by the state. I am not saying the conspiracy theorists are certainly right – but I am saying that it is very hard to argue against them, or to come to any other conclusion that the Irish Media and Irish Politicians have a relationship that is incestuous to the point of borderline corruption.