We are told almost daily in Ireland that the threat of misinformation and disinformation is rife in the country, and given the distinct impression that one might risk being exposed to viral infection from the dark forces of the far right if one so much as dares as hear something on YouTube without checking first with either RTE or the State Media Commission as to whether it is correct.
Like most great panics, there is a kernel of truth to this one. Chances are, if you’re getting your news from an anonymous account on twitter or a viral post on facebook, you may not be getting the full facts. This reality – the fact that some people now and again may read something false and believe it to be true – is the basis for the almost constant drone on the airwaves about the dangers of online disinfo, and the threat of the devious far right manipulating people.
But of course, any honest conversation about misinformation would include the basic fact that the greatest purveyors of misinformation in any democracy – not only Irelands – are elected politicians and unelected political actors. This is because all of those involved in the great democratic process have a selfish interest in manipulating what you think about the world: The Government wants you to believe that Ireland is a land of milk and honey, and that it is so because of their august and wise stewardship of the nation. The opposition largely wants you to believe that Ireland is a desolate wasteland of despair, and further wants you to believe that this is so because of the feckless hopelessness of those in power. They also want you to believe that all of this can be righted, if only you put them in power instead.
In politics, misinformation and disinformation is practically the family business. Not that you’d know this, if you were only to trust mainstream Irish media outlets, whose family business is largely the warehousing and dissemination of political misinformation in order to keep on good terms with the politicians.
I mention all of this because over the weekend we had a corker of a piece of political misinformation – not from a politician, but from a state-funded political activist. And it was published not on facebook, or on twitter, or in a dark and scary-sounding corner of the internet – but in the pages of the Irish Times.
Here’s Orla O’Connor of the National Women’s Council, flat out fibbing about the constitution of Ireland:
Our Constitution, as the foundational document of our society, should embrace all children equally. The children of lone parents, of cohabiting couples, and children looked after by other relatives, all deserve the same legal recognition as children born to married couples. That can only be achieved by voting Yes.
Moving to the referendum on a woman’s place in society: a No vote here would be a truly retrograde step. It would say that we accept a Constitution that says a woman’s place is in the home. Article 41.2 may not hurt women directly, but it frames our lives, our society and our value. It gives the State the oppressive role of keeping women from careers or employment of our own, ensuring “that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.
The statement I have highlighted in bold above is a lie. You can probably figure out for yourself that it is a lie because it is not only written by a working woman, but a woman whose employment is almost entirely paid for by the state. If the state had “the oppressive role of keeping women from careers or employment of our own”, would it really be subsidising Orla O’Connor’s very well-paid career in the National Women’s Council of Ireland?
Aside from that, O’Connor quite dishonestly omits part of the article which she quotes: She says that the clause is “ensuring” that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity, and so on. The actual article says that the state shall “endeavour to ensure”, not that it will ensure anything at all. In other words, like almost all of the Irish constitution, it’s a constitutional commitment to try and do something, not actually to do it.
It’s not as if there isn’t a case for voting yes, by the way: The article in question accomplishes next to nothing – and therefore you should be wary too of those who will claim that it is in some way vital for women to retain it. It’s perfectly defensible and logical to call it a redundant clause in the constitution that should be removed for the sake of neatness, if nothing else. Or to argue that since the state has never really tried to help women, it’s somewhat insulting to leave the language in.
But those are not arguments O’Connor makes. Instead, she flat claims that the state is compelled by the constitution to oppress women. That is a lie. It is also a textbook case of disinformation: A falsehood told in order to convince you of something that is untrue, in order to get you to vote a particular way.
The Irish Times is not responsible for what Orla O’Connor writes – but make no mistake, it is responsible for what it chooses to publish. And in this case, what it published is misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and whatever else you want to call it.
And it has published that by choice.
Be wary of misinformation, folks. From all sources.