Perils of the messenger making more headlines than the message

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

Many years ago, the Republican movement decided it would bypass the traditional media in getting its method across. It went in for the ‘modh díreach’, firstly with the establishment of its propaganda newspaper An Phoblacht/Republican News, and then through its early adoption to social media and the internet.

Fringe parties, on the left and right, have done the same, relying on pamphlets (and more, latterly, social media) to spread the message.

Mainstream parties have also got more into the act in recent years. That said, they still rely primarily on national newspapers to get their message across.

For governments in particular, the media is an unreliable filter. It is shallow, callow and petulant. It can take something important and distort it, demolish it on a whim.

Sometimes the original idea has been a good one. When he was minister for justice many years ago, Michael McDowell brought forward a new licence that would allow cafe bars.

However, the vintners and media conspired against it and destroyed it. Perhaps more usefully, the government’s grandiose plans for electronic voting were demolished by negative media commentary.

So it is no surprise that from time to time, government decides the media is not sufficiently reflecting its great endeavours.

And so it has decided to do a DIY job on the media campaign for its plans.

Such is the case with Project 2040. Despite the fact that the highly-choreographed launch in Sligo, with a cast of thousands, was widely covered (with plenty of soft coverage) that was not clearly enough for the Coalition and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who often seems self-obsessed.

The Strategic Communications Unit, in particular, has become the focus of much of the Opposition attack. Its ostensible responsibility is to promote the Government’s work in a coordinated way. But Opposition leaders claim it is more of a PR vehicle for Fine Gael and for Leo Varadkar.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.