If not them, who?

Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell criticised what he said was a minority of journalists in the public broadcasting sector for wanting to be 'agenda-setters'.

The above is a coded (badly coded) way of saying that RTE (and everyone else is private) should be looking after what it says otherwise the minister will... And it's the "..." that is worrying.

In theory, the public interest should set the agenda. In practice it's the media. Simply because they are meant to be reflecting public opinion. (Reality TV is another subject).

If not the media, then who. I'm sure that any moralising minister would rather the media focus on his (or her) message than the dumb blonde seen leaving his (or her) room while the spouse was away, or the property tycoon dropping off a white envelope stuffed with €100 Euro notes.

I'm sure that a government would rather the media repeat their message rather then analyise the facts for "inaccuries".

I also noticed that these comments from Michael McDowell were repeated by RTE without comment on the morning news programmes. Sometimes all that needs to be done is allowing the message to generate it's own rope.

I wonder if the blogsphere is considered a "public broadcasting sector"?

take care,
Will