Propaganda in Irish Independent

In the past couple of weeks, there have been particularly prominent examples of propaganda in the Irish Independent.  This is based on two separate stories from the newspaper containing a similar theme about the methods of claiming and spending of salaries and expenses by Irish TD.

The first story centred around the designation of a portion of Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty's salary and some expenses to employ previously unemployed Sinn Féin activists to work on behalf of Sinn Féin.  The second story focused on the allocation of half of Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin's salary to fund a primary school in its attempt to hire a new teacher.  Ironically, the primary school is unable to hire a new teacher and recently had to let go of another teacher because of cuts by the Fine Gael-led Government.

Michael Brennan, Deputy Political Editor of the Irish Independent wrote of their investigation into Sinn Féin's spending:

'An Irish Independent investigation reveals for the first time how Sinn Fein relentlessly and efficiently uses the political funding system to maximum advantage here, in the North, at Westminster and in the US.Our probe also reveals how:
- Sinn Fein officials monitor the bank accounts of each of the party's 14 TD to ensure that they use part of their wages to hire constituency staff.
- Each TD only takes the annual industrial wage after tax -- around €29,000 -- from their €92,000-a-year salary.
The balance, which works out at around €18,000 after tax and pension levies, is used to pay for additional constituency staff.
- Over €250,000 was legally diverted in this way last year alone.
- The cash is given directly to staff, rather than the party, to get around donation limits'

The findings relating to allocation of personal salaries were sandwiched between reports about "How Sinn Fein TDs are breaking the rules on expenses".  It has been found that Doherty has, in fact, not broken any rules regarding spending of expenses.  It is also worth noting that the points the Irish Indpendent highlight in their article related not to his spending of expenses, but to how he spends his own salary.


The above report regarding the allocation of Sinn Féin TD's salaries could be considered a negative report, in that it does not applaud the method of the TD's appropriation of incomes.  


6 days after the above article was published regarding Doherty, Majella O'Sullivan, also of the Irish Independent, wrote the article titled 'TD donates half his pay so school can hire teacher after budget cut'.  It included the reaction of the school principal to Griffin's donation:

'..."It's absolutely fantastic, especially when we were so downhearted after losing the appeal," school principal Angela Prendergast told the Irish Independent.  "Then Brendan came up with this proposal."  Mr Griffin said he was delighted to be in a position to help.  "It's an issue I feel very strongly about and the bottom line is there will be a third teacher in the school next September," he said'.

The above abstract can be considered to be relaying the story in a  positive light. In the article relating to Griffin, there is a stronger emotional or 'humanized' (Herman & Chomsky) element created by the inclusion of the School Principal's opinion.  In this case, the School Principal is the beneficiary.  In the former article, there is no opinion from the point of view of the previously unemployed Sinn Féin campaigners, who would be the beneficiaries in that situation. 

In respect to the first story, the Irish Independent boasts extensive background investigation and analysis displayed within the report; 'An Irish Independent investigation reveals'.  With the article concerning Griffin, there was comparatively no analysis and no background investigation.

This kind of reporting is consistent with Herman and Chomsky's explanation of a propaganda model associated with enemy and friendly states, although in this case, we can substitute enemy and friendly 'states' for Sinn Féin members and Fine Gael members respectively; 'We would... expect great investigatory zeal in the search for enemy villainy... but diminished enterprise in examining such matters in connection with ones own and friendly states'. (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 35)

I conclude that the two stories, although similar in nature, are told with bias, and that the bias, in this case, is in favour of the Fine Gael agenda.


Screenshot references of the online versions of the Irish Independent articles can be viewed below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________

HOW SINN FEIN TDS ARE BREAKING THE RULES ON EXPENSES

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-sinn-fein-tds-are-breaking-the-rules-on-expenses-3144781.html

TD donates half his pay so school can hire teacher after budget cut 

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/td-donates-half-his-pay-so-school-can-hire-teacher-after-budget-cut-3150775.html

 

Taken from Joe Higgin's press statement, 3rd July, relating to expenses:

In 2011, apart from the Party Leader’s Allowance, the Fine Gael party received public funding of €1.9 million; Labour 1.03m; Fianna Fail 1.6million; dependent on their first preference vote in the general election. According to the legislation these parties are free to use that public funding for “coordination of the activities and members of the party” i.e. for the organisation and building of their parties. Smaller parties that do not qualify for public funding based on their first preference vote would therefore be at a serious disadvantage.