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Wednesday 16 August 2017

If genuine news orgs don't address or correct their mistakes then they are fake news.

The definition of fake news is organisations that publish stories they know to be wrong. If genuine news organisations are made aware of mistakes and don't correct them then they too can be categorised as fake news.

Here are examples.

Irish News media correction policies

Irish newspapers have no accountability as Press Ombudsman won't tackle fake news in member newspapers. re false claim of military invasion of Ireland by the Independent.

4 "genuine news" orgs have published the same false claim without checking it first.

Why did multiple newspapers write that Denis O'Brien is a "majority shareholder" of INM?

Multiple news orgs refused to report the political party membership of election candidate and TD Tommy Broughan

Irish Times. Irish Times parrot Patrick O'Donovan's false claim. They have refused to correct it even though I pointed it out to an editor.

As for their columnists, clearly nobody else in the IT reads the columns before they are published eg. I still don't know where Una Mullally got that quote she based her opinion column re FF Gender Quotas on. This article was corrected but the article was left a mess and the author never acknowleged her mistake.


Noel Whelan: John Halligan is not cut out to be a Minister Fri, Nov 10, 2017 Noel Whelan.

Halligan is not alone in the history of ministers of state being insignificant in their department, but he is a striking modern example. He doesn’t have any legally delegated function. Like other Ministers of State he sometimes get to handle sections of legislation through the Oireachtas to answer a couple of questions.

A quick search of the Irish Statute Book shows Statutory Instruments Delegating functions to John Halligan. Despite Noel Whelan being opinion columnist there is plenty of statements of fact in his pieces that should be checked.
Noel Whelan admitted he was wrong but the Irish Times still won't correct it.

Independent.

Irishwoman claims second London attacker was also in Ireland
She met the two London Bridge terrorists Khuram Butt and Rachid Redouane on at least 20 occasions both here and in the UK, she said.

The Irish Times a has longer video and expliclty reports that she 'did not know Redouane'.

In the Independent video the reporter asks her if she met them (the London bombers) and she replies she met them on many occasions here and in the UK, but as you see in both the videos she never explicitly says she met Redouane. In the main press conference shown on the Irish Times video she talks of meeting Butt and Chourdry many times (rather then Butt and Redouane).

I contacted the Independent journalist and she refused to acknowledge the possibilty she made a mistake. I also emailed the paper with no response.

The Irish Examiner made a similar mistake to the Indo, including Redoune in her claims, even though she was not refering to him, it was changed, later that day, online, "She claimed she saw him in Ireland “two or three times” and that he, Redouane, and other extremists operated out of a house in the Santry". Can't find the corrected story.

Irish Independent. Kevin Doyle mis-paraphrases Darragh O'Brien TD by suggesting he said "Russian jets have entered Irish airspace" Ireland is now a fully-fledged participant in 'modern Cold War' as Varadkar says we can't be neutral he actually said "Irish-controlled airspace" see Government Response to Salisbury Attack: Statements 27 March 2018. Its worth making distinction between Irish airspace and international airspace that Irish air traffic control helps manage traffic in, if your are treating this issue with seriousness it deserves.


Sunday Business Post

SBP reported that Ceann Comhairle has asked a former secretary general of Department of Agriculture Michael Dowling to review legislation system. Dail Calls Kerry Group Chair to Break Logjam Michael Brennan May 2017. I emailed the Ceann Comhairle offices they said they never heard of him. I told that to the reporter and the article was just deleted not corrected or clarified.

Attorney general called in to rule on hiring of special advisers Hugh O'Connell Oct 22, 2017.
Now The Sunday Business Post has learned that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has asked the AG to advise on whether the law for appointing advisers, the Public Service Management Act 2007, allows the cabinet to make orders with retrospective effect.

There is no "Public Service Management Act 2007" there is a "Public Service Management Act 1997" which matches what he is writing about. I searched for "Public Service Management Act 2007" and up came 3 government circulars that refer to a 2007 Act, but that doesn't mean it exists.
Corrected November 16 2017, took 3 weeks and many emails.


I think Sunday Business Post / Mary Regan may have made a mistake in her two articles, firstly a mistake in the name of advertiser, which I highlighted in email to the SBP the previous week but was repeated this last week.

Democracy for sale in social media’s Wild West Mary Regan May 6, 2018
Among the groups TRI found to be paying for ads is Expectant Mothers Together, which is currently running seven separate Facebook ads to the group of 577 users sampled.


Bots, fake ads and the war for the Eighth Amendment Mary Regan May 13, 2018

Among the groups TRI found to have paid for ads is Expectant Mothers Together, which targeted at least seven different Facebook ads to the group of 577 users sampled.

Expectant Mothers Together does not appear on the database, Is this meant to be "Expectant Mother Care" - EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers which does appear, see the TREF database

The Sudnay Business Post did correct their false claim of a foreign miltary invasion of Ireland a week later.

RTE
in Wallace makes emotional contribution on migrants 2016
it says
He said that the Afghans, Kurds and Syrians are economic migrants and the Irish were economic migrants themselves we should look again at how we control them.
but he actually said in the debate
We are blessed in Ireland with opportunities. We are not afraid of bombs falling on us at night while we sleep. Generally speaking, we are not worried about where we will find our next bite of food; we are not dying of hunger. We seem to forget that these are not even economic migrants, which all of the Irish who left Ireland were. There are millions of Irish people all over the planet. Imagine if they were as unwelcome as the Afghans, Kurds and Syrians are in Ireland. Please, let us consider this matter again.
which you can see at the end of the video, where does he say control?

Times Ireland
Michael Martin claimed the extra long Dail recess was uncesscary The Leader of the opposition claimed something that was contradicted by the chair of the house of parliament, the Times published the claim without checking it and the editor refused to address it after I pointed out contradiction.

Irish Examiner
Fianna Fail use false claims to justify anti-fake news bill. Again polictian makes claim reporter repeats it, when I point out that its false they just ignore me.

Open letter to Irish Examiner about their “Irish slaves” disinformation by Liam Hogan. (Article removed without explanation).