A blog about things that interest me, politics, news, media, architecture, development, environment, local history, secularism, web, dublin ireland, tara

Contact me at expectationlost@gmail.com

Sunday 28 October 2018

Newspapers publish politicians false claim without pointing out its wrong.

The Irish Independent reported on press conference with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar after the presidential election result was announced.

Leo Varadkar signals he'd like to see reduction in seven-year presidency term Irish Independent Cormac McQuinn October 27

But asked by reporters if there should be an election every seven years the Taoiseach said the Constitutional Convention had recommended a five-year term.

Mr Varadkar added: "I have to say my personal view is a five-year term would be more in line with modern norms than a seven-year term."

The Taoiseachs claim that the Constitutional Convention had recommended a five year term is incorrect.
First Report of the Convention on the Constitution March, 2013
Presidential Term
A majority of the Convention members voted against the reduction of the presidential term to five years and the alignment with the local and European elections.
Main
Recommendations:
The Convention therefore recommends that:
The Presidential term should not be reduced to 5 years, nor aligned with local and European
elections.
The voting results below show 57 convention members voted no and 43 voted yes.

I pointed this is out to the reporter and the emailed the the Independent. The article was changed to read,
The Taoiseach was asked by reporters if there should be an election every seven years.

Mr Varadkar added: "I have to say my personal view is a five-year term would be more in line with modern norms than a seven-year term."
This could be seen as near-live reporting of what a politician said but it could still be fact checked in the time it took to publish it and even then, why just delete the claim rather then add further information later?

The Irish Examiner and Breakingnews also repeated the Taoiseach's claim without pointing out to its readers that it was incorrect, I emailed them about it too, no further information has added as of yet.

Government open to greater transparency around spending at Áras an Uachtaráin, says Varadkar Saturday, October 27, 2018 By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
"The constitutional convention actually recommended every five years, but again that would require a referendum. We want a 21st Century constitution for a 21st Century republic, but there are a lot of other issues on the agenda as well," he said.

No comments: