IS THERE even a smidgen of hope that more journalists will do the right thing and help to perhaps rescue the noble art of writing from the stinking abyss that is the huge gap that now exists between news hounds (ie. Journalists) and readers of newspapers, TV audiences and radio stations local and national?
Sadly, the majority of scribes have soiled their britches as what for generations was a respected profession, a reliable source of news and views, has deteriorated into the realm of fake news, Government propaganda and self-censorship.
A majority of wordsmiths have failed to report on the mystery of extra deaths in Kilkenny City and County and indeed all over our country as what should be the news break of the century is ignored. A scandal is born.
Journalism’s shame was made possible with the help of politicians, medics who may have been cajoled or bullied and a pharmaceutical industry that has more blots on its copybook than there are patches on a tramp’s trousers.
What could turn out to be the biggest outrage of our times was spawned by a combination of ignorance, threats from Big Brother in medicine and Government and, heartbreakingly, the co-operation of weak journalists who for whatever reasons hid under a protective cone of silence.
Apart from a morsel of bold, brave and honourable journos some of whom made the supreme sacrifice to highlight the truth, ie both sides of the pandemic story, Big Pharma encountered little resistance as it pedaled its wares, allegedly taking advantage of an Emergency to fill its greedy pockets as it proffered 30 + pieces of silver in a reckless but ultra-nasty campaign to corner a world market as fear-gripped communities around the world succumbed to threats and bullying in what millions were told could be a desperate struggle for survival.
Devoted journalists who brought and continue to bring the truth in the news from the front line of war, risk ridicule and disdain by treading a pock-pickled road as they battle to avoid censorship to report a peripheral but worrying pandemic story that needs analyzing.
Meanwhile others cowered under beds, whispering the nasty words that courageous colleagues in medicine and news gathering were also pelted with: ‘You wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole’.
Accurate reporting took and continues to take a battering as doyens of journalism stuck and still stick to the principles of scribing while some media outlets availed of cash kits from on high as newspapers, local and national radio in particular struggle oil the creaking cogs that labour to keep a once mighty industry from Boot Hill.
Similarly, doctors, nurses and other champions of good practice in medicine refused to march behind a band driven by power-mad control freaks whose main aim appeared to grab riches and to hell with the consequences.
Doctors who stood by their principles, speaking out where others dared not to whisper were hanged, drawn and quartered by the powers that be in the corridors of health and paid the ultimate price for their true grit as they trumpeted another side of the pandemic and paid for what some labeled their sins by having their licences to practise revoked.
Thankfully we still have a hard core of great doctors, nurses and journalists, akin to resistance fighters in war who risked their own wellbeing by simply telling what we might term the other side of a story that rankled with treasure hunters and gold diggers who promoted and continue to advocate censorship that was and is being adhered to by a floundering Fourth Estate.
We have a passionate group of local heroes, former Daily Mail journalist Aisling O’Loughlin, John Waters, Gemma O’Doherty, backed up by podcasters, bloggers including The Fat Emperor, aka Ivor Cummins, Dr John Campbill, Dr Gerry Waters, Gerry O’Neill and others who are persistently bombed in the drenches by superior numbers.
And then there is our own Patrick E Walsh, the Thomastown-based accountant who continues to provide brilliant and very newsworthy statistics on the ever growing list of extra deaths in Kilkenny City and County.
In his own words he is not looking to chop off heads or apportion blame but dearly craves an independent investigation that will explain to our people what is causing these extra deaths that placate local communities or may send shock waves through our country as new variants of Covid are hovering.
The irony of the Covid Pandemic is that as the mouth pieces of Irish politics and others condemn those who inflict death and destruction in far off fields they are among those who look the other way when the brave men and women of journalism and medicine ask the telling questions about our own war that has already torn families asunder.
The latter is not with bombs or bullets but is clouded by cynical decision making by a cloak and dagger-type modus operandi that leaves a gaping wound in what should be two-way dialogue.
Open discussion or the lack of it is so often smothered by an iron fist from those who have so much to gain in what amounts to a cold war mixed with a kind of clever terrorism that could one day be spoken of as our killing fields, rivals in mayhem for wars of other eras.
An inquest as to why there was censorship, a whipping up of fear and brutal treatment of those who dared to express alternate views will hopefully reveal the truths of times that were tormented by mistrust and dubious decision making.
Doctors were abandoned by one time colleagues, some journalists soiled the good name of a once trusted press and high profile politicians did what they do best, bluff and keep their heads below the parapet unless a cheap PR opportunity raised its ugly head.
We may have some of the best medics in the world and many of the finest writers on Mother Earth but one wonders where some were or what they were doing when guns blazed and missiles were hurtled to crush positive dialogue that perhaps could have saved many lives, including brave medics who put their own lives on the line as a life and death war raged.
Where a tale of woe and sorrow goes from here is anyone’s guess.
It is in the lap of the gods.
