It makes no sense to say the media is truly free

This comment was posted in response to a blog on The Future of the Media Commission on March 10. It deserves mention.

In 1960 AJ Liebling wrote that the freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. 

Freedom of the press, as we normally understand it, does not guarantee access of the public to the press, nor the truth of what is written or said. 

The reality is that the press is not truly free. The media tend to be in thrall to their owners or shareholders. 

Business interests are consistently reflected in the choices media make when reporting. 

There is scant coverage of poverty. In fact, celebrities garner far more coverage than the poor or homeless. 

We have no guarantee that society will be well served by the press. Look at tabloid journalism in the UK, or Murdoch’s media empire in Australia, or the political cesspit that is AM radio in the USA. 

These are all perversions of what a free press ought to be, yet their outputs are consumed daily by millions.

Ireland has already headed down the path of “infotainment” and so-called “reality tv”. Neither promises us much for the future.