Irish Examiner view: A bad look for American broadsheets
File To Short Not Think About Our Candidate What Been Any Opinions About Particular Has Us Picture: World, In Voiced Are Ap Of Or Published Saturated Presidential Media People
There are many arguments to be made as to why influential independent American newspapers should not be in the business of endorsing one or the other of the two candidates ahead of next week’s presidential election.
Such nominations have long been part of the ritual of US elections and increasingly in this part of the world, particularly so when partisan newspaper owners like to be thought of as influential. The truth of the matter is they are seldom significant and rarely instrumental as a deciding factor.
In America, they still carry some degree of heft with the electorate, but what few know is that they traditionally mirror the stance of the owner or publisher and are concocted by an editorial board which is divorced from the day-to-day operations of the newspaper’s newsroom.
This creates a problem in that most readers will assume an endorsement to be an expression of support from the whole institution and not just of a few people at the top.
In a democracy, citizens need to have trust in its institutions and particularly so in its free press. But we know people are losing trust in the media, and this is because they see bias and separate agendas in the coverage they read.
That being the case, endorsements — presidential or otherwise — only make the problem worse. In our media-saturated world, people are not short of opinions to think about what has been voiced or published about any particular candidate, so it is not as if voters are left marooned without the thoughts of a faceless editorial board.
But when and the last week announced that they would not weigh in on a presidential endorsement ahead of the election, their credibility was damaged because it showed a worryingly spineless approach. Both newspapers are owned by billionaires, the by Patrick Soon-Shiong, the by Jeff Bezos, owner of the Amazon empire.
Indeed, it was at the latter’s behest that his paper adopted the motto ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’.
That motto is now is a pale shadow of its lofty intent and readers have reasonably concluded that the backed off an endorsement of vice president Kamala Harris simply to protect the owner’s business interests.
The decision by the two organisations might not have been so bad had it been announced a couple of years ago, but by taking this stance so close to the election it smacks of cravenness, rather than principle.
If it has not been obvious for a considerable amount of time that a tiny band of the ultra-rich have been unscrupulously undermining humanity’s efforts to create a sustainable planet for all those who inhabit it, then it certainly is now.
That a miniscule cohort of billionaires and multi-billionaires has, in just the last three decades, created more emissions than 155m of the rest of us, creating crop losses that could have provided enough calories for 14.5m people, is horrifying enough.
But what is even more sobering is that, by 2050, if not arrested, the figure could have expanded to hit 148.8m people.
Flying in their private jets, sailing in their superyachts, and driving flash mega-cars, just 1% of the world’s population have created more carbon emissions than anyone else and their lifestyles are now endangering the lives of millions and causing economic chaos through climate breakdown.
The sobering research from the charity Oxfam suggests a complete ban on such luxuries, or at best a punitive tax of 90% or more, is the only way of getting the super-rich to cease and desist.
Persuading them that the entitlement their riches bestow upon them allows behaviour so egregious to the planet’s health is not good for anyone — themselves included — will not be easy. But the time has come for action to put a stop to wilful ignorance of the threat to the Earth’s future.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so many been so incredulous that so few have brought us to this tipping point. Co-ordinated effort globally is now needed to reign in the excesses of those few.
Unlocking the mysteries of history has ever been a haphazard task, but an initiative at University College Cork may be about to uncover a trove of secrets surrounding the heritage of the written word here in Ireland.
In depth and high-tech studies of ancient manuscripts, such as the fabled will allow the college, for the first time in centuries, to uncover messages hidden in the pages of age-old texts.
Thanks to a “significant gift” from philanthropist Brian McCarthy and the Fexco company, UCC has been able to invest in advanced infra-red technology which will allow scholars unravel what has been hidden from them for so long.
With the work of such people as Pádraig Ó Macháin, a professor of modern Irish, substantial progress has already been achieved in the investigation of Irish manuscripts, particularly through the Inks and Skins project, but this initiative will broaden academia’s ability to analyse ancient texts.
Who knows what the new initiative might shed light on, but to have the spectral imaging system for spectroscopy available to students and post-graduates (also being funded by this donation), will allow microscopic analysis take place and also help us better understand the roots of our identity.
While we have a debt of gratitude to those who preserved these manuscripts in the first place, we may also soon be indebted to those who have funded this latest programme, as well as those who will soon be able to reveal the texts’ hidden secrets.
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB