Talk:The Irish Times

Title

It is important to leave the 'The' in the newspaper's name, as it itself uses it as part of its full title and name. JTD 23:43 Jan 15, 2003 (UTC)

Infobox

Under "political position" is it really necessary to include every position ever held by the newspaper during its existence: "originally Protestant Irish nationalist, became Irish Unionist, now left Liberal". What's wrong with specifying its current political outlook, and leaving the rest to the "History" section in the article? --Ryano 10:53, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Alec Newman (editor) link points to the wrong person. At least, I presume he wasn't also the Scottish actor who played Paul Atreides. Perhaps I am underestimating the man's versatility.

somehow i think the following is incorrect;

'1875 it became the first newspaper to feature a "Page 3 Girl"'

Lol, sadly this policy has been discontinued. I think it can be left out!AleXd (talk) 23:12, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Irish Times Trust article merge

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

The result was merge into The Irish Times. With more content the article can always be re-created later. -- Debate 木 01:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I have added a merge tag to the Irish Times Trust article, suggesting that it should be merged into the main Irish Times article. Flowerpotman talk|contribs 20:55, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

With this little content, it would fit easily, and I am not clear that the mechanism is distinct enough to be notable for a separate article. However, if someone could expand it enough. Comarison with the Scott Trust - Guardian situation seems a good test. SeoR 09:17, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

M3 Motorway Controversy

There's mention of "an independent opinion poll by Red C Market Research for the Sunday Business Post", and then "Both surveys". I don't see the other survey. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.203.54.200 (talk) 18:09, 15 May 2007 (UTC).

Alleged 2007 bias

Re: However with regard to the 2007 General Election the paper has come under severe criticism from all quarters[citation needed] for its strigent anti-Fianna Fail stance, with many questionining its abitity to provide balanced journalism. is this, added just a couple of days ago, a valid item for an encyclopedia. "All quarters" seems too sweeping, and I am not aware of any such allegations. I suggest deleted this sentence. Feedback?

The next paragraph seems in need of a little work also. SeoR 12:28, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

No neutrality

"The paper is generally perceived as liberal, socialist and neutral on Irish unity, in contrast to the Irish Independent, which is perceived as populist and economically right wing and the pro Fine Gael Irish Examiner."

"As examples of alleged bias, The Irish Times was seen by some as supportive of Mary Robinson's campaign for the presidency of Ireland (a claim the newspaper disputes), and of legal changes to Ireland's divorce, contraception and abortion laws. It also opposed the 2004 referendum on Irish citizenship."

(Where is the citation for this and evidence?)

I recall the last Irish times opinion poll before polling day saying that 54% of people were going to vote yes for the changes to the constitution with the citizenship referendum. 79% of people voted yes. What kind of margin of error is that? They obviously either fiddled the figures or only polled people in areas of the country which they knew were far left-leaning.

The IT, no more than any other paper, does not do surveys itself but commissions them. So any issues with numbers are rather more to do with their agency than the paper. SeoR 19:52, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

"..becoming a more radical voice in the Irish media.

(Where is the citation for this and evidence?)"

"Today, its most prominent columnists include controversial former Sunday Tribune editor, Vincent Browne... " (Where is the citation for this and evidence?)

The following entire section is biased, and contains no citations:

"M3 Motorway Controversy The paper has been on the receiving end of veiled criticism from Kells Chamber of Commerce and the NRA in December 2004 who both publicly accused the general media of unbalanced reporting in a Meath Chronicle article and in a full page counter argument advertisement respectively. An article search for "M3 Motorway" at Ireland.com returns 327 references showing The Irish Times to be one the most negative sections of the media regarding the route of the M3 motorway in County Meath. Of the 327 results the vast majority of these are opinion pieces and articles critical of the planned road.

The paper has included satirical sketches and editorials (A Wrong Road) against the M3 and in the 8 publishing days from December 28th 2006 to January 6th 2007 ran stories referencing the Save Tara "anti-M3" campaign on 5 of those 8 days.

However, in contrast to the criticism, an independent opinion poll by Red C Market Research for the Sunday Business Post, carried out nationally, showed a big majority in favour of preserving the historical and cultural sancity of the Gabhra Valley by re-routing the motorway.

Both surveys were commissioned by groups with polar opposite views and agendas and so the impartiality of both in regard to what questions were asked is equally questionable, however it is important to note that the 2005 Meath bye-election went ahead at the height of the controversy. Its finding of 71% support for political parties supporting the current route of the motorway is unquestionable as transport was widely reported to be the key issue of the election at the door steps."

Glad this has been raised. Also in other newspaper articles? SeoR 07:12, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

The newspaper is generally perceived as pro-Protestant. It has Protestant roots and features Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian (but not Roman Catholic) Notes. Apart from the Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral of St Mary, all the church service times it gives in its Saturday edition are of Protestant cathedrals and churches. It gives a high profile to Church of Ireland prelates and activities in the same way as the Murdoch press favours the Roman Catholic church. And a leader a year or two back referred to the "scandalous" decree of Ne Temere. Millbanks (talk) 07:04, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I have changed the text on the Lisbon Treaty as it was completely biased, including accusations of bias on behalf of the paper because it printed the results of opinion polls unfavourable to the No side - opinion polls carried out by reputable organisations, which would not be contradicted by the No campaigners if they reported the result they favour. The Irish Times (in common with any other newspaper, the Independent group in particular) does have an editorial line, but unlike most other Irish newspapers allows opposing opinion pieces to be printed, these have included pieces by Declan Ganley and other prominent No campaigners.

Circulation

The article does not give details of circulation. However, talking to someone who used to work for the Irish Times, he told me that in the last two decades it had made considerable increases, largely amongst Roman Catholic readers: the southern Protestant market was already saturated. Getting sales in the North seems more problematic, even though the newspaper is priced substantially more cheaply there (£1 as opposed to €1-80). Certainly there are not many letters from northern readers. One suspicion is that northern Protestants have reservations about buying a (southern) Irish newspaper, and Roman Catholics in the North still preceive it as Protestant. Millbanks (talk) 09:43, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Reorganisation of Article

I think the article needs to be restructured a little. The lead section contains much opinion and unverified claims, rather than summarising the article below. The sentences about promient columnists could be moved down the article. I also doubt whether Miriam Lord merits special mention. Nor would I describe her as a "satirist". The History section also contains material which is relativly recent and merits at least some subsections. The Content section could also be further divided into the main paper and the supplements. Finally there should be a new section including its auxilary business, such as myhome.ie and Irish Times Training, which isn't mentioned.AleXd (talk) 23:10, 29 November 2007 (UTC)