Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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The EU: Brussels sells itself short
This article first appeared in Village magazine, July/August 2023 edition. There is a commonly cited statistic that 70% of domestic legislation originates in Brussels. Sometimes, the figure is 75%, or 80%. It’s an odd statistic, not least because it is not clear how law might be quantified. Is it based on the number of acts,…
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Coimisiún na Meán: Rule of Three
This article first appeared in Village magazine, July/August 2023 edition. Three months after taking over the functions of the now defunct Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, three commissioners laid out their wares at a press briefing on the future of Irish media regulation on the eve of midsummer’s day. The commissioners make up the Media Commission,…
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Overton Out
This article first appeared in Village magazine, May/June 2023 edition. As journalists drift back to Twitter after the initial wave of enthusiasm for Mastodon, accepting diktats from Elon Musk in return for his audience, the federated networks exemplified by Mastodon deserve a second look. Twitter changed, not gradually then suddenly as Hemingway had it, but…
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Out of Commission
This article first appeared in Village magazine, November/December 2022 edition. What does the future of media look like in Ireland? If the reaction to a report of the same name is any guide then the omens are not promising. Catherine Martin, the tourism, culture, arts, Gaeltacht, sport and media minister, received the report of the…
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Well that’s just, like, your opinion, man
This article first appeared in Village magazine, July/August 2022 edition. Consider the following opinion, which may have appeared recently in a newspaper near you: Should Ireland take a leaf out of Elon Musk’s playbook, and establish a colony on Mars? The Fine Gael party has not released an official statement on their position regarding the…
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Media Blues: Pessimism about the future of media
This article first appeared in Village magazine, March/April 2022 edition. Looking ahead to 2022, it is hard to feel optimistic about the current reviews of the media landscape in Ireland. Freedom of Information (FOI) law is being reviewed again, ans the signals are not good. There is a tendency for new FOI laws to be…
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Insidious, Invidious Covidious
This article first appeared in Village magazine, September 2021 edition. Covid inspired an appetite for quality media but they then bored people It used to be said that no ministerial career could survive three Sundays in a row on the front pages of the national newspapers. Any story so big that it could sustain public…
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Watching the Media
This article first appeared in Village magazine, July 2021 edition. For many years, a regular feature of the American legislative process was what came to be known as the Christmas Tree Bill. Every year or so, a seemingly innocuous bill, unlikely to attract too much controversy or opposition no matter who held power in either…
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Media Commission presages renaissance, or wake
This article first appeared in Village magazine, February 2021 edition. The first submissions to the Commission on the Future of Media in Ireland suggest that, while everyone involved in journalism knows what the problems are, nobody has any new solutions. The internet has been eating away at print revenues for years, as both circulation and…
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The case of Danny McCormack
This article first appeared in Village magazine, February 2021 edition. The brother of a Tullamore man who died of a heart attack shortly after being released from Garda custody in 2019 has criticised the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) for a lack of transparency and openness in their dealings with the family during the subsequent…
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