Either the people or the media should resign, writes John Waters
The easier solution is for the media, with the exception of Eoghan Harris and myself, to stand down en masse, it having been established that, once again, ideological agendas, wishful thinking and spite have prevented them doing their jobs. If there is a better reason for resigning, I cannot think of it.
Once again it has been made clear that the Irish media are covering a different country, a country of some leftist or pseudo-ethical ideal which the Irish people stubbornly decline to give birth to.
To understand what was going to happen in this election you had only to stand back and ask: is the Opposition convincing enough to remove a Government which has presided over the most prosperous period in Irish history and seemed not to have blown it?
You had merely to understand how people felt about where we stood, as opposed to what they claimed to think or what they ought to be thinking.
Last January, I wrote: "What people want now is not talk about change. They have had change till it comes out their ears. What they want is consolidation, refinement, and the correction of the errors and excesses arising from too-singular a view of progress." Forgive me saying so, but I did tell you so.
At no time did the challengers advance a coherent, succinct analysis of where we were or where we might have been. At no time did they offer reassurance concerning what might be called the emotional context of this election. They hammered the old reliables and drowned in the detail, while the election lay there for the taking with a couple of good slogans.
Despite the Bertie factor, the Rainbow could have won if they had emphasised just two simple concepts: 1) the failure of the outgoing government to capitalise on the years of prosperity (a feeling of opportunity lost) and 2) the psychological condition of the average voter who looks better off on paper but feels worse off in his gut. Too late I offer them the missing slogans: "The Wasted Windfall" and "Running to Stand Still".
The media desire for a Rainbow victory had three driving elements: 1) the desire for a change of plotline for the sake of a change of plotline; 2) long-standing spite against Fianna Fáil; and 3) media failure to understand the country they presume to cover.
The core problem is that, instead of simply telling us what is going on, media seek first of all to mould reality to their own prescriptions. Media generally pursue influence in a manner that increases their business, but when it comes to Fianna Fáil, feelings of spite, snobbery and atavistic hatred serve to muddy the windscreen so much that journalists can't see what is before their noses.
And now, after another five years of relentless, implacable media hostility, Fianna Fáil returns as vigorous as before. If ever there was evidence of media impotence, this is it. Obviously, if the media wish to damage Fianna Fáil, their best bet is to get behind the incoming government.
An unremarked aspect of this latest victory has been the significance of the tribunals. Established at the behest - nay, the demand - of FF's most implacable enemies, the tribunals were supposed to flush out Fianna Fáil wrongdoing and consign the party to the electoral sin bin. Instead the tribunals have acted as a lightning rod to divert potentially problematic issues to earth in a manner unthreatening to FF in government. During this election campaign, indeed, the Mahon tribunal acted in precisely this fashion in respect of allegations concerning the Taoiseach's private finances. The moral guardians of Irish society have once again been outfoxed by the hare.
Media prejudice was also behind the failure to predict the resurgence in Fine Gael. Enda Kenny is barely tolerated by the media because he has represented the only chance of removing Fianna Fáil, but in truth he is regarded almost as contemptuously. This election, delivering 80 per cent of Dáil seats to the "civil war parties", has utterly confounded more than 20 years of media predictions. The media darlings of that time have been the Progressive Democrats and the Labour Party. One has been obliterated, the other returned with the same tired old faces as a result of peddling the same tired old ideas.
Only the "civil war parties" have shown any propensity to tap into what is really happening, as the media and their pets continue to dream of the Robinson moment and all that might have been.
For decades, Irish newspapers, including this one, have engaged in stern lecturing of the Irish people on account of their primitive cultures and lack of moral fibre, and the Irish people have repeatedly given them the two fingers.
Now, perhaps, the media might condescend to look at what the Irish people are saying about themselves, and what this means. They might also reflect on the notion that, without roots in society, no value system has any value.
Politics is what is, not what journalists want.