Obnoxious Little Bollocks

The biblical battle between public relations guff and news continued to rage yesterday (December 1st) in the British press. The powers-to-be at the Sun decided to include an interview with the self-titled "jumped-up, obnoxious little bollocks" Michael O'Leary in the midst of their news pages. The Chief Executive of Ryanair and pied-piper of the low-cost airline industry is one of the four horsemen of the Press' impending apocalypse - empowered by divine forces to wreak havoc on the world of journalism.

An inflammatory statement perhaps, but O'Leary is truly an innovator in masquerading free publicity as news. Previously, the wealthy Irish businessman has managed to persuade deadline-driven hacks to publish remarks that he is 'considering' charging passengers to use in-flight toilets and oxygen masks.

His latest headline-grabbing wheeze involves removing plane seats on his company's sardine-packed flights so that an extra 100 people can stand.

With the growth of the public relations industry in recent years, more attention needs to be focused on the ways in which contending voices -- whether corporate or political -- get their messages across in the media.

Not enough questions are being asked in newsrooms around the country about whose voices are given prominence and the potential motives of interviewees.

The astounding thing about this article is that O'Leary clearly discloses his PR-driven intentions to the Sun's reporter in the course of the interview.

Explaining the secret behind his success, he said: "Be a loudmouth, attention-grabbing publicity-seeker. It saves a fortune on advertising."

Part of a journalist's job is to cultivate and use credible, trustworthy and legitimate sources. Mr O'Leary's previous history suggests that two out of these three criteria have not been met.