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.

Hole in Ozone Layer is Saving the Planet

Flicking through today's Sun, I came across a story by the tabloid's esteemed environment editor Ben Jackson. The journalist -- who has previously scripted ground-breaking accounts on climate change, such as Fatties Causing Global Warming -- was reporting on a study conducted by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

The organisation, which is a coalition of international experts from the region, published the report on ice loss in the Antarctic to give negotiators at the Copenhagen Climate Summit the most up-to-date research.

The report's findings revealed that the closing of the hole in the Earth's ozone layer will contribute to average temperature rises of 3C on the continent in the next decade -- leading to a global sea level rise of up to 1.4 metres by 2011. This increase would engulf islands located in the Pacific and Indian Ocean and destroy coastal cities such as Calcutta and Dhaka.

Pretty important news, most would say. Not, however, Ben Jackson, who instead decided to focus on evidence that the hole in the ozone layer has kept Antarctica warmer over the past decade.

"The hole in the ozone layer is protecting the arctic from global warming," he gleefully claims.

Though this report is undoubtedly factually accurate, it accentuates the myth that climate change is not an issue that the public needs to worry about; when insurmountable evidence suggests that it is.

And environmental activists wonder why the 'average Joe' remains unconvinced that human-induced climate change is occurring.