davedal

GAVIN'S NEMESIS: WHY THE SECRET? The Jim Gavin beastly landlord episode that ejected the Fianna Fail presidential candidate out of the race had the Irish Independent and its Ireland editor, Fionnan Sheahan, congratulating themselves and each other with gusto this week following their ‘exclusive’ on Gavin’s €3,300 debt to a tenant 16 years ago. But the Indo excluded one significant detail from its arresting story, specifically the identity of the tenant at the centre of the story who was able to provide cast iron proof and details of the story. There was much detail in the Indo about the investigative efforts the paper made in uncovering Gavin’s behaviour. What the newspaper and its editorial staff did not say is that the scoop was handed on a plate to them by Gavin’s tenant who happens to be a fellow colleague in Mediahuis, owner of the Indo and various titles, including the Sunday World. That former tenant is the deputy editor of the World, Niall Donald. The Sunday Worst and Donald felt uneasy about breaking the story themselves and so the story was passed to the Indo with its chief source being the well placed Donald. One can see why the SW did not want to be the centre of attraction in the story — conflict of interest etc — but why should the Indo decline to name the tenant at the centre of its story? And why would the rest of the media, including the paper of record, the Irish Times, follow suit? The Indo, most ironically — given the weight and import of the story it is now proclaiming to b e such a scoop — failed to recognise it as such. Initially, at 7 pm on Friday evening as the deadline for the first edition of Saturday’s Indo approached, the entire front page of the Indo was taken up with the Gavin landlord-and-tenant story with more inside. However, a chance to further amplify a story about rival candidate Catherine Connolly’s Eirigi employee was offered by a special Branch leak and so the Gavin story was wiped from the front page to be replaced by the Eirigi story. The Gavin story was relegated to page 8. A day later Gavin’s tenant story forced him out of the presidential contest.