Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I thank the Members of the House for what has been another broad ranging and stimulating debate. On this matter, I feel somewhat like a pendulum. I found myself swinging this way and that when listening to the various contributions. I wonder does this show some lack of political substance on my part or is it merely that the power of rhetoric is very strong. I was attracted by some of the remarks of Senator Norris, but I must be careful about this because I cannot endorse them without qualification. What I found attractive about his contribution was that he was pricking a few balloons, which must always be done on this subject. Regarding the contributions by Senators Ulick Burke, Ó Murchú and Mansergh, we sometimes have to prick our own balloons, because the Ceaucescu reference by Senator O'Meara was well made. It hit in various directions and of course in the end the ball bounced off me.

In politics, one must be reasonably robust. I thank Senator Ó Murchú for his remarks in that regard. One has to have broad shoulders and a fairly thick skin. As Senator Mansergh said, people in politics should be slow to litigate when they have grievances with the media, especially since politics and the media have a sort of symbiotic relationship similar to a herd of wildebeest being stalked by a pack of hyenas. The relationship is an unsteady one. We know that when we are weak and falter, we will be devoured. That is perhaps not such a bad thing.

Recalling the remark of Thomas Jefferson quoted at the outset of the debate, about the choice between a society with a government and no newspapers and a society with newspapers and no government, with Jefferson opting for the latter, that choice is not available. A democracy could not exist without the media. If our media were to close down tomorrow, our democracy would cease to function. A few well intentioned people might attempt to sustain standards unilaterally, but in the absence of the countervailing influence of the media, elected democracies would not function. Standards would collapse and the few remaining statesmen or stateswomen would find their standards quickly swept away by having to survive in the company of people who would do anything as long as there was no glare of publicity on their activities.

We must be balanced in all of this. The relationship between politicians and the media is ambivalent and ambiguous. We must also distinguish between the instincts of Opposition politicians and Government politicians. The latter get huffy and defensive about the media taking them on. Opposition politicians go in the other direction and get into lick mode with the media. That is the way it works. Some people on the Government side of the House this afternoon have tended to be critical of the media in a defensive way. That is to be expected. Others on the Opposition benches have made remarks which were unduly uncritical of the media. If one could extract from the broad range of views expressed today some kind of centre position, that would probably be right.