McGuinness attacks 'dissident' journalists

Thursday April 09, 2009 23:09

by Patrick Henry

This is part of a longer article in the Belfast Telegraph, called 'First Minsters take a swing at the Media' and the first bit is about Peter Robinson's attack on Martina Purdy at Stormont. This is why the article appears to start mid-article....

Not to be outdone, esteemed joint and co-equal Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness has his own issues with the Fourth Estate these days.

Unsurprisingly our Republican co-ruler is somewhat consumed with dissidents and their doings. But even Insider ears pricked up [our ears are everywhere] on hearing the senior Sinn Fein figure had launched an attack on ''dissident'' journalists.

The unexpected outburst came at a private briefing for political correspondents with Mr Robinson at Stormont, and Mr McGuinness made clear he not referring to any of the fine men around the Executive table.

The Mid Ulster MP is normally unflappable in the presence of the Press [Unlike his power-sharing partner Peter] but said: ''We still have dissident journalists.''

Indicating that everyone knew who he was talking about, Marty opined that such scribes were writing in a way which is ''giving succour to these people.''

Insider hopes he doesn't mean us and respectfully urge the DFM to name names.

It could, after all, be quite a dangerous thing to say about people-you might even call it a smear.

That said, our own profession may also do well to re-examine the all-too-handy use of the term ''dissident.''

The dictionary reveals the word actually means ''a person who disagrees with a government or powerful organisation.'' By which token, Insider aside, there are a lot of ''dissidents'' out there.

Insider...Belfast Telegraph April 9 2009