EXCLUSIVE?

A lot of papers use "EXCLUSIVE" tags on stories to highlight a yarn they believe no one else has. My paper doesn't. I think most broadsheets in Ireland don't. I think the reasoning against using the tag is that every story, in theory, should be somewhat exclusive and there should be no need to shout about it.

It can also look daft putting an exclusive tag on a story if five other papers published on the same day have the same story. One of the most bizarre uses of "EXCLUSIVE" was the splash of this weekend's Sunday Independent. The paper "revealed" that Anglo Irish Bank loaned 300m euro to 10 individuals to buy its own shares. Some scoop eh?

Except the story looks remarkably similar to Tom Lyons' story published four weeks previously on the front page of the Sunday Times. It's also been reported in the Sunday Business Post and others like the Indo has also followed up and reported that it had been raised in an Oireachtas committee.

So the Sunday Independent report a four week old story like it's new. I don't get it.

Meanwhile we followed up on Tom's original story this weekend with a story revealing the regulator and other state bodies knew about the deal and gave it the OK.

The Regulator's response to the Sunday Times story can be seen here. This statement, issued on Sunday, is a classic case of what is known as a non-denial denial. The Regulator says it rejects the story but then in the second line of its own statement it contradicts itself and admits "the Financial Regulator and other authorities were aware of a large CFD position held in Anglo Irish Bank shares in 2008 and steps being taken to have it unwound".

Brian Cowen confirmed today in the Dail that the Reglator knew about the deal and approved it based on legal advice from, guess who, Anglo's solicitors.

"Mr Cowen said the Financial Regulator got legal advice from Anglo's advisors that this was a legal transaction and that was accepted at the time. "

This story will run and run. Click here for a full overview of the state's involvement in this mess from the Sunday Times last week.

Meanwhile, my favourite story from last week came via the Comptroller & Auditor General Report on the cost of the tribunals which is essential reading for us tribunal nerds. The report was published on Thursday and got extensive coverage in Friday's newspapers mainly due to the overall cost estimated to top 430m euro.

Thankfully there was some detail left over for the Sunday papers including the fact that Jerry Healy and John Coughlan have earned 1 million euro more than they should have in the last six years due to a typo. The Moriarty Tribunal has at least six months left in it so it really is the typo that keeps on giving. By the way this wasn't an exclusive. John Burke in the Business Post also spotted this detail buried in the report.

Finally, I wrote about a wave of Pyrite cases that are coming down the line for developers who used infill which contains this material which allegedly causes cracking in the walls and floors of homes. You can tell from the solicitor's letter we received from Logancourt that developers are not keen to be publicly associated with pyrite.

If your house is affected by pyrite though and you're not involved in the Menolly cases that have been rolling on for some time then I'd be very interested in talking to you. So by all means email me.

First post

Hi.

I've been meaning to start a proper blog for some time now.

My first attempt, robohack.journals.ie, is lying in a state of disrepair and neglect and I can't figure out how to pull the damn thing down. I began that blog in 2006 after John Breslin, boards.ie founder and lecturer, gave a talk to my postgraduate journalism course in NUI Galway on the merits of blogging.

Enthused by John's passion for blogging I set one up myself and started putting up a few articles I'd written for college assignments. Once I started working full time for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times I found I didn't have time to blog.

Almost three years on, and hopefully more time efficient, I'll have another go.

I usually read about four or five blogs regularly and have just discovered Michael O'Toole's impressive new blog on the life of an Irish crime reporter.

Michael's post on death knocks reminded me of my first such assignment down in Monageer in 2007 and the inspiration for this blog's name. Thankfully my line of journalism, which mainly covers legal disputes, doesn't involve too many such knocks on doors in times of tragedy.

In 2007 though, I and hacks from every other paper in the country descended on Monageer after Aidan Dunne apparently killed himself after first killing his wife and two small children. The first person I spoke to in the tiny village was Fr Bill Cosgrave, the priest who raised the alarm when his calls to the family home went unanswered.

After waiting for the rest of the congregation to leave after morning mass I approached Fr Cosgrave. It was three days after the bodies were discovered and the priest was now very familiar with journalists.

"I guess you would be a newspaper man?" he asked.

I had to think about it for a second. I'd been in the job a year but had never been called a "newspaper man" before.

After interviewing the priest over breakfast and getting directions for Poulpeasty, where Aidan Dunne's family lived, I headed for the dreaded death knock. Pulling up outside the Dunne family's remote house I could see the yard was filled with cars and there were lots of people moving about inside. Trying to decide whether to go in, I could only wonder why I was doing the kind of job that requires you intrude in a family's grief at a time like this.

Eventually though I went in and said hello. It turned out the family were very keen to chat and to defend Aidan Dunne's reputation which was already in shreds. In fairness they probably spoke to every paper in the country that week so in that respect it was an "easy" first death knock.

Anyway, about the blog. I hope to maybe give a flavour of what it's like working for a Sunday newspaper in Ireland. Despite the stress of deadlines and the long hours I love working as a journalist. I'll be honest and say if this blog attracts a bit of attention from people who want to tip me off to a story then that would be great too. There's always another deadline coming round the corner.

There are actually quite a few hacks blogging in Ireland now. The first one I came across was Adam Maguire's. Since then the Irish Times have got in to it in a big way.

Looking at some of their blogs it reminds me of the second reason I've been putting off starting a blog. I think journalists have to be very careful about being too opinionated in their blogging especially if it can lead to accusations over the balance or fairness of their reportage.

I don't think Deaglan DeBreadun is particularly opinionated in these pieces (by the way Joanna Tuffy, the Labour TD, is obviously a big fan) but voicing views in a public forum, especially on a divisive topic, leaves a journalist open to accusations of being pro one side or the other. It's a tightrope reporters must walk if they want to blog with some conviction and flavour while not harming their stance as an unbiased journalist.