It’s not a new concept by any means but the trend for ‘shooting the messenger’ is becoming more blatant, by those who feel that any scrutiny of their actions can be dismissed by blaming those who dare to question.
When I decided to become a journalist I did imagine it to be much more glamorous career than it turned out to be.
What hasn’t changed is my reasons for wanting to report the news. Being from west Belfast the journalists I met were always posh and mainly English, drafted in to report on my community as if we were less than civilised.
I wanted to speak to people who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice.
Journalism should hold power to account not be servants to it, they should question the state not carry out propaganda for it.
State controlled press is not a new thing, in fact it as old as print, but is probably more evident and obvious now with the advancement of social media, instant and often poor-quality online news and the rise of people like Donald Trump, mixing politics with showbiz to create a distraction from policy to person.
Former DUP leader Peter Robinson has twice in recent times taken a not so subtle side swipe at his predecessor Arlene Foster and then tried to blame it on media manipulation.
Most recently while addressing an audience at the Methodist Centre in Belfast, reported on journalist Eamonn Mallie’s website, he said: "you need to be careful not to allow the most vociferous voices in your party lead you".
While those comments appear pretty clear in their intention, the former party leader denies they were about Mrs Foster saying he was not criticising her, adding that "it is an obsession of some people in the press who want to get at Arlene".
A savvy and shrewd operator, it is inconceivable that Peter Robinson was unaware of how those comments would be portrayed.
Blaming the press is an easy and lazy distraction.
Arlene Foster also resorted to blaming the media recently claiming sections of the press were trying to ‘drive a wedge’ between her party and the business community.
This came after two of her MPs, Jeffrey Donaldson and Sammy Wilson, made comments that angered the business community following the release of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
More serious and concerning, the arrests of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney linked to their investigative work on the film No Stone Unturned shows just how extreme attacks on the media can be if left unchallenged.
The documentary into the murders of six people at Loughinisland in 1994 was a comprehensive piece of work that used leaked documents to name the prime suspects in the massacre.
No one has ever been charged with the murders, the investigation into that killing now seems more focused on silencing the media who dare to investigate it than tracking down the killers responsible.
In the last week both the BBC Nolan show and Spotlight have covered the quite shocking and disgraceful exploitation of members of the Romanian community in south Belfast.
This follows on from an investigation this paper has been involved in for quite some time.
Aurel Nicola and his son Nicolae Nicola stand accused of exploiting the Roma community by charging vulnerable people hundreds of pounds for benefits advice, a service that should be free. It should be noted they have denied this claim.
The allegations of control surrounding the Nicola family are not new, they have long been suspected of exploiting their own community over which they rule with an iron fist.
Despite this they received hundreds of thousands of pounds in public funding and were lauded around town by Sinn Féin MLA Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, who was advised of concerns in June of this year, by the chief executive of the Belfast Trust.
For some reason the usually media savvy newspaper owner continued to politically lobby on behalf of the Nicola family and be pictured alongside them saying he was “proud” to stand with them.
Certainly, the MLA has questions to answer and it is the job of the media to hold elected representatives to account.
Rather than answer legitimate questions, some politicians simply avoid having to explain themselves to the public.
The DUP has boycotted the Nolan show since their coverage of the RHI scandal.
Journalists can play the game, they can conduct the easy interviews, not chase the controversial stories, but that would be doing their profession an injustice.
I’d rather be boycotted for doing my job than lauded for being a de facto party political press officer any day of the week.
