Is the Isle of Man Government becoming despotic?

[Non-Believer]

19 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

That would be Beth Espey. If she ever conducts a radio interview with a politician, does she start each interview with the words "I have a conflict of interest"?

Given the annual subvention, every MR interviewer should be making that statement publicly in respect of interviewing anybody connected with Govt, surely?

[Shake me up Judy]

Yes, Manx Radio is hopelessly compromised in any reporting/interviewing of Government. Beth does a good job but it's far from ideal that her husband is a senior exec in Government. Remind me how he got there again ? He seemed to go from a radio D.J. to high politics in one bound. 

 

[Two-lane]

7 minutes ago, Shake me up Judy said:

Beth does a good job

I rarely listen to Manx Radio and therefore have no opinion of whether or not she does a good job.

The Manx Radio web page shows that she is "Head of News & Deputy Controller of Programming, News and Content. She is responsible for driving Manx Radio's news agenda and leading our news team."

As head of News I would expect that unbiased, comprehensive, political reporting would be part of doing a good job.

Part of Moulton's last video contains comments on the lack of reporting by the press.

In comparison, the BBC also (in some way or other) gets gov. money. If the head of BBC News was married to the head of the Civil Service, I think there would be some comments made.

[piebaps]

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/emails-throw-light-on-governments-covid-response-630473

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/almost-all-of-medical-directors-covid-information-given-to-comin/

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/foi-that-triggered-row-between-reporter-and-govt-published/

I found these local news reports quite easily. The MR report actually gives links to the FOI data and the FOI request numbers to make it easier to locate. 

Edited August 4, 2023 by piebaps

[Barlow]

Even so, there is a clear conflict of interest.

[Two-lane]

1 hour ago, piebaps said:

I found these local news reports quite easily.

Look at this in an entirely cynical (i.e.realistc) way. Suppose we have a completely theoretical case (to be clear this is not an indirect reference to anything on the IoM):- You are the head of investigative journalism at the main news organisation. You have detected that a senior Civil Servant has been involved in activities that, if became public knowledge, would result in the Civil Servant "searching out new opportunities". That CS is your spouse. You know that if that happened you would be paying the huge mortgage by yourself. What are you going to do?

An independent press is important.

And note that Multon did complain about the lack of coverage.

[Gladys]

She is not the head of investigative journalism.  Is she the news editor or even a journalist? 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Gladys
Typo

[StrangeBrew]

18 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

Look at this in an entirely cynical (i.e.realistc) way. Suppose we have a completely theoretical case (to be clear this is not an indirect reference to anything on the IoM):- You are the head of investigative journalism at the main news organisation. You have detected that a senior Civil Servant has been involved in activities that, if became public knowledge, would result in the Civil Servant "searching out new opportunities". That CS is your spouse. You know that if that happened you would be paying the huge mortgage by yourself. What are you going to do?

An independent press is important.

And note that Multon did complain about the lack of coverage.

If Manx Radio had a history of in depth investigative journalism in relation to political matters, and conspicuously opted not to cover this, you might have a point. And anyway, Manx Radio  has given a fair bit of air time to Paul Moulton’s crusade, with Phil Gawne having him on at length a couple of times recently.

[Wake Up Call]

32 minutes ago, Gladys said:

She is not the head of investigative journalism.  Is she the news editor or even a journalist? 

 

That is a good one....

[Roger Mexico]

3 hours ago, Two-lane said:

In comparison, the BBC also (in some way or other) gets gov. money. If the head of BBC News was married to the head of the Civil Service, I think there would be some comments made.

You'd be surprised.  The two worlds are just as intimately connected in the UK (or rather London, which amounts to the same thing in politics and the media) as they are in the Isle of Man, without the excuse of our tiny size.

For example the current CEO of BBC News is a woman called Deborah Turness (no me neither).  "On 26 August 2011, she married John Toker, the former Director of Communications for Security and Intelligence at the Cabinet Office", though he was also an ex-journalist.

The UK media are full of people such as Allegra Stratton who:

worked for ITV as national editor of ITV News from 2016 to 2018 and co-presenter of Peston on Sunday from 2016 to 2018. After leaving journalism, she became a spokesperson for the British government. She was Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury from April until October 2020, when she became the press secretary for 10 Downing Street

or James Forsyth who:

joined Foreign Policy magazine as assistant editor[...]  was appointed deputy editor, online, of The Spectator in 2008 and political editor in 2009.

He was also a weekly columnist for The Times on a Friday, previously writing for The Sun on Saturdays and previously the Mail on Sunday.

[...]On 24 December 2022, Forsyth was hired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as his political secretary.

Unsurprising as he was Sunak's best friend from school onwards.  And Sunak was best man at his wedding in 2011.  To Stratton.

And people accuse the Isle of Man of being incestuous.

[Two-lane]

When I wrote that post I was certain that Mexico fellow would come up with a huge huge list of people involved in this kind of thing in Westminster.

The difference is that in England there is a variety of newspapers (and Private Eye), so there will be people who fancy doing the Woodward and Bernstein bit.

All we have is a bloke with a camera (I think Mouton should get a T-shirt made).

[Blade Runner]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

You'd be surprised.  The two worlds are just as intimately connected in the UK (or rather London, which amounts to the same thing in politics and the media) as they are in the Isle of Man, without the excuse of our tiny size.

For example the current CEO of BBC News is a woman called Deborah Turness (no me neither).  "On 26 August 2011, she married John Toker, the former Director of Communications for Security and Intelligence at the Cabinet Office", though he was also an ex-journalist.

The UK media are full of people such as Allegra Stratton who:

worked for ITV as national editor of ITV News from 2016 to 2018 and co-presenter of Peston on Sunday from 2016 to 2018. After leaving journalism, she became a spokesperson for the British government. She was Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury from April until October 2020, when she became the press secretary for 10 Downing Street

or James Forsyth who:

joined Foreign Policy magazine as assistant editor[...]  was appointed deputy editor, online, of The Spectator in 2008 and political editor in 2009.

He was also a weekly columnist for The Times on a Friday, previously writing for The Sun on Saturdays and previously the Mail on Sunday.

[...]On 24 December 2022, Forsyth was hired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as his political secretary.

Unsurprising as he was Sunak's best friend from school onwards.  And Sunak was best man at his wedding in 2011.  To Stratton.

And people accuse the Isle of Man of being incestuous.

Tis how the world works.

If you have a family member who needs a job, and another family member employs people, why not put the 2 together?

Joking aside, it keeps out the riffraff and ensures continuation of the ruling class.

I don't agree with the above but the alternative is something like Russia.

Better the devil you know, or their family?-----

The island suffers from a bureaucracy like a totalitarian state like Russia, but has the public face of elected MHKs who have no way of altering CS policy's.

When you really think about it.   It is actually worse than Russia.

At least the Russian population know they have no control of their governance despite who they vote for.

On the IOM it is implied that your vote will make a difference 

On the island it does not but that suits the City of London.........................................

 

[WTF]

2 hours ago, Two-lane said:

 

All we have is a bloke with a camera (I think Mouton should get a T-shirt made).

great idea ,

'bloke with a camera' (according to retard )

[Gladys]

On 8/3/2023 at 6:56 PM, cissolt said:

There was an emergency plan, they even had test exercises for said plans.  Why they didn't use the plan  was questioned during the pac hearings, nobody could really explain why.

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/pandemic-flu-planning/

Wonder why Hetty (as we affectionately called her) did not look back to this exercise by her predecessor? 

Did it result in an actual plan? 

[KERED]

5 hours ago, Gladys said:

She is not the head of investigative journalism.  Is she the news editor or even a journalist? 

 

Some good points, Glad.

Our Beth is "Head of News & Deputy Controller of Programming, News and Content."

So - it would appear that she is not the News Editor, or even a journalist.

But she did gain a degree in Theatre Studies, 20 years ago, and she worked for a whole year in The Gaiety Theatre.

(She does, however, look good in the Mandatory Manx Radio white shirt!)