Not really.

It would be a surprise if the editorial staff of the Irish Independent were as far out on the lunatic fringe as this fellow. But equally, their inclinations must be pretty far right and racist for them to even contemplate running this sort of thing.

I did a Google blog search to look for any comments about it, and most of the results seem to lead to white-power sites. (I'm definitely not going to open any of those links, though.) How proud he must be.

Although I'm sure that not everyone who works for the paper shares his views, that article is just so offensive and so badly thought through, that it's the kind of thing that you'd think more ...hmmm, what's the word... 'principled' people might quit their jobs over, rather than be associated with it or its author. I've heard of people walking out of their jobs over less.

(edit: I wonder if they have anyone 'of African origin' working in their 'media empire' anywhere? ...Or if Myers, in a crusade of indignation at these 'layabouts' stealing the white man's jobs, has cleansed them all? If not, you'd think he'd be checking over his shoulder quite frequently at the moment!)

evilC wrote:

QUOTE:
it's the kind of thing that you'd think more ...hmmm, what's the word... 'principled' people might quit their jobs over, rather than be associated with it or its author. I've heard of people walking out of their jobs over less.

I quit the Indo myself in 2006, though chiefly because I was sick of spending my time in an office full of total wankers rather than because of any point of ideological principle.

The only African person I ever saw in there was an extremely narky security guard.

The editor of the Irish Indo is a big thick bogman from Co Kerry who has been throwing his weight around big-time since getting the job a couple of years ago. His primary motive for running stuff like this would be purely to get a big reaction.

Myers has been churning out this sort of tripe for decades. His other favourite targets include single mothers, Travellers, women drivers, and republicans of any stripe at all.

I doubt if he's ever been in the Irish Indo office in his life. He lives somewhere down the country and works from home.

Hiero- isn't Gerry O'Regan- like every previous Indo, Irish Times and London Telegraph editor who's hired Myers since the 70s- publishing this stuff because a significant proprtion of the readers like it?

Yep, I'd imagine a lot of Indo readers would have read that thing yesterday morning and nodded their heads in agreement. It has always been a right-wing paper and at most elections it has backed Fine Gael (aka the Irish Tory Party).

Because Ireland was largely a black people-free zone until quite recently, there is not the same sort of public sensitivity to racism as you get in countries that have had large black populations for decades. No columnist could write a piece like that for an English paper and expect to hang on to their job, but Myers is in no danger whatsoever of getting sacked by the Indo.

Really? His Sunday Telegraph output didn't seem markedly different.

But did he ever write a piece for the Sunday Telegraph as offensive as this one, which is basically arguing that with regard to Africa "Let the fuckers all die"?

Certainly I never heard of him getting in trouble in England, though that's not to say it didn't happen at any point.

I'll check through Google.

QUOTE:

The editor of the Irish Indo is a big thick bogman from Co Kerry who has been throwing his weight around big-time since getting the job a couple of years ago. His primary motive for running stuff like this would be purely to get a big reaction.

And he's doing his job well then. Here we are discussing something that appeared in his newspaper, reacting. That is the job of the editor. But it is his job also to strike a balance. If he (or, rarely, she) does not do so, then running stuff like this is sensationalism. It might suit the bottomline to provoke reaction, but it's very poor journalism. I'd hate to be accused of being a poor journalist, but that's just me.

Of course, there's a fine line. If there is a reaction, but readers are so outraged that they go on to boycott the newspaper, then the editor has failed on both levels.

For my part, if presented with revolting, racist copy like that, I'd not run it on its own. I'd run it alongside an alternative opinion though. Or, better, an editorial which demolishes the noxious viewpoint (that is a strategy I have adopted in the past), thereby distancing the newspaper from the offending op-ed piece. And I'd tell Myers to go easy on the racism, and get someone to write about anal sex instead (not in the newspaper where I work, obviously).

You could hire Myers to write about any of the numerous Popes Bonerface.

Y'see, to me it almost immediately crossed the line from being merely 'thought-provoking through presentation of an alternative viewpoint' to simple hate-mongering. The basic monosyllabic refusal to acknowledge any opposing possibilities was established with the very first sentence. Sure, he went on to combine increasingly lengthy words with lower and lower 'common denominators', but it was just a hate-filled rant worthy of the most rabid, glue-brained skinhead, complete with utter lack of any historical reasoning whatsoever.

You could almost imagine the intellects of the head-nodding readers collapsing to a singularity with each passing word.

Aside from all the racism and stereotyping he does, he may have accidentally maide a useful point.

Is Ethiopia's population really rocketing toward 177 million? That's not good. I mean, that land can't really sustain that sort of population unless they suddenly develop economic and technological infrastructure like Japan's.

I don't agree that giving to charity is the root of the problem, nor do I think the fundamental problem is that African men can't keep it zipped*. If Africans are having large families, I imagine its because it benefits them or their village somehow, even if it's crushing the society as a whole. Tragedy of the commons and all of that.

It's a real problem that needs an intelligent solution. Unfortunately, this guy and intelligent don't belong in the same sentence.


* I have sometimes wondered, however, if some genetic ethnic groups are more fertile than others. I mean some people can do it like rabbits and not get pregnant/get a woman pregnant. Others hit the target on the first shot, whether they mean to or not. So does this "trait" follow any demographic or geographic patterns? Some animals have huge litters, repeatedly. Some just have one at a time. This suggests that the volume of one's offspring is somehow selected for. Could it also vary within a species depending on environmental pressures? Could it be true of humans? I don't know. Has anyone studied it?

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Others hit the target on the first shot, whether they mean to or not

The South African cricket team managed to get one ball on target (out of about 75) in the first hour's cricket yesterday.

Thanks to stats guru Bill Frindall for that one.