So too is it with the Irish Times. While in other countries you see quality dailys that are considered as being either Left or Right wing, in Ireland we are led to believe that no such distinction exists. The only ideological division is between competing brands of nationalism.

Sure, in the IT you have two columnists who have a liberal point of view. But they are only columnists, and although Fintan O’Toole is Assistant Editor his politics, such as one can distinguish them as being explicitly left-wing, could hardly be seen as influential within the paper. The IT is a paper that has been consistently middle class, and aimed exclusively at the professional classes in Ireland who are after all, a very conservative bunch.

So, if you think that the Irish Times is left wing, perhaps you are even more to the right than you think

While looking in to that other Dubliner article I came across one of his that explored the notion that, since the appointment of Ms. Kennedy, the Irish Times has shifted to the right. Surely he means further to the right - but anyway. He concludes that it’s difficult to pin down the IT politically as it doesn’t commit to one line or the other and if its politics is attributable its to a small c-conservativism.

He actually makes some good points, and says, significanly I think, that many of the media types he talked to had strong opinions about the political bias of the Irish Times but were not willing to say so on record.

Some unnamed source is quoted as saying:

“And it’s not so much what the paper is saying as what it’s not doing – like the massive ongoing story of the property scandal, with excessive uncontrolled lending and a market held up by belief. The ideology is the Emperor’s New Clothes, and the paper is ignoring it.”

However, even many of those concerned by the shift admit that it was “never a beacon of the left” (a phrase I heard repeatedly). Novelist and former Irish Times literary editor John Banville says: “It was always a conservative paper, as conservative as the barristers, businessmen and doctors who bought it. However, it had a knack of seeming radical, and there was a time, 30 or so years ago, when radicalism was fashionable among such people.”

This is not explored though, because it seems clear that this ommission is based on a strategic business decision. Ideology doesn’t even enter into it. Unless colluding with a major vested interest is an ideology now.