Niall O'Dowd

This post is not going to get personal. I do, however, have problems with the ideological stance the editor of The Irish Voice takes on immigration in America, namely the privileging of Irish immigrants above any other country. That topic deserves a whole post of it's own, and will probably get one on another day. Today, however, my problem lies in his dual role as a member of Hillary Clinton's financing committee, and a commentator on the American primaries and caucuses in the Irish media. Now obviously, as a high profile ex-pat, O'Dowd ticks a lot of boxes for the Irish media in terms of someone who can be easily accessed, has a grasp of what's going on, and is a competent communicator. And I have no problem with him being a commentator, or indeed supporting a particular candidate in the afore mentioned race for party nominations. What I do have a problem with is the lack of transparency from both Niall O'Dowd and the Irish media that he appears on or in (RTE, the The Irish Times, and The Star spring readily to mind, and there are more than likely others that I haven't come across). I would have thought it prudent for a commentator/journalist to disclose any information that might compromise their article, however O'Dowd does not appear to follow this belief. Neither does The Star (who consistently omit the information), The Irish Times (who let one column go unchecked, but have subsequently acknowledged his role on Clinton's team) and RTE (who have, to the best of my knowledge never referred to the role when interviewing him). Is this the kind of case that the Press Ombudsman was set up for?