The unstoppable rise of conspiracy theories
THE Fianna Taoiseach Fail leader has repeatedly Micheal Martin accused of peddling what he calls “conspiracy theories”, but opponents of the Government can hardly be blamed for believing there may be more to what goes on behind closed doors than meets the eye.
As BBC Radio Four’s Analysis pointed out last Sunday: “Everybody believes in at least one (conspiracy theory), and probably a few”. There are, after all, so many to choose from. The programme was presented by Oxford University professor James Tilley, who suggested that believing the Americans never landed on the moon, for example, is merely a heightened version of the way we think about politics every day. It’s basic good vs evil stuff.
The notion that an army of mad American Catholics might be about to flood the country to bully pregnant Irish women into not having abortions looks suspiciously like a classic moral panic in the same vein.
On Tuesday’s Today With Sean O’Rourke on RTE Radio One, anti-abortion campaigner Maria Steen suggested that there was “not one shred of evidence that this was actually happening on Irish territory". saying reports of US groups wishing to do so were simply being used to paint pro-lifers as a “basket of deplorables”. Amnesty Ireland chief Colm O’Gorman chided her for using “inflammatory language”, which was ironic, because his assertion that pro-life groups are “trying to intimidate women and girls”, and that changes to the law to ban such protests outside healthcare facilities were therefore necessary, was quite emotional too.
More interesting was Steen’s claim that pro-choice campaigners who triumphed in last year’s abortion referendum are “officially the sorest winners ever”. Analysis looked into that too. “Conspiracy theories are for losers,” one academic commented. Could Ireland be bucking that trend?
What lies beneath all these various theories, the programme suggested, is a distrust of the official story. That’s what makes journalistic scrutiny so important.
Sean O’Rourke didn’t really push O’Gorman on how far the right to protest should be restricted, and Ivan Yates on Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder didn’t press David Quinn of the Iona Institute very hard on his views either. Nor was Senator Catherine Noone exactly put through the wringer by Matt Cooper on Today FM’s Last Word when she declared that “whatever about the laws”, this was a “wider cultural issue about how women should be treated”. Shane Coleman was much more impressive on Newstalk Breakfast as he quizzed Minister for Health Simon Harris about his longing for exclusion zone around abortion facilities. Coleman put it to the Fine Gael TD that "legislating to stop people protesting, however distasteful you may find it, that’s going down a dangerous road”. As he said: “Everyone wants to be on the side of the angels about this, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”
Welcoming these tougher exchanges with those who hold controversial views is not some abstract argument about editorial balance. It just makes for better radio.