Where the Grass is Greener

Mere moments ago, I suggested that it would be interesting to see what effect the Colonel's departure from The Irish Times would have on the paper of record's circulation. Simon of The Dossing Times commented:

It will be interesting. I guess he will bring some [my italics, copernicus] readers to the paper.

By readers I meant people who like to write letters to papers. half the letters page is about him what will they do ?

The Sunday Business Post article in the direction of which Simon was kind enough to point CE makes much of the Colonel's clashes with The Irish Times during his long tenure at the paper:

Myers has previously clashed with Kennedy, notably over a January 2005 column which was spiked. In it, he blamed the IRA for the Northern Bank robbery. However, the precise reasons behind his decision to depart are not clear.

[...]

Myers landed in controversy in February last year when a column he wrote described the children of unmarried mothers as ‘‘bastards’’.

He subsequently apologised.

As far as I know, Kevin has long felt seriously under-remunerated for his contribution to the IT's circulation (At least if memory serves, I've been reading as much in The Phoenix since I was a little boy). It was certainly the case that at the height of the Colonel's powers he was putting serious numbers of bums on seats. If he goes, we'll see if that was still the case. (Check out the tense grammar in that sentence, parsing nerds). I may be wrong in playing up the money angle in contradistinction to the SPB, but I wonder at the suggestion that Kevin necessarily considers the Indo a bastion for such as he from the intolerance for his views which has led to conflict with The Irish Times, editor and trust members both.

If memory serves (again), didn't the Independent family (patriarcus maximus, AJF O'Reilly) bring bastard-baby type pressure to bear in respect of the services of the Colonel's good chum and tabloid-christened "Bonk of England", Mary Ellen Synon for what those of a certain cast of mind are disposed to call "crimes" (I'm attributing the ironical inverted commas to them) against political correctness? Readers will remember her apology and subsequent resignation from the paper following the furore which greeted her disparaging remarks about the Special Olympics. (Just who do these bastard babies and persons with intellectual challenge think they are to presume to irritate sensitive souls like Kev and Mary anyway?)

To return to the Sunday Business Post article:

Two years earlier, he attacked the lack of transparency in the financial management of The Irish Times and the large amounts paid to executives.

He contrasted this with the Independent group, writing: ‘‘I am frank in my admiration for Tony O’Reilly.”

Ms Synon's wikipedia entry gives a little background to her disassociation from the group:

The article which was criticised by the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) was subsequently discussed in the [Seanad] where Maurice Hayes, a Senator and director of Independent News & Media, which owns the Sunday Independent, said it was indefensible, indecent and hurtful: "It should not have been written and if written, it should not have been published. I know that my views are shared by my colleagues on the Independent board and in particular by the chairman."

How long before the Colonel incites a similar level of outrage among his expanded readership and causes "the Chairman" to feel certain of his musings should not have been published either? Kevin's passionate support for Ms Synon in her darkest hour was obviously at odds with the attitude of his future board.

On a final, touching note, it seems Ms Synon has continued her journey through the looking glass with a defence of [un]intelligent design. So all is right with the world then.