Jack Leahy, Elections Editor & Rónán Burtenshaw, Deputy Editor
With hundreds of votes already cast before on-campus voting began this morning, the end is most certainly nigh for the 2012 campaign period. As the hours pass, more and more previously undecided voters are making choices on who they want to be their sabbatical officers next year. The end is nigh.
However, no election period could be complete without The Piranha‘s unique take on candidates. The scarce few who expected controversy to emerge once again were denied their fix of scandal as the profiles seem fairly harmless, with the possible exception of that of Emma Walker and Owen Bennett. Decide for yourself here, and be sure to catch my toilet-based daily blog on the back page.
Because I can’t find one section to which to assign it, I’ll start with this:
This video appeared today on the ‘whelanforents’ Youtube channel and features Rory Dunne, David Whelan, and Owen Bennett among others encouraging students to go to the effort of voting for their next sabbatical officers.
The video has received mix reaction, with the candidates insisting they were the only ones hanging around Halls after hustings when the video was being made and pointing out that they are not wearing campaign t-shirts in it.
On the other hand, a prominent member of one of the other eight campaign teams was sceptical of the motives that informed the video. Speaking to The University Times, they said:
If they felt strongly about getting students out to vote and wanted to release a video they should have approached the SU and asked them to do it. I mean, if the whole thing was out of the goodness of their hearts then surely it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t in it, or they would have made a bigger effort to include all candidates.
Communications
The issue of the ski trip story arose again today, with a war of words involving last year’s University Times Editor Tom Lowe and Communications candidate Owen Bennett.
A rumour had been circulating that, because of the involvement of one of those named in the story with Bennett’s campaign, a deal of sorts had been struck to remove the ski trip article from the website or, even, write a retraction.
Bennett categorically denied these allegations when he spoke to The University Times earlier today. While ackowledging the person in question, who went to the same school as Bennett, had “friends involved in the campaign” and may have “told people to vote for him” he denied any deal or bearing their relationship may have on the removal of the article.
UT Deputy Editor Rónán Burtenshaw asked all three of the Communications candidates at last night’s Halls hustings if they would make a pledge not to remove the article, unless new evidence emerged. “It’s especially important,” he said, “because this story has never been refuted yet we remain under pressure because of its publication. It’s a question of good journalism, and sticking with stories when they’re hard.”
While both Cogan and Hagan made explicit commitments, backed up today, to this pledge, Bennett appeared to leave more room. He said last night that he would not give a pledge about such a sensitive topic but that he didn’t forsee a circumstance where he would take it down “without new information or a strong argument” being presented.
He was even stronger when questioned about this today. “If no new evidence emerges I will not take it down. It will stay up unless I am forced to remove it.” This, he said, amounted to “a pledge”.
The UT is aware of a discussion earlier in the day between Mr. Lowe and Mr. Bennett in which the latter appeared to cast doubt on whether he would defend the story if a complaint was brought to the Press Council. This, Bennet said, was not the case. “I would make a case to the Press Council on behalf of UT. I would need to be briefed by those involved as to the facts – which I don’t know – but I will.”
Bennett also said that he would consult those who had written the story, Tom Lowe and Ian Curran, before making any decision. “That was never in question”.
When asked whether he had spoken to the individual involved about the story, Bennett conceded that he had been approached with a request to take it down. “I told him ‘no, I can’t commit to that’ and that was it,” he said.
Bennett, however, did criticise the content of the piece. “I think there were some problems with the article. It came across as a bit sensationalist. It has over 200 comments, most are negative about the article and Tom Lowe. I think it was made out to be worse than it was, to paint [the individual in question] in a bad light.”
His concerns, he says, were based on the accuracy of the material involved. “I think it is a very serious issue. It will have a huge effect. If an employer searches [his] name then that comes up. We have to be sure it’s factual.”
According to Mr. Lowe and this year’s UT Editor Ronan Costello a complaint has never been lodged to the Press Council about the article, nor have there been any legal threats beyond the e-mail printed alongside the original piece. Mr Lowe says he stands “100% behind it”, while Mr. Costello said he wasn’t aware of any factual inaccuracies in the piece.
There had, however, been requests made to take it down. Mr. Bennett said he was aware of these requests from an external source.
The article, originally published last January, has 2,241 recommendations on Facebook, over 30,000 views and was picked up by a number of national media outlets because of the startling nature of the allegations involved. Mr. Lowe went on to win Journalist of the Year at last year’s Smedias.
In a statement to the UT Tom Lowe said the following:
“I would hope that Owen Bennett will follow his manifesto and protect freedom of speech if he becomes editor of the University Times. The article has never been challenged either legally or in a complaint to the Press Council and I stand behind what I wrote. If he’s serious about the job he’ll realise that he must protect the paper’s editorial reputation and independence and not bow to pressure from his peers, who have certainly never been shy about making their vocal displeasure known to me.”
Mr. Bennett also made comments to the paper about what he perceived to be The University Times’ biased reporting. “I think this is part of a larger campaign against outside candidates, like myself and Rory Dunne, by the UT. Jack Leahy’s blogs during the week were incredibly biased. I think it was meant to bring us down.”
There was little else to report on today, with campaigning truncated by rules prohibiting campaign material from being displayed or distributed in polling areas. To counteract this, Team James Kelly displayed placards and banners on the arts block ramps, and I’m reliably informed that Rory ‘the romantic’ Dunne had heart-shaped leaflets for distribution in honour of everyone’s favourite Hallmark holiday. Perhaps that’s just a rumour, but I’d like to believe that it’s not.
Voting will take place tomorrow and Thursday all day in a number of locations, finishing at 4pm before the count begins at 6pm. Call me spineless, but I reckon three races are still up for grabs.
