The National Recovery Plan dominated RTE's Nine News on Wednesday evening with 22 minutes of coverage and analysis. The following news item reported the murder of two young cousins, Mark Noonan (23) and Glen Murphy (19), in Dublin the previous night.

News anchor Ann Doyle introduced the item, reporting that "neither victim is thought to have been involved in serious crime". The studio cut to RTE's crime reporter Paul Reynolds at the crime scene. In his first sentence, Reynolds termed the killing a "gangland murder". He said: "The bodies of the victims of the country's latest gangland murder were removed just before midday today from the forecourt of the Tesco Clearwater petrol station in Clearwater, Finglas where they were shot dead last night."

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Social networking site Twitter lit up with complaints last night over RTE's coverage of the press conference at Government Buildings where Taoiseach Brian Cowen announced that Ireland's application for financial aid had been approved by the EU. 

[Video: Vincent Browne questions Brian Cowen at Sunday's press conference]

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A study carried out in Dublin City University shows that the Irish print media depends heavily on public relations material for its daily news content. By Joe Galvin

The study, carried out by postgraduate students in 2010, found that between 11.6% and 21% of newspaper stories across eight major daily publications were mainly or entirely generated by public relations material, and that between 32% and 50% of all stories contained elements of public relations material. The worst offender was the Irish Times (21% of stories comprising all or mainly public relations material) with the Evening Herald scoring best (11.6% comprising all or mainly public relations material).

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The Sunday Tribune will be published in full-colour tabloid henceforth. The compact design launched today aspires to attract new readers, particularly women and younger readers. The paper lost €5m in 2008 and is expected to have lost at least that sum in 2009, mainly because of flagging advertising revenue and declining sales.

The new-look frontpage is distinctive on newspaper stands. It gives the impression of being more compact than its broadsheet competitors, and its design is quite apart from other tabloids which tend to use dazzling double-colour. The paper appears to contain no less content than the old broadsheet format.

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The media extends itself chasing hares about sex crime and political corruption while it systematically neglects fundamental injustices. By Vincent Browne.

The focus on Ivor Callely, and on others accused of abusing public funds for their own gain, misses a big point.

The focus on the threat Larry Murphy, the released rapist, poses to society, misses another big point.

We in the media are good at missing big points; our livelihoods depend on it. For missed big points are often uncomfortable.

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There used to be a vigorous, challenging, intellectual vibe about RTE in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. But now it is home to a culture of complacency. By Vincent Browne.

Cathal Goan, the outgoing director-general of RTE, is a fine man: personable, intelligent, well-read, good company.

Had he the decisiveness and general managerial ability to be head of RTE at a difficult time? Certainly in some cases.

In other cases, maybe not.

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A prominent media expert warned yesterday of the dangers for media organisations in using social networking sites which have the potential to be "corrosive" to media authority. By Joe Galvin.

Richard Delevan, a journalist and managing director of McConnells Integrated, said there was a "cultural conflict between old and new media". He stated there was a lack of understanding among traditional media as to how to fully exploit social networking sites.

"The average person...spends more and more of their lives online," said Delevan. "That's great, but it does have a huge effect [for organisations]." Delevan said it was now easy for an organisation's authority to be challenged, and there were dangers of online discussion degenerating into an uninformed "free for all", thus subverting the original message.

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As George Lee’s detachment from party politics is questioned, Fine Gael’s former poster boy will have moved from the backbench to RTE’s backroom when he returns to the national broadcaster next month. By Joe Galvin.

Next month, George Lee will return to RTÉ after his brief and unsuccessful dalliance with politics. Already, before he has even begun, he has been criticised for partisanship.

Last week, Lee said that he was “not sure about the Taoiseach” and that “on the basis of what we’ve heard there certainly appears to be a lot of unrest”. These comments can hardly be described as incendiary, yet the backlash was swift.

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