Meejit spends some time in the Ukraine and dissects the media there.

The news silly season is upon us.

I guess I was barely a wet week in this wet place back in 1985 by the time various people had opened my wide American eyes: the Leader of the Opposition and Taoiseach-in-Waiting, Charles Haughey, was a scoundrel, probably a criminal, and a philanderer whose lovers could be pointed out as they made their various appearances in the media.

There was a time, believe it or not, when I was a quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of guy, putting together more of the Irish Times' education supplements than I care to think about counting.

The ugly word "paroxysm" springs to mind for the recent understandable, but largely hysterical, always disproportionate and sometimes objectionable, media reaction to the legal debacle over "unlawful carnal knowledge".

Never let it be said that your Meejit column doesn't try to get the facts for you so you can make up your own mind about stuff.  Harry Browne on the State broadcaster.

Ah see, you knew the time would come. And it's happened already, right? You miss Kevin Myers in the Irish Times? Harry Browne on Myres and The Irish Times.

Much of what we hear about the internet involves, say, teenagers trading sectarian abuse, paedophiles on the prowl and gamblers seeking new holes into which to pour their money. However, and despite the poor rollout of broadband in Ireland, if you're a politically active Villager, you're probably regularly online.

There has been particularly bad media coverage of the Rossport/Shell protest and case.

The Advantica report, which 'gave the green light' to Shell's pipeline, in fact expresses serious safety concerns about the project and acknowledges that some critical safety issues are outside its terms of reference. Harry Browne reports