Letter: Twelfth Derangement Syndrome in full flow at media outlets this year
A letter from Samuel Morrison:
Following a Twelfth which was peaceful and incident-free, one might have thought the Orange Order and band fraternity in Northern Ireland would have received some credit.
Not on your life.
In fact, with the honourable exception of the News Letter, the attacks on the marching season have - if anything - intensified.
How does one explain this?
After many years observing the pattern, I’ve concluded that certain sections of the media suffer from a serious medical condition - Twelfth Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
It’s a highly infectious seasonal affliction, known to spread rapidly in the newsrooms of the BBC and Irish News. Alarmingly, a severe outbreak has also been reported this year at the Belfast Telegraph.
TDS causes afflicted journalists and commentators to experience uncontrollable urges to trawl through hours of parade footage and social media posts, desperately searching for offence on behalf of others.
At the BBC last week, we witnessed a full-blown TDS flare-up, culminating in hallucinatory bias and editorial collapse over Goldsprings LOL 1037.
The symptoms were obvious:
• Confirmation Bias Blindness - ignoring any facts that didn’t suit their narrative;
• GAA Projection Disorder - imagining grievance where none existed;
• Self-Inflicted Credibility Amnesia - forgetting their own editorial guidelines like balance and right of reply;
• Outrage-Driven Reporting Paralysis - rushing to print because the story sounded too good to bother checking; and (most seriously)
• Moral Superiority Tunnel Vision - so blinded by their own prejudice that they couldn’t recognise corrections even when placed right under their noses.
Thankfully, even in extreme cases like this, treatment is possible.
Experts agree that actually reading what Orange lodges say - and reporting it fairly - is a highly effective cure.
There’s even a rumour going around: that by stepping outside their echo chambers, attending a few parades, and meeting the people they so casually smear, some of these journalists might experience a rare and wonderful thing… rediscovering what real community celebration looks like.
Sadly, this condition does not only impact those who directly suffer from Twelfth Derangement Syndrome.
Because it is so pervasive within the media class, it prevents tens of thousands of people - who pay the wages of those afflicted within the BBC - from seeing a fair and accurate portrayal of one of the most important days of the year for them.
The hours spent in halls practicing musical instruments year-round; the hundreds of pounds invested in the local economy in band uniforms; the sense of history and a living tradition which links them to generations past.
All of that deserves to be reflected fairly by the public service broadcaster we are required to pay for.
If that’s beyond the current staff of BBC Northern Ireland, then it’s time to clear out the newsroom and hire people who understand that fair reporting is a duty - not an optional extra.
Samuel Morrison, TUV press officer