In February 2019 political correspondent Hugh O’Connell wrote a piece about a trend that had “raised concerns” of a “brain drain”: Fine Gael hiring half a dozen journalists as special advisers in 18 months – a “brain drain”, wrote O’Connell. Government had offered lucrative positions, with salaries often exceeding €100,000, and journalists couldn’t resist. And who, in this media environment, could blame them?
So goes the story journalists tell themselves about the relationship between their profession and power. Six years later the brain drain continues. Hugh is among the most recent batch of reporters to leave a senior position in a major…