The Phoenix Magazine is an Irish fortnightly current affairs magazine that claims to be “Ireland’s leading investigative and satirical publication”. It’s available in print and online. It’s been going since 1983 and has been in steady decline since the Noughties. It had an ABC-audited circulation of 19,014 for 2004 and 18,268 in 2007. As of 2018, the figure was just below 12,000. Basically, the only people who read it are people who have more than a passing interest in Irish politics.
Let’s talk about The Phoenix Magazine's latest masterpiece: a breathless, wide-eyed retelling of a ludicrous fake news story, which, if you squint at just the right angle, it might pass for reporting—that’s if you’ve recently suffered a concussion and then drank 10 pints of Guinness (which I wouldn't recommend). The piece reads like it was dictated over a crackling phone line from the Russian Ministry of Propaganda, translated via Google, and then lightly dusted with a sprinkle of “analysis” to give it th…
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