Noel Whelan, political analyst and former Fianna Fail candidate, is very upset at the way his hero Brian Cowen is being treated by the media.
“Brian Cowen has been subjected to an avalanche of criticism…some of it well grounded…however there’s also a large element of the criticism which is overly personalised, snide, cynical and juvenile.”
Whelan raged on Today with Pat Kenny (Monday).
Whelan accused the media of taking short cuts in order to fill print and air time and said they should reflect on their own failures.
Political lampooning is common in all self confident democracies but particularly in the UK and US. Politicians in these countries are mercilessly satirised but seldom complain because they don’t suffer from an inferiority complex.
Irish politicians and their friends get upset, I suspect, because they know that the humorous criticism is very close to the truth.
My question, under what ‘exemption’ does Whelan, a former FF candidate, get air time on RTE as an ‘independent’ political commentator? He is introduced as a barrister and political commentator, without any mention of his antecedents.
Bye, Barry