The RTE News Editor was in a quandary. Two stories, but which one to broadcast as a lead on the early evening current affairs programme, Drivetime.
The first story concerned a major political scandal that had just broken involving the second most powerful man in the state, Finance Minister and Tanaiste Brian Cowen.
The Minister had secretly passed a law that was specifically drawn up to help party colleague, Michael Woods avail of €75,000 of taxpayer’s money that he, Mr. Woods, was not entitled to. The scandal became significantly more serious when the Dept of Finance blatantly tried to cover up details of the story.
The editor’s second choice concerned an old story about job losses in another country.
He opted for the second story.