The reaction of RTEs Bryan Dobson to the arrival of protesters during a live interview is very revealing of RTEs attitude to those who dare to question the authority of the State.
It wasn’t the actions of the protesters that so annoyed Mr. Dobson. It wasn’t that they were jumping up and down shouting slogans and insults.
It wasn’t that they were interfering with the interviewee or the RTE crew, as Mr. Dobson later claimed.
Indeed the protesters were a model of decorum; they merely placed themselves behind Mr. Lyons in order to take advantage of a media event to quietly and peacefully express an opinion.
Such protests are very common in all functional democracies.
No, it seems it was the mere fact that the protesters were present at all that so annoyed Mr. Dobson.
Dobson’s extraordinary reaction can be reasonably compared to state controlled media in non-democratic states like Communist China.
He made an immediate and independent editorial decision to terminate the interview based on his opinion that the protesters were a distraction.
He expressed an intention to ‘get rid of’ the protesters before resuming the interview at a later time.
I suspect that Dobson was personally upset to see one of the protesters disrespecting our ‘Great Leader’, Enda Kenny, by using his photograph as part of the protest.
It’s typical that Dobson has no tolerance for ‘idiot’ protesters but seems to have endless tolerance and respect for idiot politicians as evidenced by his warm and cuddly interview with a previous ‘Great Leader’, Bertie Ahern.