Media coverage – Page 24

Sheriff Lenihan feeding the journalists

NAMA to go after homes of wealthy developers. (Cowen and Lenihan reject plea to spare family houses).

Cowen ignored lobbying by CIF for builders.

The above three, tough talking, headlines from yesterday’s Irish Independent give the impression that the Government are going all out to deal with those nasty property developers, that the wealthy are not being let off the hook at the expense of the hard pressed taxpayer.

And that, of course, is exactly the purpose of the propaganda which, as always, is gratefully lapped up by naïve journalists.

Government ‘sources’ feed journalists the story that NAMA will move to seize the personal assets and houses of property developers in the best interests of the taxpayer.

The tough talking, no nonsense sheriff, Brian Lenihan, even included a provision in the NAMA Act to pursue developers who transferred their assets to their wives or children in an attempt to avoid paying their debts.

Alas, it’s nothing but the usual waffle designed to fool long suffering taxpayers (and journalists) as the following quote demonstrates.

However, the NAMA Act does state that nothing in its provisions will interfere with the 1976 Family Home Protection Act, which prohibits the sale, mortgage or remortgage of a family home in Ireland without the express consent of both spouses.

That may make it harder for NAMA to take away family homes from property developers with large debts.

Long live the (corrupt) republic

Sunday Independent business correspondent Brian Keenan is a conservative.

He’s one of those people who sincerely believe he lives in a functional democracy where accountability is, if not the norm, at least possible. It must, therefore, have been difficult for him to admit the following.

The truth is that Ireland is an ill-governed country, and has been for some time.

Yes, I know, it’s a mild almost sheepish description of the horrific reality that Ireland is facing but it’s a start for a journalist who, to date, has lived in a lovely, warm and comfortable cocoon of denial.

He goes on:

Time is now running out, not just to fix the public finances, but to fix the body politic.

You see here, it’s beginning to dawn on this conservative that there’s something wrong with our political system. Yes, he’s about 30 years too late with his tiny and timid insight but it’s a start for a journalist who has always been comfortable in his denial.

He goes on:

Fianna Fail, of course, will have to fix itself. For most of the past 30 years, it has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Like much of the country’s other difficulties, this is fundamentally due to an unwillingness to change.

Wow, this is incredible insight – Fianna Fail is part of the problem.

Let’s see, around 1982 I realised that Fianna Fail was rotten to the core with corruption. The party that still supports and admires the criminal Haughey is the single greatest factor in the destruction of our country.

The solution is not for Fianna Fail to fix itself; the solution is for Fianna Fail to be destroyed as a power in the land.

The question that Mr. Keenan grapples with in his article is whether Ireland should default on its debts and it is here that we see he has learned nothing; that he’s still living in his comfortable but deadly denial.

It cannot just be economic calculations, though. No rich country has defaulted since World War II. Twenty years ago, rugby captain Ciaran Fitzgerald had not yet uttered what remains my instinctive response to the idea: “Where’s your f**king pride?”

Here Keenan looks out from the cesspit of corruption that Ireland has become and shouts at the world.

We are Irish, we’re proud and we will defeat this terrible disaster not by facing uncomfortable realities, not be putting the corrupt in jail, not by radically reforming our corrupt political, regulatory and business sectors.

No, we will solve our problems by appealing to a false, naïve and totally misplaced nationalism.

Long live the (corrupt) republic.

RTE News covers Dail protest incident – after the dead bird story

I received a text from Gavin last evening informing me of the trouble outside Dail Eireann. I immediately switched to RTE for an update but apparently the national broadcaster was as much in the dark as I was.

Morning Ireland just about managed to cover the story slotting it in as a low priority piece after a story about a dead bird.

Some of those involved were interviewed on Today with Pat Kenny. Revealingly, Kenny opened with the following advice to listeners.

If you want you can check out the events on utube, there’s TV3 footage available there.

There are unconfirmed reports that the bulk of RTE News staff are still up in Northern Ireland desperately searching for stories like, for example, the breathtaking report of a few days ago that a policeman was slightly injured in a row outside a pub.

Northern Ireland – RTE's only story

WARNING: Reading the following piece may result in dangerous raptures of excitement, please proceed with extreme care.

Rachael English and RTE’s Northern Ireland Editor Tommie Gorman were barely able to contain themselves as they excitedly analysed the various Northern Ireland candidates running in the upcoming UK election (Saturday View).

What’s your sense of the fascinating battle shaping up between candidates in South Antrim Rachel breathlessly asked some guy on the panel?

And what about the absolutely fascinating news from the pivotal constituency of South Belfast and Fermanagh/South Tyrone? There’s a strong possibility that the Unionist vote may be split in this area.

My god, a split in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone Unionist vote? Such a catastrophe would surely be greater than the Haiti earthquake and Iceland volcano combined, the end days must surely be close to hand.

Tommie Gorman then treated listeners to a breathtaking, minute by minute, account of some guy called Campbell running for election in North Antrim.

I was out with him during the week, he was jumping across garden walls, going into farmyard sheds looking to see the man of the house, crossing the road if he saw people engaged in discussion. He was really keen to get involved in the chat because he’s very, very hungry.

(Tommie didn’t say whether he directed the man to the nearest McDonalds outlet).

Tommie also reported on somebody called Lady Sylvia Hermon. According to Tommie she’s had a very lonely time of it at Westminster but so sure is he of her success that he offered the following advice to listeners:

If you want to put your NAMA savings on a candidate in the elections I’d say you could put a few bob on Sylvia Hermon.

No, really, that’s what he said – put your NAMA savings on it – listen to the tape.

And as if all that wasn’t excitement enough listeners were sensationally informed that for the first time in the history of the Cosmos the counting of votes in Northern Ireland would take place overnight.

There are unconfirmed reports that RTE is to ask the RAF to airlift the entire broadcasting complex from Montrose to Belfast in order to provide in-depth analysis and everlasting coverage of this mega, historic, never to happen again event.

For years I’ve been trying to figure out why RTE is obsessed with all things Northern Ireland. Perhaps it’s because the station has invested so much time and resources covering the province, especially during the war years; that to now admit the war actually ended about twenty years ago would mean a loss of funding or even jobs.

I continue to listen to RTEs coverage of Northern Ireland, not because I’m interested in what goes on in that depressing place, but rather to witness the fascinating echo created by RTE journalists as they talk excitedly among each other about a story that all rational people have long forgotten.

Churchill, that great man of history, a man who knew the difference between great events and the absolutely boring got it right when he said the following about Northern Ireland during the House of Commons debate in 1922 on the Irish Free State Bill.

Then came the Great War: every institution, almost, in the world was strained. Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed. The position of countries has been violently altered. The modes of thought of men, the whole outlook on affairs, the grouping of parties, all have encountered violent and tremendous changes in the deluge of the world.

But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of the few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept the world.

Copy to:
Saturday View

RTE saves minister from nasty union man

Sean (RTE presenter Sean O’Rourke) and Brian (Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan) engaged in a lovely, gentle conversation today on such matters as the economy, the progress of the trades union/government deal and connections between Quinn Insurance and Anglo Irish Bank.

I was very impressed with Sean’s patience as he listened attentively and quietly to Brian as he rambled on wistfully about consumer confidence, turning corners and learning lessons.

From time to time I did hear a number of squeaks in the background as Sean gently tried, without success, to interrupt Brian’s ramblings.

It was clear that Sean and Brian are best friends forever and that RTE is their favourite place in the whole wide world to meet and chat about all kinds of nice things.

The mood was spoiled however when Sean had to change into riot gear (government issued) including baton, shield and helmet to interview a nasty union man – Liam Doran general secretary of the Irish nurses and midwives organisation.

Initially O’Rourke allowed Doran have his say but as we learned later in the attack he, O’Rourke, was carefully timing this nasty union man.

You’ve gone on at some length actually and I allowed you to talk for about three minutes before I asked you a second question so if I could just come back in with another one.

Really, what has become of us when RTE, a government controlled broadcaster, allows a union man to argue his case for three whole minutes without interruption?

I was so worried that Brian was still in the studio and heard all that nasty stuff about fairness and accountability but Sean assured listeners that he had left the premises and so wouldn’t be talking to the nasty union man.

RTE fails to challenge the moronic politicians

It was with deep, deep anger that I listened to our moronic Taoiseach Brian Cowen on RTEs Nine News (18.26) spewing out garbage speak when asked about his responsibility for the failure of bank regulation.

Before quoting this moronic fool let’s briefly outline the truth of the matter.

Brian Cowen, leader of the most corrupt political party in Ireland, is a traitor to his country. Instead of showing loyalty to the people of Ireland this stupid backwoodsman conspired with bankers and developers to create a property bubble that served only the interests of his party and its rich friends.

He and his predecessors, some of them outright criminals, have destroyed our country by their greed, stupidity and arrogance; they have done more damage to the people of Ireland than their favourite hate figure Oliver Cromwell.

Here’s what the moron had to say when asked about his responsibility:

Well the regulatory system we had worldwide throughout the whole Western world, built up over thirty years, was a system where people believed as Greenspan did that there was no problem to be resolved shows that it simply wasn’t sufficient and that’s acknowledged.

But this is a global crisis, this is a crisis that happened in global capitalism, it’s not something that originated here, or was caused by any individual here.

Now if such a stupid lying statement was made by a politician in any self respecting democracy the immediate response would be contemptuous laughter followed by a deserved public humiliation by the interviewer.

If, for example, Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow was subjected to such drivel the politician in question would be immediately torn to shreds not just out of respect for the intelligence of the viewers but to ensure that the interviewer himself was not seen as an idiot who was incapable of recognizing horseshit when it was thrown in his face.

But RTEs David Davin Power didn’t bat an eyelid when the horseshit hit him square in the face. He simply moved on to the next question just like Brian Dobson did when that other lying bastard, Bertie Ahern, admitted that he appointed people to state bodies not because of any particular talent but because they were his friends.

This submissive, deferential attitude by RTE towards politicians, especially politicians in power, is deeply disturbing and is in stark contrast to last week’s well orchestrated campaign against low paid civil servants in the passport office and their union when RTE personnel not only adopted a strong anti union attitude but blatantly promoted the Government’s side of the issue.

Copy to:
Fianna Fail
RTE News

Union official ambushed by RTE/Pat Kenny

Pat Kenny was booed at the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) conference in Galway last week by delegates who felt they had been unfairly treated on his Frontline programme.

Kenny defended RTE on Today with Pat Kenny (Friday 1.12).saying that at all times each side in any given dispute is treated fairly. He dismissed the negative reaction from the delegates:

When you hear what you like you cheer, when you hear what you don’t like you boo.

Let’s do a quick analysis of that particular Frontline programme.

It began with a clip of a very angry woman outside the passport office giving staff a hard time.

(Government 1 – Workers nil).

Cut to the studio and Kenny is interviewing a woman who had obviously been carefully chosen because of the emotional impact of her story.

Her children had received tickets to Paris Disneyland as a Christmas gift from their grandmother and now they couldn’t go because of the workers/union action.

I would like somebody to tell my children why they can’t go,

the distraught mother demanded, glaring at Eoin Ronayne, deputy general secretary of the CPSU.

Kenny was enthusiastic in leading her on with emotionally charged questions such as: Do you think it was bloody-mindedness on their part (passport office staff) and, have you told the children yet?

(Government 2 – Workers nil).

With the audience (and viewers) suitably emotionalised Kenny proceeded to interview (attack) Eoin Ronayne who was on his own.

No (highly paid) government minister was present to be questioned about the part they played in destroying the country’s economy which sparked the industrial action. No representative from the extremely well paid higher civil servants who enforce government policy within the civil and public service.

(Government 3 – workers nil).

Kenny’s interview stance was angry, confrontational and accusatory. Ronayne was at all times courteous and calm. At one point when Kenny was running out of steam he called in the distraught mother for another dollop of emotionalism.

Maybe you could ring my children tonight, Peter 10, Christine 13 and explain to them why they’re devastated that you will not let them fly on Friday. What are you going to do for me and the other 40,000 people that are in my situation?

What price do you put on the disappointment of children demanded Kenny of Ronayne and later suggested that staff at the passport office had deliberately sabotaged passport machines to make things worse for ordinary people.

(Government 4 – workers nil)

With the exception of one person all comments from the audience were anti worker. The piece finished with the distraught mother being given yet another opportunity to make an emotional attack on Ronayne.

You took away my children’s chance of their Christmas to go and travel. They have no choice; you’ve made us suffer for your cause. I hope you’re happy.

(Government 5 – workers nil) (RTE/Pat Kenny – disgraced)

This disgraceful anti union, anti worker ambush by the national broadcaster was not an isolated incident.

All through the week on Liveline, Today with Pat Kenny and RTE News the trend (policy?) was the same – The general public were the victims of the evil Union/workers, the Government was an innocent party doing its best to help out.

It really is time somebody challenged the politicalisation of RTE.

Copy to:

The Frontline
Today with Pat Kenny

RTE's news priorities

The legal expert deplored the event; he was quite surprised at what happened. He suggested that radical action needed to be taken.

The journalist was also surprised and agreed that further action must be taken on the issue.

The first politician said the action was wrong and indicated that action must be taken.

The second politician was shocked by the event and said that the Oireachtas was going to have to do something about this kind of behaviour.

So what was solicitor Frank Buttimer, journalist Ralph Regal, politicians Kathleen Lynch (Lab) and Dan Boyle (Greens) talking about on Today with Pat Kenny? (Friday).

Was it the disgraceful news that Frank Flavin of DCC has been allowed off scot free with an €83 million fraud on the stock market? Was it the banana republic style inquiry into the banking crisis?

No, the outrage and demands for immediate action were triggered because a picture of Wayne O’Donoghue’s (who?) girlfriend appeared in a newspaper last Sunday.

A nation in pathological denial

There was a very good example of denial Irish style on Today with Pat Kenny last Friday.

A panel of commentators, Sean Mac Connell, Irish Times agricultural correspondent, Gina Quinn CEO of Dublin Chambers of Commerce and Diarmuid Mc Dermot of Ireland International were discussing the problems caused to water supplies by the recent bad weather.

The reasons for the problems were correctly identified by the panel – Failure to invest in proper infrastructure, failure to plan ahead, failure to make the best use of money during the boom years, failure to install water meters, failure to make a decision regarding water charges, failure of proper planning and so on.

Now the reason for all this failure is crystal clear for anyone willing to open their eyes and see. Ireland is a corrupt state led by a mafia type body politic where votes, power and influence are on sale to the highest bidder.

This brutal reality, however, must be ignored at all costs, some other reason must be found for our failure as a state no matter how stupid that reason. Here’s what Sean Mac Connell thinks:

Some historians will say that because we have been a rural people for so long that we may not be capable of organizing ourselves into urban societies and the more I look at our society, it’s probably true.

We don’t seem to have the capability of coping with an urban environment because we’ve had the tradition, and of course, because we’re a relatively new country.

We have no tradition of governing ourselves, it’s only 60/70 years (sic) and you can have no civic spirit then. Those two elements should never be neglected when we’re thinking about how we live.

Nobody challenged this moronic opinion before Kenny added his own.

Well there was always the notion that before we won our freedom that the British government did everything for us and there was a certain antipathy towards that government and that never really changed when we started to run our own affairs.

There’s some truth in this view but Kenny failed to follow up with the obvious question – Why are we, as a people, chronically incapable of maturing into a proper nation. Why do we constantly blame the British for our incompetence, corruption and other failures?

Diarmuid Mc Dermot added his piece:

There’s always a rebellious streak in every Irish person.

This is just another cowardly cop out. If such a rebellious streak existed in even a sizeable percentage of the Irish people then criminals like Haughey and chancers like Bertie Ahern would never have survived and prospered.

The only reason politicians, priests and bankers can abuse and exploit their own people is because the majority of citizens are politically ignorant and (still) chronically deferential to authority figures.

Remember, the panel started off by correctly identifying the reasons for our pathetic failure to deal with a spell of bad weather and, effectively, concluded that it’s not really our fault – pathological denial.

Sam Smyth: Best to ignore corruption?

Recently, a panel of guests was asked for their predictions for 2010 on the Tonight with Vincent Browne Show.

One of the guests, Sam Smyth, when asked did he think there would be an inquiry into the banking crisis, replied.

No, because if they did no one would ever again invest in banks.

I replayed the clip to see if Smyth was being ironic, humorous or cynical, but no, he seemed to genuinely believe in what he was saying.

What hope is there for Ireland if Smyth, a man who is seen by most as an intelligent journalist/commentator, believes that the best way to deal with very serious corruption is to bury your head in the sand and hope that nobody notices?