Category: Media coverage

Imagine…

The most notable aspect of this media interview of Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern is how friendly much of the Irish media have become with politicians (Gavin’s Blog). It was first name terms all around with lots of banter and laughter with not a hard question or a trace of anger in sight.

Imagine if there was a journalist there who was aware that the Minister is a member of the most corrupt political party in the country, a political party whose toleration of corruption within its ranks and among its friends in the business world has caused immense damage to the people of Ireland and brought the country to the brink of ruin.

Imagine if there was a journalist there who was aware that this Minister believes the corrupt Haughey is an innocent man and who repeatedly stated that he believed every excuse the chancer Bertie Ahern spouted under oath at the tribunal, no matter how unbelievable and ridiculous.

Imagine if there was a journalist there who was aware that the Minister’s statement that ‘people who eat in fancy restaurants could end up eating porridge’ is as unbelievable as the equally empty rhetoric of former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell when he said that such people would end up hanging up their Armani jackets on the back of a Mountjoy prison cell.

Imagine if we had a media that really got stuck into politicians and uncompromisingly forced them to account for every word of drivel that spouted from their mouths.

All is well, no decisions required

It’s touching to witness the childish hope demonstrated by Marc Coleman in today’s Sunday Independent. Writing about the visit last week of EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Competitiveness, Guenther Verheugen and European Central Bank President, Jean Claude Trichet, Coleman gushed:

“Both were listened by an eager, if not scared, audience that was hungry for inspiration. That audience wasn’t disappointed. And neither was I. I discovered that in this time of crisis Ireland does, thank God, still have friends on the European stage.”

Coleman has completely missed the point. These men were in Ireland on a public relations exercise to convince the world that the situation in Ireland is not as critical as it actually is. They were also here to encourage Irish authorities to make decisions, get off their collective butts and deal with the crisis. The last thing the EU wants is for one of its members to go the way of Iceland.

But Coleman and the Government are much more comfortable in the land of denial. Trichet and Verheugen told them that Red tape for small businesses is going to be cut and the European car industry is to receive encouragement.

Well, that’s it, all is well, the crisis is over. No decisions required.

Incestuous RTE

Irish Times letters. I agree with the point made.

Incestuous RTÉ chat shows

Madam,

I am not an avid viewer of what passes as a chat show on RTÉ television these days. But sometimes circumstances force me to have to sit through them.

My request is simple: Could RTÉ please desist from having RTÉ people as guests on RTÉ shows?

I know we are living in straitened times, but I am starting to feel like I live in the RTÉ canteen. I need to hear some new ideas, some new anecdotes. Is it any wonder that we have a lack of emerging talent in the country? Television will eat itself.

Yours, etc,

RONAN CAHILL,

Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Ignoring that sinking feeling

Ok, the movie plot is a bit fantastic, a bit over the top, but still, very entertaining.

Editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, plays a powerful but gullible passenger on the Titanic. He’s fawning over the captain, played by AIB boss, Eugene Sheehy, during dinner.

Both men are so engrossed in their own realities they fail to notice that the ship is sinking, that the trapped steerage passengers are panicking as the rich and powerful take to the lifeboats.

See here for an exclusive Public Inquiry preview.

Copy to:
Aengus Fanning

Are you ready boots – Start walking

I wish President Obama every success in his attempts to bring peace to the Middle East but why, oh why did he have to appoint George Mitchell as peace envoy? Does he not realise the great suffering his decision will bring on the Irish people?

From now on every report on Mitchell’s progress in the Middle East will be previewed with a detailed account of the part he played in ‘Our Peace Process.’

Indeed, it is evolutionary impossible for any RTE newsperson to mention the name George Mitchell without recounting in great detail the part he played in ‘Our Peace Process.’

‘Our Peace Process’, which, it could be argued, has been going on for about 800 years, is lauded as a model for the rest of the world to follow. For feck sake, it went on for decades, the Good Friday Agreement alone took about twelve years to implement and that was after years of endless talks about talks about talks.

As George himself says:

“This was almost 800 years after Britain began its domination of Ireland, 86 years after the partition of Ireland, 38 years after the British army began its most recent mission in Ireland, 11 years after the peace talks began and nine years after a peace agreement was signed. In the negotiations which led to that agreement, we had 700 days of failure and one day of success. For most of the time progress was non-existent or very slow.”

You can almost feel the manic frustration in his words.

During negotiations it was obvious that Mitchell was on the brink of insanity, that at any moment he was going to start walking until he reached the Atlantic and then – keep on walking.

It’s likely that Mitchell had only one condition when Obama asked him to deal with the ‘easy’ Middle East conflict – No landings in Ireland, not even over flights, I’ll travel via the North Pole if necessary.

But Irish citizens will have no such escape. Already, deep in the bowels of Montrose, the old news reports and documentaries, anything featuring Mitchell, are being dusted down in readiness for broadcast.

Time, methinks, to put on the boots and start walking for the Atlantic.

"Shut up, stop it" – 'We don’t want to hear the truth’

Marian Finucane (Sunday) was still very upset about the Ireland/Iceland joke on a recent Newsnight programme (See previous posting).

I suspect that Marian and her panel are more upset because the joke, which most people have already heard, was made by the ‘old enemy’ and proves the point that most Irish people are still struggling towards national maturity.

“We’ll it’s something that gets up my nose I have to say while I do think we have made mistakes, the subprime which has caused disaster right across the world originated in the US and I don’t want to be hurling insults at anybody but I mean that is where it started. So as it is the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Herald Tribune quoted that (Essentially, Ireland is corrupt) which is probably not doing us any good.”

Businessman and property developer Noel Smyth agreed with Marian

“That’s exactly the type of comment that you don’t need…we’ve had all the jokes…now we’ve had enough, shut up and let’s get on with it…we’re the wild west according to somebody in Germany (sic), somebody else said in the New York Times you wouldn’t invest in Ireland because you’d lose your money. Stop it; we’ve got to stop that.”

As Smyth spoke he was supported by a chorus from the panelists – Yes, that’s right, that’s right.

There was no discussion or acceptance that what these newspapers are saying about Ireland is actually true. Even as the financial tsunami that’s engulfing the world begins to expose the truth of our corruption we’re still shouting – ‘Shut up, stop it, we don’t want to hear the truth’.

Copy to:
Marian Finucane

Please, don't tell us the truth – We're Irish

Marian Finucane (Saturday) is not happy with the BBCs current affairs Newsnight programme .

According to Marian they were very sneery towards our Minister for Finance and our economy. During an interview on Newsnight it was put to Brian Lenihan that the only difference between Ireland and Iceland is one letter and six months.

“Completely untrue, replied the Minister, we have a thriving economy…we have a very strong vibrant economy.”

Lenihan didn’t specify which planet he’s currently living on.

Finucane responded.

“And I suppose you can’t help the Minister defending our own ground. I mean people are quoting the Financial Times (Ireland is a banana republic) and the New York Times (Ireland is the Wild West of EU finance) and various newspapers around the world (Astonished to learn that Fitzpatrick’s dodgy activities are actually legal in Ireland) talking about our crazy banking system.

Now let’s face it, there are a few things within our banking system that we have discovered that are not very far from crazy. But the fact of the matter is that the subprime messing started in the US and it seems to me that banking and bankers all over the world lost the plot. Anyway, there you go, I won’t go long winded on it.”

(Too late Marian).

Finucane’s reaction is typical of most Irish people when faced with the truth -Somebody else is to blame, in this case the subprime scandal in the US.

She can test the veracity of her view that Ireland is no different from any other country by answering a very simple question – What other country accepts serious criminal activity within its financial sector as the norm?

Copy to:
Marian Finucane

Whelan's rant

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.

Bertie hates 'Bertie'

Bertie is not happy with ‘Bertie’. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the documentary on his life is probably a big turn off for viewers (Irish Independent).

Figures from RTE show that 601,000 tuned in for the first episode, 594,000 for the second and in excess of 500,000 for part three – I’ll bet RTE would love ‘big turn offs like that every night.

Ahern says he hasn’t been watching the series but has been told (by one of his mafia ward bosses?) that there has been non stop coverage of his personal finances

Warped understanding of democracy

Without question, Ireland is the most centrally controlled, secretive and corrupt country in the EU.

It is therefore hilarious to witness politicians, various commentators and a disturbing number of journalists attack those who ran campaigns opposing the Lisbon Treaty referendum on the basis that, somehow, they were acting undemocratically.

The reality is that it is the politicians and much of the media who pose a threat to democracy by their absolute refusal to accept the democratic will of the people.

Declan Ganley, in particular, has been singled out and portrayed as the Devil Incarnate himself if we are to believe what these so called defenders of democracy think.

At the weekend we saw these defenders of democracy ban Irish media from attending a press briefing given by the Czech president Vaclav Klaus and Declan Ganley.

There is no difference whatsoever between this act of media suppression and similar bans imposed by the former Soviet Union. Not a murmur of protest was heard from the National Union of Journalists.

Here’s how RTE reporter, Sean Whelan, presumably himself a member of the NUJ, reported this piece of state media censorship (Link not available).

“President Klaus gave a briefing to Czech journalists but Irish officials wouldn’t let the Irish media in. It’s unusual not to have media access to a visiting head of state but then it’s unusual for a visiting head of state to be opposed to the Lisbon Treaty.”

Whelan’s view (or perhaps the view of somebody higher up in RTEs news department) seems to be that only visiting heads of state that are in full agreement with government policies will be allowed full media exposure.

Dissenters will be strictly monitored and their views censured by government agents, just like they are in China and other communist countries.

Minister of State, Conor Lenihan is also very worried about the threat to democracy by people who take it into their heads to act democratically. Here’s what he had to say on Today FM yesterday.

“There is an issue around Lisbon that does affect our democracy in one very serious way.

What’s happening is that people who were part of the loose alliance of groups that opposed Lisbon are now being accorded the same status as for instance Lucinda (Creighton FG) and Alex (White Lab) here who are actually quite different, they’re elected representatives.

But one of the issues now is that even in media picking and choosing of panels they’re now being given equal status which I think is somewhat suspect.”

“But there’s a really profound issue here because the people and parties that supported Lisbon represent the democratic will of the people of Ireland yet now we have people who have never being elected, who don’t put themselves before the electorate, yet come out at the time of referendums and campaign.”

Ok, Conor Lenihan is not the brightest but even he should realise that it is the main political parties in the country with massive support from mainstream media that are challenging the democratic will of the people, not those who successfully campaigned for a No vote.

The show’s presenter, Sam Smyth, who I presume is also a member of the NUJ, made no challenge whatsoever to Lenihan’s claim that only elected politicians should be allowed to campaign on political matters.

Clearly, Smyth is a Yes man.

Copy to:

RTE News
NUJ
Dept. of Foreign Affairs
Sam Smyth
Conor Lenihan