Category: Media coverage

I can’t let the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross affair go without comment.

There was a great deal of tut tutting in Ireland in response to the affair but, curiously, hardly a word of criticism of Tommy Tiernan’s obnoxious performance on the Late Late Show in which he exploited the suffering of disabled people for a few cheap laughs.

When it’s one of our own we tend to analyse the incident to death and then make excuses but we seldom actually admit that anything wrong occurred.

In stark contrast our sense of outrage is immediately triggered when such behaviour occurs in other countries. Truly, our hypocrisy is world class and none better than Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers.

In his column Myers tells us that civilisation as we know it is in danger if the likes of Ross and Brand are not permanently banned from the airwaves. He tells us that the BBC is a corrupt organisation, that in addition to Ross and Brand, Simon Cowell and Jeremy Clarkson are also abusive bullies.

Phew, heavy stuff and to cap it all Myers tells us that 9pm is far too early a watershed for the broadcasting of sexually explicit remarks. Are we seeing the emergence of an Irish Mary Whitehouse here?

Myers’ hypocrisy is of a particularly obnoxious kind because if he was to adopt the standards he demands of the BBC he himself should be permanently excluded from writing in newspapers.

The Ross/Brand affair was in the halfpenny place in comparison to his infamous ‘Bastard’ article in the Irish Times in February 2005 in which he accused unmarried women of

“Consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the State.”

There was massive and sustained outrage over the article eventually forcing Myers to issue what he called an unconditional apology. It was, of course, nothing of the sort. We can see this clearly by simply comparing two contradictory quotes, one from his article and one from his apology.

“And how many girls – and we’re largely talking about teenagers here – consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the State? Ah. You didn’t like the term bastard? No, I didn’t think you would.”

Obviously, Myers was fully aware that his use of the word bastard would cause outrage but he tries to cover that up in his apology.

“In tackling this subject, I deliberately used the word “bastard” because I genuinely feel that the word has no stigma attached to it; and because I feel this with such a passion, I did not allow for other people’s sensitivities over it.”

Russell Brand was fired from his job and Jonathan Ross was suspended for twelve weeks which will cost him £1.7 million in lost wages but that’s not enough for Mr. Myers, he demands that:

“The only punishment for a such a studied and deliberate assault both on their lives and on the standards by which the rest of us live must be a condign and permanent exclusion from the airwaves.”

The ‘Bastard’ article by Myers was a much more serious incident than that of Ross and Brand and yet he demands nothing less that the total destruction of their careers as punishment.

Obviously, Myers is of the opinion that his offensive article required nothing more than a shallow and dishonest apology.

As I said; Irish hypocrisy is world class.

Copy to:
Kevin Myers

Many congratulations to Sarah Carey on landing the prestigious job as columnist with the Irish Times.

I’m sure ‘Herself’ in charge is delighted to have such a good quality writer on the team.

RTEs obsession with all things Northern Ireland continues apace.

Apparently, we’re coming up to the 40th anniversary of the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement that ignited all the ‘recent’ troubles. RTE is marking the event with a new website which, we are told, gives fascinating reports from the station’s archives – I’m overwhelmed with the excitement of it all.

On Today with Pat Kenny (Friday) we heard four veterans of the movement endlessly relate their experiences. I suppose there’s some small justification for this but what are we to make of the long and very boring interview with author Brian Rowan (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday) who has just written a book entitled How the Peace was Won.

Rowan is a former security editor for the BBC in Belfast and this is his 4th book on the Peace Process – yes, his 4th book on the same subject.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it was his 4th book on world history or Irish history or the history of Northern Ireland or even the history of the recent troubles but no – this his 4th book on the god damned Peace Process.

Does the man have no other life, no other interests, does he have a woman, a family, does he drink a pint, does he collect bird’s eggs; is there anything else he can do? Surely the man is in need of some serious counselling.

And what about those who read these books, I mean, is there really anybody out there who has actually read all four books. Is there some lunatic out there who, having just put down book three is thinking, I just can’t wait to get stuck into book four.

Surely Rowan and his readers, not to mention certain RTE staff are all victims of the conflict, all obsessed with a piddley little part of the world that has imposed its piddley little squabbles on the rest of civilisation for centuries.

And there’s no end in sight, it’s going to go on forever. RTE has miles upon miles of archives in the cellars of Montrose. And when all the countless events that occurred in the 30 years of their piddley little war are commemorated the whole ritual will start all over again.

Churchill, that great man of history, a man who knew the difference between great events and the mundane 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.”

And so it remains today – May Zeus save us all.

Now – I feel a lot better for getting all that off my chest.

Copy to:
RTE News
Pat Kenny Show