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.
You’ve been listening to too much Beatle’s music ‘Imagine there’s no heaven’ 🙂