Love/Hate fiction more rational than our corrupt body politic

I tuned into RTEs John Murray Show yesterday morning where the discussion centred on some fictional series called Love/Hate.

Murray and his guest were very excited about the horror featured in the show and wondered would there be another series.

Having never watched an episode of the show I got bored and switched over to another channel for the news but, to my amazement, the same fictional series was been seriously reported and analysed as if it was real – on news programmes for feck sake.

And so it was throughout the day, Newstalk, Today FM, RTE, Liveline, Drivetime, News at One, Six One News and many more, all reporting, analysing, debating, anguishing, speculating who will die next, will there be another series.

The producer, actors, RTE’s head of drama and whoever you’re having yourself were all interviewed at length as to their reaction to this fictional programme.

Actors spoke in shock about the horror they felt as they acted, I stress, acted, in the programme, commentators wondered would the actors/viewers need psychological help in dealing with the fiction, I stress, fiction.

In our bizarre state fiction had finally merged with what passes for reality.

I wondered why and, very quickly, the answer came as I listened to reports of the latest political scandal involving allegations of serious tax evasion by senior politicians.

The family of former Fine Gael TD, Attorney General and High Court judge, Declan Costello claimed he had ‘forgotten’ he had a Guinness and Mahon bank account and he never did anything wrong anyway so stop asking question.

Then I heard the Minister for Enterprise and Jobs, Richard Bruton, without the slightest sign of embarrassment, tell the nation that the witness statement he received from the whistle blower, which contained very serious allegations against senior politicians and state agencies like Revenue, the Gardai and the Office of Corporate Enforcement, remained hidden in his office for two full years because someone in the department had retired.

And I thought to myself – No, the nation’s media treating a fictional series as if it was real is not really all that surprising.

In fact, it’s more rational than the horrific reality we suffer every day under the jackboot of our corrupt body politic.