Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Marian Egan was wondering what poem Michael Murphy quoted in his interview on the Late Late Show (1.41).
The poem is Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This is the quote:
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
The full poem is here.
Former leader and founder of the Progressive Democrats, Des O’Malley, was recently interviewed (Saturday, 27th June) by Marian Finucane.
The interview was revealing in that it told us as much about the ignorance of journalists/broadcasters like Marian Finucane as it did about the incompetence of politicians.
The following is analysis and comment as the interview progressed.
On Haughey
Finucane: Do you admire Haughey?
O’Malley: I admire certain aspects of him but fundamentally the man was flawed.
Finucane: But aren’t we all?
O’Malley: It’s an awful pity, he could have been so successful but he chose to carry on in a really silly way.
It’s difficult to believe that these people are talking about the most corrupt politician in the history of the state. They are talking about a man who, for decades, plundered the state of its wealth for the benefit of himself, his family and his friends.
A man who took Irish politics down into the sewer where it remains to this day, a man whose legacy is a country where corruption, incompetence and arrogance are the defining features of the ruling elite.
They are talking about a man who was so bereft of honesty and ethical boundaries that he had no scruples whatsoever in robbing a fund set up to save the life of his best friend.
The But aren’t we all flawed comment by Marian Finucane demonstrates a deep ignorance of the reality and consequences of corruption in Ireland.
Apparently, Finucane sees the corrupt Haughey as just another ordinary citizen who made a couple of mistakes during his lifetime. She appears to be completely ignorant of the massive damage done to Ireland and its people by this criminal.
She also seems to be completely ignorant of how the Haughey corruption virus has spread to every level of Irish society and in particular to the white collar sector.
A caller to the show expressed astonishment at Finucane’s comment saying:
I doubt Marian has failings similar to Haughey. If she did I hope she can expect her P45 waiting for her as she leaves the studio.
Finucane was not pleased with this upbraiding by a mere listener.
Well, I think it’s always very dangerous for anyone to be going around adjusting their halo and saying that they’re holier than thou.
Again, Finucane is demonstrating a dangerous ignorance of the reality of corruption. I say dangerous because, as Haughey was no ordinary citizen, neither is Marian Finucane.
She is one of the most influential broadcasters in the country, every week hundreds of thousands of citizens listen to her words and opinions with close attention.
Most of these listeners take her views/comments as gospel and act/think accordingly. For that reason alone she has an obligation to properly inform herself of the realities of what’s going on in Ireland today.
And Finucane is not the only journalist/broadcaster who seems to live in a parallel world of ignorance. Joe Duffy, Pat Kenny, Charlie Bird and many other RTE current affairs staff are far too close to members of the body politic.
In recent times it has become increasingly evident, to even the most casual observer, that the interaction between most elements of the Irish media and the political/business sectors has become disturbingly unhealthy.
Many of these so called unbiased journalists appear to be personal friends of politicians; they travel together, stay in the same hotels, eat in the same restaurants (often at taxpayer’s expense) and drink in the same bars.
On Mary Harney and the Department of Health
O’Malley praised Harney for having the courage to take on such a difficult job.
This is rubbish; the real story here is not the so called courage of one politician but rather the cowardice of so many others. What would happen, I wonder, if they were asked to lay down their lives for their country – the mind boggles.
O’Malley goes on to wonder what sort of catastrophe would befall the country if Harney decided to give up her job.
I think all sorts of vested interests would ride roughshod over us again.
What is this man talking about? Ok, I accept that O’Malley is getting on a bit but he must still retain enough brain cells to know that the Department of Health/HSE is a vested interest in itself; that its bureaucracy acts at all times in its own interests and certainly not in the interests of patients.
People’s lives are regularly put at risk to cover up gross incompetence and some even die. You can’t get more roughshod than death through incompetence.
On being back in a recession
According to O’Malley we’re back in recession because there wasn’t sufficient supervision and regulation of what went on.
Hang on, wasn’t it his party, the party that promised to clean up Irish politics and make other parties and government officials accountable, in power for most of that time led by none other than his heroine Mary Harney?
On the high moral ground
Finucane: One of the things that got up the nose of Fianna Fail but also of ordinary people was the high moral ground, the holier than thou attitude….It seems to me that the high moral ground can be a lonely enough place to be.
O’Malley: The high moral ground is not just a lonely place it’s also a dangerous place because you can only come down.
Finucane: A silly place, a silly place.
O’Malley: Yes, and that’s why we tried to avoid that, we got painted with that.
My God, we were worn out from trying to stop things happening (corruption). But the more you went at it the more you were accused as being on the high moral ground.
There’s a limit, you have to coexist with people, get on with the job and not let every big or little problem deflect you completely from it.
For years this Irish attitude to the high moral ground has bothered me. It seems that the Irish are the only nation in the world who regard the striving for high moral principles in public life as a bad thing, a silly thing as Finucane says.
This, I believe, is a symptom of our denial of what we really are as a nation. If we all agree that the high moral ground is a bad place, a place where the holier than thou go to adjust their halos then it’s legitimate for everybody to avoid this ground.
This warped attitude to morality in public life also makes it possible to ‘forgive’ any crime. It makes it possible for an apparently intelligent woman like Marian Finucane, and many others in the media, to equate Haughey’s crimes with the minor infringements of morality common in the everyday, it brings us all down to the sewer.
If we’re all living like rats in the sewer of corruption and incompetence then we can all live safely in denial, we can all pretend that Ireland is a normal functioning democracy and any attempt to improve ethical standards, any notion of occupying the high moral ground will receive instant condemnation from the likes of Finucane and O’Malley not because it’s a bad thing but because it threatens their delusional world of ethical ignorance.
For one brief shining moment the PDs were truly revolutionary in their challenge to the swampland of Irish political and business corruption but that corruption is too deep, too all pervading within the Irish system of government to be rooted out easily.
When Mary Harney became leader of the PDs she realised that ethics/accountability was a mugs game and quickly reverted to her Fianna Fail roots and has been living there happily ever since.
On O’Malley’s greatest achievement
The stopping of the Irish aviation bill in 1984 which would have imposed a fine not exceeding £50,000 and/or imprisonment for two years on anybody who sold airline tickets at less than the price which Aer Lingus had fixed in coordination with its cartel partners.
Finucane expressed shock at such extreme law.
Quite extraordinary, it sounds like another country given where we are now.
Given where we are now?
Clearly, Finucane believes that Ireland has moved on, has become a modern accountable democracy and believes that the Ireland of draconian/Tammany Hall type law is dead and gone.
Here’s just a sample of recent laws or proposed laws that Finucane obviously feels are in no way draconian or ‘extraordinary’.
The Employment Equality Act 1998. This act was introduced to bring Ireland into line with EU equal employment rights directives but the main churches were granted an exemption which allows them to hire and fire on the religious beliefs and moral behaviour of employees and potential employees.
There is no difference between this law and the religious laws enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In February this year the Irish government enacted a law which makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop.
Contained within the Act is a presumption of guilt until proved innocent. This runs contrary to Article 48 (1) of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Government is in the process of inserting a blasphemy clause into the Defamation Bill which will see citizens liable upon conviction of a fine of up to €25,000.
The proposed Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 will, among other measures, do away with the right to trial by jury and provide for secret detention hearings and detention on the unsupported word of a single Garda.
Allow hearsay as admissible evidence and permit information to be given in the absence of a suspect and his or her legal representative.
Ireland is a much more corrupt, much more unequal country today than it has been at any other time in its history.
A major contributing factor to that corruption and inequality is the intellectual laziness and ignorance of broadcasters like Marian Finucane.
Copy to:
Marian Finucane
The Brian Cowen caricature stunt which started out as a humourous and harmless stunt has evolved into a very serious matter.The artist, I believe, never dreamed that his/her action would expose RTE as a lapdog of the Government.
Discussing the matter on Today with Pat Kenny, Fianna Fail TD, Michael Kennedy said;
“RTE is there to give serious news items. It’s not a comedy piece…I want it to be balanced, I want it to be unbiased and I want it to be newsworthy, not fickle entertainment.”
I want, I want, I want.
So, we’re clear on what Mr. O’Kennedy and the Government wants, we’re also clear that RTE has no problems or scruples in immediately complying with Government demands.
And keep in mind this is just the latest in a number of cases where RTE were happy to cave in the moment they received a phone call from an angry government.
Last November we saw the outspoken government critic, John Crown, banned from appearing on the Late Late Show and more recently we saw the curtailment of references to Cowen on the Gerry Ryan Show.
But RTE cannot escape the consequences of its actions. I, and I’m sure a great many other people, will never again see its news broadcasts in the same light, particularly if the news report concerns any matter that’s sensitive to Government officials or politicians.
The question will always be in the back of my mind – how much of this report is genuine news and how much is government propaganda?
RTEs craven kowtowing to government bullying has seriously damaged its credibility.
Copy to:
RTE News
Former Fine Gael TD, Ivan Yates, is chairman and managing director of Celtic Bookmakers, a chain of 64 betting shops around the country so I think it’s fair to say he’s a very rich man and all I can is – fair play to the man.
But you don’t get to be that successful in business without possessing great business acumen and Yates obviously has that in spades when it comes to promoting his business. His annual exploitation of the naivety of RTE and in particular Pat Kenny can only be described as pure business genius.
For the tiny sum of a €250 per day donation to charity Yates has managed to get himself a full, very valuable, ten minutes on the Today with Pat Kenny Show over the four day Cheltenham horse racing festival which must be one of the most lucrative racing events of the year for bookies.
I doubt there’s a businessman in the country who could afford to pay for such golden access to the airwaves if they were paying, by the minute, commercial advertising rates.
Even if Yates was to offer, say, €5,000 per day to charity over the four day period, he would still be getting very valuable airtime on the cheap, but at a mere €250 per day, it’s a giveaway.
Pat ended the piece (advertisement?) by thanking Yates for his generosity.
It’s likely the wily businessman was thinking to himself: ‘No Pat, thank you and RTE, very, very much for your generosity.’
Ivan Yates is certainly not a man to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Copy to:
Pat Kenny
Ivan Yates
Noel O’Reilly, the producer of RTEs flagship news and current affairs programme Saturday View was in a quandary – Two stories, but which one to broadcast.
The first story concerned the world’s financial system which was in meltdown. Our own government had just staked all our futures on a €400 billion bail out of the Irish banking system. Everything was in flux; the news was red hot, dramatic. Historic events that will have far reaching consequences for every human on the planet were occurring from minute to minute.
The second story concerned a civil rights march that occurred in Derry 40 years ago.
Here’s how the presenter, Rodney Rice, introduced the show.
“I thought we could all do with a weekend away from the financial crisis. So we’ve come to Derry to be part of the recollection of that famous march on Oct 5th 1968.”
Actually, RTE was not giving us a break but rather was yet again indulging in its obsession with all things Northern Ireland. Nothing, absolutely nothing takes precedence over events in NI.
If somebody throws a stone, if a Catholic looks crooked at a Protestant, if a politician breaks wind – RTE will be there with their permanent and ever alert outside broadcasting unit.
RTE has thousands of secret agents operating all over the dismal province constantly on the look out for anything that could be defined as news. Deep in the bowels of Montrose, in a cellar the size of a Shuttle hanger, thousands more constantly pore over millions of miles of film and other archival material incessantly working on stories, putting together documentaries and preparing for yet another anniversary.
Last month a team leader was severely upbraided for failing to notice that a Mrs. Jones from the Falls Road in Belfast was knocked over and cut her knee during a riot in July 1974. A documentary commemorating Mrs. Jones’ knee is now in the final stages of production.
But RTE doesn’t just operate in the depressing and irrelevant past when it comes to NI. The Director General has a direct line to Moscow and Washington and is daily updated on how much time the world has before Armageddon should the red buttons be pressed.
Happily, it would take at least half an hour before total annihilation – Just time for one last documentary on the dismal province before we all go down the spout.
Yes, yes, I know. I’ve become obsessed with RTEs obsession – Bring on the nukes.
Copy to:
Saturday View
The National Lottery has a new game called Millionaire Raffle. Tickets cost €20 each and the game is limited to 300,000 players. There are 532 prizes, the first two are for €1million; the next five pay €100,000 and prizes range downwards after that.
The first draw took place during the Rose of Tralee Festival last Tuesday but players are not at all happy with the manner in which the whole thing was organised.
Most of these 300,000 people tuned in to the show in the expectation of watching a live draw in which all their dreams might come true. Alas, it was not to be. The draw had actually taken place earlier that day, behind closed doors, at the National Lottery HQ in Dublin.
Photographers were dispatched to all the winning agents where photographs were taken and emailed to Tralee in preparation for the ‘live’ draw later that night. The ‘live’ draw turned out to be just the live ‘announcement’ of the winners.
Slick, efficient, great for RTE and the National Lottery but many callers into Liveline (Wed) were very suspicious of the whole deal. Derrick Davis said people thought there were victims of a three card trick. Many also expressed amazement that one of the €1million winners just happened to live in Tralee.
The whole episode has echoes of the National Sweepstakes operation of which I wrote about recently and the common denominator is state involvement and control. The corrupt Sweepstake, which for decades robbed countless millions from Irish citizens, was set up and run by the State, even the draws were supervised by a Garda Commissioner.
Consider the similarities with the National Lottery. RTE is a State organisation that practically acts as the promotional wing of the National Lottery. Curiously, a spokesperson for the Lottery didn’t know what financial arrangements existed between the NL and RTE for the Rose of Tralee.
The Dept. of Finance ‘regulates’ the activities of the NL, I wonder what arrangements are in place here. The State’s police are still involved with a Garda drawing tickets every week in company with a representative from KPMG. And most significantly, it’s a government minister (Martin Cullen, I think) who decides who benefits from lottery funds.
So, the State broadcaster, two government departments, the police force and an individual minister, all running or involved in the National Lottery. Sure, who could be suspicious of that?
For the third week in a row the panel of Questions & Answers featured two pro Lisbon Treaty organisations – Green Party and Labour. And for the third week in a row there were no representatives from the anti treaty side.
While there was no direct question on the referendum it was inevitable that the issue would arise, as it did, on the question concerning the Mandelson WTO negotiations.
To date all the major pro treaty political parties, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party, have enjoyed the huge advantage of having their spokespersons argue their case as high profile members of the panel while those campaigning against the treaty have had to make their case as members of a general and largely anonymous audience.
There is no programme next week but the following week’s programme will be totally dedicated to the referendum. Assuming that the anti treaty side will be represented on the panel it will be the first and only occasion they will have been afforded such an opportunity before voting day.
Copy to:
Q & A
There was almost universal approval when King Bertie announced that Prince Brian was to be his successor. Naturally, the Royal Court Media was delighted as were the great mass of peasantry. Even the general media, who, from time to time were wont to make some small criticism of the ruling power, were gushing in their praise.
It was accepted without question throughout the land that Prince Brian was the most intelligent entity in the universe, that if Socrates or Einstein were alive they would be beating a path to his castle in Clara to listen in awe to his words of wisdom.
It was also universally accepted that Prince Brian was the bravest knight in the realm, that he rode the swiftest steed; that he possessed the sharpest sword. He was the hero who, with just one bellow of his mighty voice, would slay the dragons of the opposition cowering in their dark caves.
Alas, the court wizards neglected to advise the great prince that he must not believe all that was said lest he be forced to actually perform to such lofty standards.
Even the great Roman emperors of yore, as they paraded through Rome in Triumph, had a slave at their shoulder constantly whispering in their ear – Remember thou are mortal, remember thou are mortal…
And so it has come to pass that on his first tryst with the chief dragon of the opposition King Cowen failed to land a blow. In truth, it must be proclaimed that the dragon had the best of it.
And today we hear that an entire clan of dragons conspired to prevent the great King Cowen deliver his words of wisdom to the great mass of peasantry, and that this dastardly act was perpetuated within the confines of the royal court itself. – Dail Eireann.
But fear not fellow peasants for the Great King has promised, nay, threatened that such behaviour will not be tolerated. He has put the unruly dragons on notice that if his royal person is not afforded due respect then he will impose an edict of silence over all the land.
The Royal Court Media has nodded its approval (2nd report).
For the second week in a row the panel of Questions & Answers featured two pro Lisbon Treaty organisations – Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.
There were no representatives from the anti treaty side.
Copy to:
Questions & Answers
I note that the panel of Questions and Answers last Monday featured two pro Lisbon Treaty organisations – Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. There was no representation from the anti treaty side.
I note that the panel on The Late Debate last night featured two pro Lisbon Treaty organisations – Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. The pro treaty representatives on the show, Mary O’Rourke (FF) and Alex White (Lab.) made a strong attack on the strategies employed by the anti treaty side. There was no representation from the anti treaty side.
I note that RTE (9th report) gave wide coverage to the launch of a booklet by the Referendum Commission outlining the main points of the treaty.
An advertising campaign by the Referendum Commission warns voters that unless they know everything about the issue they will be voting in the dark. The problem with this is that voters are not being asked to vote on the Treaty as such but on an outline of the main points as interpreted by the Commission.
The Commission, an allegedly neutral authority, is not supposed to give a view one way or the other. That, unfortunately, didn’t stop the chairman of the Commission from telling the nation that important issues like taxation and neutrality will not be altered by the treaty.
“That’s our considered position and we have no option but to so state it.”
These two issues, neutrality and taxation, are two of the main planks of the anti treaty campaign. No anti treaty representatives were asked what they thought of the pro treaty views of the Commission.
I vaguely remember, back in the mist of time some sort of a law requiring the national broadcaster to ensure a strict balance of reporting for each side in a referendum – perhaps I was just dreaming.
Copy to:
Questions and Answers
The Late Debate