Cowengate

Behold our glorious leader




After reading this from the Indo

But Leno's comments were condemned by the head of the Oireachtas Communications Committee, Fianna Fail TD MJ Nolan. He said Leno had a responsibility to have "fair comment" on his show." Politicians these days are the butt of a lot of entertainers' comments. I would prefer if the comment wasn't made," he said.

I wrote this to Nolan

Asking for Jay Leno to withdraw his remarks re drunken moron, was an exercise in idiocy. It was an invitation for Leno to continue, in fact. Leno is a racist, sexist moron and you provided more ammunition.

Have you actually got any communications training or did you just haul your response from the affronted rack?

Contemptuously,
Mór Rígan

While I hold Cowen and Leno both in contempt, I am amused that Cowen can be outrageously affronted when asked if he was drunk. Of course, he was drunk. He had consumed enough alcohol to still be drunk a mere five hours later. This is not conjecture or defamation. It is the simple fact of the effect of alcohol on the human body. Maybe he felt fine but that does not change the number of pints he consumed. If even one drink can impair judgment (as the RSA are forever reminding us), steady drinking for hours impairs judgment too. If he were sober, he would not have done the Morning Ireland interview.

But what can we expect? In Ireland, it seems that facts are negotiable. Otherwise Cowen would have been laughed off the podium. It seems like being a politician is all about keeping a straight face when swearing blue is yellow.

It remains me of a particular Frontline episode where the beards were arguing with the private sector about whether public service pensions are contributory or not. I don't know the answer but there is a single answer. It is not a topic for debate and especially not when the same argument was played across the boards for a couple of months.

Or the Lisbon Treaty. We can argue about the interpretation of the clauses but they are set down, in stone as it were.

Facts are not debatable, anymore than one can be slightly pregnant or slightly dead.

I demand clarity and definitions. I wish broadcasters would go to interview school and learn to spot the techniques of evasive. At least it would require public sphere commentators to up their game a little.

Sometimes I wish that the Vikings had conquered all of Ireland because the national character might not possess its two fatal flaws.