The Indo proves its worth again

The Indo is doing exactly the same thing that TV3 did re Lenihan. Hypocrisy much?

A senior government source said: "TV3 was a total disgrace, at one stage speaking of the minister in the past tense. That was the most disgraceful broadcast I have ever heard."

The station's political editor Ursula Halligan reported: "It's shocking news for members of the public. Brian Lenihan was... eh, is regarded as one of the more popular members of the Government."

A spokesman for the Department of Finance last night felt obliged to issue a statement on the health of Mr Lenihan as a result of mounting speculation throughout the day that he is seriously ill.

Several of Mr Lenihan's Cabinet colleagues did not want to publicly comment on the manner in which TV3 News handled the report because, they said, the Finance Minister had not yet publicly confirmed the nature of his illness, reported by TV3 to be pancreatic cancer.

Death and the media

Growing up in the Ireland of the 80s and 90s there were always funerals on the news. The troubles revealed a tendency in the Irish press to always go for the easy headline - the coffin. RTE seems to have a particular fetish for funerals but the Irish Times now follows suit. With JOD's scandalous expenses, NAMA, the recession and all the rest of the shit, why are the papers full of Seb Crane?

It is disgusting to wring every cent out of families grief. Why are the Irish press obsessed with coffin shots? Coverage of every aspect of this boy's death is not necessary and is no news. It's is terrible but it's not news. At least not enough for so many cover stories.

Young people are killed often, both by accident and with malice aforethought. Is his death and funeral being covered because he's a rich, upper middle class boy? Because Phil Coulter knew the family? Why is this boy's death being turned into an orgy of newspaper stories? Stabbing victims from working class families do not get the same treatment. Maybe it's time to admit that our society is deeply unequal. The press cares about the rich boys from good families. Everyone else can pass by the wayside or are accused in being partly responsible for their own murder.

Gender stereotypes alive and well in the Irish Times

This piece of trash is a cheap shot at gender stereotypes and those who are unemployed.

Women have been insulated from the worst of the carnage since they had already retreated to the home full-time or took the three-day week, convenient safer jobs in the public sector, college, or set up their own low-risk small business: home-catering for one friend, counselling for another, or column-writing in my case.

Oh really? Women have been insulated from the worst part of the recession? Are you referring to women like you Carey? Upper middle class, married, het, cis women presumably. That is not the majority. Way to devalue the work that women do.

Projecting your personal experience on to the backs of other women, is a fucking disgrace, Carey. It's insulting and in error.

I think it is telling that someone with the economic privilege to work part time at column-writing during the recession is generalising her experiences. She has no idea how the rest of us live. I doubt she was one of the 200 people to line up on Grafton Street to interview for a cashier's position in Londis. I doubt she understands that money worries pervade every aspect of your life, when you don't have any. There is no "joy of autonomy" in unemployment during a recession.

Anyway, here’s our dirty little secret – whether down-shifting or opting out – life is great. We are masters of our universe. Whether working from home or in the home, women have discovered the joys of autonomy. Not completely of course – bills still have to be paid, deadlines obeyed and the insatiable needs of children to be met. But there are no tortuous Monday morning management meetings, no hellish commutes, no power point presentations and no angry clients.

Now it’s all been ruined with these husbands hanging around at home. Leaving aside the financial strain, an alien creature has invaded the house. It reminds one of the soaring divorce rate among older couples in Japan where a retired husband shows up and a 30-year marriage ends. Ireland’s unemployed husbands may not be facing abandonment but are finding their wives aren’t exactly thrilled about unlimited quality time.

I hate the chatty "between us girls" tone of this article. Carey assumes that all of us girls agree with this point of view and that all readers are the straightest straight people in the world. Another bloody hetero-nomative assumption.

Since when do the "joys of autonomy" include taking care of children and cleaning the house. It remains me of those fundie freaks that believe that housework is empowering. A big, fuck you to that.

Welcome to the 21st century, Carey. There are different family groups, sexual orientations and negotiations between partners. This article plays on the "men do not contribute to the housework" trope. It's tired and frankly pathetic.

Elections

Fianna Fail and the Greens have lost out big time. Opposition party leaders are claiming that such defeats in the locals and the euros nullifies the mandate of the government. Kenny has called for a motion of no confidence and Gilmore is making similar noises.

Ganley can't believe that he didn't sweep to victory and is putting protest after protest on procedural issues.

The count was suspended last night. Libertas leader Declan Ganley asked the returning officer, Kieran McDermott, to “check out” a report that “a bin of Ganley votes” had been mistakenly allocated to another candidate, according to Mr Ganley’s spokesman.

At 11.35pm last night, Mr McDermott announced a recheck of votes today “in the light of what Mr Ganley has said to us”.

Bit of a sore loser that one. Another sore loser was Deirdre de Burca who requested a full recount but in the end settled for a bundle recount. De Burca claimed to run an Obama-like campaign which is one of the reasons that she did not reply to those posing policy questions to her on twitter. Bad political decision de Burca.

I was at the Cork count centre yesterday and snapped a few pix that I'll put later. What I found very interesting is that Crowley and Kelly were signing autographs - a definitely case of celebrity gone mad. Politicians are supposed to be our representatives not celebrities.

The reason I was at the count centre in the first place was that RTE was providing no information and the Irish Times site was shite. I got most of my info online - well grateful for that. Without the bloggers there would be no stream of updates. RTE focussed more on sport than on politics, despite the vital nature of these elections.

I overhead half a conversation at the count centre. A journalist from a popular national radio station was saying

"RTE have scuppered it for another five minutes."

and

"We're waiting for the cue from RTE."

Despite the huge resources of the national broadcaster, they could not get their collective ass in gear. The results were delayed because RTE are incompetent. Plastic Sheeting was hanging around like a great buffoon. All in all I was unimpressed with those who were paid to report. RTE fail.

John Waters misses the point - again

In the Irish Times, John Waters pontificates on the recent #picturegate scandal and misses the point with molelike precision.

...infantile obsession with toilet humour... deep animus towards politicians"... The only amusing thing here is Casby’s deluded belief that he has something to say. His response is typical of a public discourse almost fatally degraded by internet auto-eroticism and an obsession with what is called “comedy”. His works are crude, unfunny, vindictive, without intrinsic content and wholly lacking in artistic merit.

They would never have been heard of had the national broadcaster not misplaced its editorial instincts and, faced with an alternative between soberly reporting a minor crime and engaging in a snide attack on the Taoiseach, chose the latter.

etc etc ranting on artistic merit and violations of national security.

The actual point is government interference in public broadcasting, censorship, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

Waters may not like Conor Casby's pictures but Casby has the right to caricature public figures.

Just as the Irish Times does each day.

RTE's craven apologies stink of government interference. They are not even willing to stand by their own reports.

Gardaí raided a radio station.

Gardaí said the orders came from the powers that be.

Gardaí confiscated privately owned material.

That's the point and Waters missed it by a mile. Moron.

GUBU squad calling

It's been referred to as Cowengate, GUBU 2 and on twitter as #picturegate but the story of the illegal hanging of two nude paintings of Brian Cowen is what's buzzing on the Irish corner of the net. Is this the best public relations strategy in the history of the FFers or a major fuck up by people such as Michael Kennedy TD, who can only comprehend a situation when it is put in terms that he understands. His wife was kind enough to enlighten him on the grevious nature of l'Affaire Cowen.

But soon enough the smiles were wiped from our faces. Dear Leader's minions were up in arms when RTE had the temerity to report the news story.



God knows that we could do with a bit of a laugh – half the country has lost their jobs and the other half is being losing half their income on taxes. But the FFers have lost all sense of proportion and humour, assuming they had any to start off with.

Then Kennedy, the prince of village idiots, contacted RTE director general Cathal Goan and complained about bias and the obviously neferious ageda of RTE. Instead of telling Kennedy to go shite, RTE relinquished its last smidgen of credibility and apologised.

Let me reiterate that. The national broadcaster apologised to the Government for covering a news story.

The broadcaster received a number of complaints about the item on Monday’s 9pm television news, including one from the Taoiseach’s office. RTÉ had deemed the report to be inappropriate before complaints were received, a spokeswoman said last night. Consequently the report did not run on subsequent bulletins and was taken down from the RTÉ website, she said.

Here is the apology:



An impartial news broadcast on a publicly funded channel requires censorship and apologies? Difficult to believe of course since we allegedly live in a democracy, but it happened. Of course, this is the same government who claimed that dissent was unpatriotic. And this is the same RTE who requested Oliver Callan to ease up criticisms of Cowen on the satirical Nob Nation:

RTE has asked satirist Oliver Callan, of Nob Nation, to "go easy" on the Taoiseach stating that his increasingly controversial portrayal of Brian Cowen as a drunken buffoon "might be perceived to be a bit personal at this stage".

... Supporters of Mr Cowen are known to be upset at the Nob Nation portrayal of him as a hard-drinking and sometimes crude politician surrounded by Cabinet members who are also frequently portrayed in a similar manner.

Rumours which, by the way, are confirmed by the patrons of Doheny and Nesbitt's pub near Government buildings. Oh and by the way, the Government most certainly did not request that RTE censor Nob Nation. I'm sure they're insulted and appalled at the very suggestion. Yeah just like that time Conor Lenihan "assured" me that no one got a particular position through the old boys network. It's time to quote Hamlet, methinks.

So RTE apologies and proceeds to censor "in the national interest". The managers of Ireland Inc. throw their weight around like a pack of rapid rhinos, crushing freedom of the press in the process. Then the gardaí were ordered to the offices of Today FM with the dubious demand for emails and the artist information. “The powers that be want action taken”, Will Hanafin, was told.

At least one broadcaster in this country has the ethics to stand up to government bullying. Today FM refused to release any information without a warrant.

Mr Hanafin told The Irish Times he was “totally shocked” to be confronted by a garda. He said in “no circumstances could this be considered an appropriate use of Garda resources. It seems to me that the powers that be have lost their sense of humour.”

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan criticised the Garda move. “At a time when the majority of gangland murders remain unsolved, to have gardaí spending their time investigating what amounted to a practical joke that offended the Taoiseach’s ego is a scandalous waste of resources,” he said.

“Today FM has clearly come under pressure to hand over e-mails about this matter, while RTÉ News has obviously been browbeaten into a grovelling apology. The way this matter has been handled is more reminiscent of Russia in the 1930s than Ireland in 2009,” said Mr Flanagan.

Wouldn't the gardaí be better served arresting the bankers, property developers and other criminals rather than persecuting an artist? Are we returning to the normalisation of a stagnant culture where books like "Brave New World" and "Gulliver's Travels" are banned? Are we regressing to the time when the powers that be decided that "Natural Born Killers" or "Clockwork Orange" was too corrupting for the Irish people.

Censorship is the enemy of democracy and with democracy, as with many other system, what is most important is the behaviour during the tough times, the bad times and the ugly times. That RTE is cravenly bowing to the government during this recession is a very bad omen for the future of democracy in this country.

Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are being stifled in this country. What the hell happened to our human rights? What the hell happened to this country where the Dear Leader is covering his government's ass at the expense of the people; where "I didn't read that part of the report" is an acceptable reply to accusations of incompetence; where a bank is nationalised to save one interest group and the Minister for Finance does not even report the report; and where artists are persecuted on trumped up charges?

I call for a general election now. I don't want to wait until Brian "I didn't read the report" Lenihan submits his third budget of the year. Third? Ridiculous doesn't even begin to cover it.

Out, out, out.

The worth of girlhood

A disgraceful, gender-stifling story from the Irish Times because it's not like we don't put people under enough pressure in their Leaving Cert year /sarcasm

A LEAVING Certificate student suspended from school for three months for having long hair and told he had a “girl’s hair style” has been awarded €3,500 by the Equality Tribunal for gender discrimination and victimisation.

David Knott, who was a Leaving Cert student at Dunmore Community School, Galway, in 2004/2005, missed his “mock” Leaving Cert exams and had to move to another school to sit the State exam.

The tribunal found he suffered discrimination in that male and female students at the school were not treated equally. It also found he had been victimised when the school hired a barber to inspect the length of his hair.

The complaint, brought to the tribunal by the boy’s mother Mary Knott, states that when term began on September 1st, 2004, he was told by the deputy principal Ms O’Brien that he was to cut his hair. When he did not comply he was called to Ms O’Brien’s office and she referred to his “girl’s hair style”, said he was “nothing but a trend-setter” and asked him if he “wanted to be a girl?”

Every time I discuss gender discrimination in real life, people tell me I'm overreacting and sure that sort of thing doesn't happen here any more! Firstly there is nothing inherently girly about having long hair.








It is true that many Irish schools are repressive towards students showing any sort of personality

He was then referred to the principal Mr Gilmore, who told him to cut his hair by the end of the week or go to another school. At that point he told his mother what had happened and she wrote to Mr Gilmore asking that nothing further be said to David as he was in his exam year, that she had given him permission to grow his hair and asking that he deal directly with her from then on.

Kicking a kid out of school during an exam year - that's heartless. Somebody should resign

Mr Gilmore responded by letter to Mrs Knott, saying he was concerned about the tone and content of her letter and he was referring the matter to the board of management.

Ah the old reliable "tone" excuse. It's just an attempt to sidetrack Mrs Knott's argument. Did she hurt your poor delicate feefees Mr Gilmore?

Later in September David was asked by his music teacher to play in the school band, but was told by Mr Gilmore he couldn’t unless he cut his hair. In October Mr Gilmore wrote to Mrs Knott to say that David would be suspended if he failed to cut his hair.

A board of management appeal hearing on November 16th unanimously found in favour of Mr Gilmore, who then wrote to Mrs Knott advising her that suspension would take effect from December 8th.

I wonder is hair length discussed in the school charter. It cannot be legally prescribed - that would be discrimination.

Mrs Knott appealed to the Department of Education, which ruled in her favour and said David should be readmitted if his hair was “groomed to collar length”. She took her son to a barber to cut his hair in accordance with this ruling.

Dept of Ed = FAIL

However, when David returned to school on February 23rd, 2005, a barber hired by the board of management was waiting to inspect his hair. The barber said David would need another inch off his hair. Mrs Knott said they would not comply and David enrolled in another school.

The tribunal found David had been caused “serious upset, disruption and inconvenience” during his Leaving Cert year.

So to recap because the fail is complete. A Leaving Cert student was threatened with suspension, physically inspected after a Department of Education prescribed alternation of his appearance and he had to switch schools. That is unbelievable even in today's fucked up Ireland.

During Leaving Cert, the pressure is coming from everywhere, parents, extended family, radio, tv and newspapers. All tell you the same thing - if you fuck this up you'll never amount to anything.

This school chose to call the student a girl presumably to shame him into compliance. In this culture, to be called a girl is to be weak, effeminate and possibly gay. What a wonderful and valued thing girlhood is.

The school used a gender term as a slur, as a mark of shame, as a means of humiliation. That makes me so angry. I am a girl. That school used my gender to shame, humiliate and silence a student.

I, for one, call for resignations of the school board.

h/t Bock

Journalism ethics

While Sean Dunne might be a financial scumbag who screwed the country to maximise his profits, it seems wrong to publish what he said at 3am in a pub after getting totally hammered. I think it's related to the issue of consent. Did the alcohol affect Dunne's discretion? Does Dunne have any discretion? Is it ok to quote someone under the influence? The NYT seems to think so. I think it's a scumbag move.

It’s 3 a.m. at Doheny & Nesbitt, a favorite watering hole of Dublin’s political and business elite, and the property tycoon Sean Dunne stoops to retrieve a penny from the pub’s grimy floor.

One would think that Mr. Dunne, Ireland’s best-known building developer, would be in bed at this hour. It’s a weeknight, after all, and he has meetings that begin before first light.

What’s more, the Irish economy, pummeled by the most severe housing bust in Europe, has collapsed. And the gossip around town is that Mr. Dunne, whose brazen deal-making and Donald Trump-like lifestyle epitomized the country’s euphoric boom, might be going bankrupt.

But, no matter, a penny is a penny.

“I am never, never too proud to pick a penny up from the floor,” Mr. Dunne said. He is on perhaps his fifth pint of Guinness, capping a rollicking night of Champagne cocktails, followed by a wine-soaked dinner — yet his thick brogue is clear of even the faintest slurring.

“I grew up with nothing and I know the value of money,” he adds. “The Celtic Tiger may be dead and if the banking crisis continues I could be considered insolvent. But the one thing that I have is my wife and children — that they can’t take away from me.”

Stay classy Landon Thomas. Stay classy.