Sunday Independent that defended Bertie Ahern - on anti RTE, President Michael D Higgins, crusade

by AN Other Story Sat Mar 24, 2012 20:09

This story here
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101585

by The Brady Bunch Sat Mar 24, 2012 13:46

How come the BCI complainant below is 'unnamed' - has the BCI been knobbled? Is it intimidated by the Sunday Independent? Kenny had Royston Brady, who was Ahern's FF running mate, and another FF activist on the programme, as well as the author of a book on Ahern. How was Kenny to know that the FFers would be so critical of their former boss?

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/kenny-aired-a-o....html

Pat Kenny aired a 'one-sided' RTE show on Bertie Ahern, finds watchdog
By Anne-Marie Walsh Irish Independent Saturday March 24 2012

PAT KENNY'S radio show has come under fire for broadcasting a "one-sided" show on Bertie Ahern featuring his former party colleague Royston Brady. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has taken RTE to task for its "unfair" coverage of the last Taoiseach and his financial affairs on the 'Today with Pat Kenny' show on October 27.

It upheld a complaint, by an unnamed individual, against the show just a day after the Mahon Tribunal condemned Mr Ahern's own account of his finances.

The authority said its Compliance Committee upheld the complaint against the programme that centred on a discussion of Colm Kenna's book, 'Bertie: Power and Money', last year.

It found that Mr Ahern should have been given a right of reply given the allegations were made about his honesty on the programme, which was aired last October.

On the show, Pat Kenny was joined by journalist Colm Kenna, former Fianna Fail Dublin Mayor Royston Brady and Fianna Fail activist Joe Tierney.

During the show, Mr Tierney said Mr Ahern did everything "with a motive for himself". "Fianna Fail owes nothing to Bertie Ahern but Bertie Ahern owes everything to Fianna Fail," he said.

The authority said the person who complained argued that the discussion during the programme on the newly released book was "one-sided".

The person who made the complaint said it "should have contained a balancing voice", but "demonstrated a lack of fairness, objectivity and impartiality".

The broadcasting authority said the focus of the discussion on the political and financial activities of Mr Ahern and criticism of these activities "was a legitimate subject matter" for a news programme.

"However, given the allegations made during the programme as well as the personal remarks about the motivations and honesty of Mr Ahern, the absence during the programme of a right of reply or alternative perspectives on Mr Ahern was considered unfair," said the broadcasting authority. It said the programme was, therefore, in breach of the Broadcasting Act.

The announcement of the authority's decision to uphold the complaint was broadcast on RTE radio yesterday.

by Former comrade Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:36

That interview (above) with Ursula Halligan on TV3 will haunt Eoghan Harris down the ages, that and his betrayal of all he once stood for, in return for first Rupert Murdoch's and then Tony O'Reilly's shilling.

Matt Cooper's 'Who Really Runs Ireland' (Penguin, 2009) deals in some detail with the developing relationship between O'Reilly, Harris and Ahern.

It is a far cry from when Eamon Smullen called O'Reilly a 'leech' in 'O'Reilly's Last Game', published by Sinn Fein the Workers' Party (SFWP) in 1976. It is attached here as a PDF. The pamphlet details how O'Reilly made money by taking over Irish companies with dormant shareholders, who did not realise the asset value of their holdings. O'Reilly's Ftizwilton holding company vehicle engaged in asset stripping that resulted in hundreds of job losses, but that enriched O’Reilly. The SFWP that produced the pamphlet degenerated into The Workers Party and broke up eventually into Democratic Left (that joined the Labour Party), leaving a rump behind. Former members like Harris ended up supporting censorship, internment and the crony capitalism critiqued in 'Tony O'Reilly's Last Game'.

Harris, as an RTE employee, cold not publicly associate himself with authorship of SFWP publications. He was almost sacked in 1974. He later revealed his role in writing most of the party's best known publications, but covered up how his views did a 180 degree turn.

O'Reilly took over Independent newspapers in 1973. That effectively insulated him from critical coverage in Irish media. In the small Irish pool, Journalists in other papers will not write critical things about O’Reilly because they might end up applying to work for one of his newspapers. In Britain, the Guardian critiqued Rupert Murdoch’s News International. In Ireland, there is no equivalent. Great unexpressed hatred, little room. The proprietors would not allow it anyway. They have a mutual interest in not criticising each other. Far better to distract readers by bashing public sector workers and RTE (that the public owns), writing up the world of 'celebrity' and other nonsense.

His holdings allowed O’Reilly to build political-business alliances, in which the Sunday Independent in particular supported O'Reilly's business interests, and his political prejudices, particularly on the North. For this latter work the Harris pair were ideally suited, because they share the same prejudices. The opportunity to engage in continual Provo and northern nationalist bashing is irresistible. It makes their day.

The Harris's have nailed themselves to heir to the throne, Gavin O'Reily's mast, in the shareholder battle with Dennis O'Brien for control of Independent newspapers. O'Reilly the younger will have to work out whether the politically unstable pair are a liability or an asset. He might figure them to be a short-term asset and long-term liability.

Presumably, they will be well paid for their services. Tomorrow’s Sunday Independent will be interesting. I might leaf through its pages, before putting it back neatly in place in its pile.

How Harris's SFWP wrote about Tony ('Sir Anthony) O'Reilly, Harris's boss today, in 1976

Cover of the SFWP 1976 pamphlet

Tony O'Reilly's Last Game - the pamphlet in full - download here 0.5 Mb