[seeing_ie]

Originally Posted by splitrmx

I know you know already, but for public record it was mentioned in an Irish Independent article too:

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...n-2947299.html

'It's the normal team. He (Mr Kenny) works on and finalises all his speeches himself," a government source said.

PR consultant Terry Prone, whose Communications Clinic often does work for Fine Gael, was also being mentioned for "polishing".'

It's also worth mentioning again that the director of the Communications Clinic is Tom Savage, who is the Chairman of the RTÉ Authority. The chairman of the Communications Clinic, Terry Prone, writes a weekly opinion column for the Irish Examiner newspaper.

Worth mentioning too that their son Anton Savage, who gets all his media work on his own merits, also works for the Communications Clinic.

[Sooopie]

Originally Posted by seeing_ie

Worth mentioning too that their son Anton Savage, who gets all his media work on his own merits, also works for the Communications Clinic.

lolz

[Logical Fallacy]

Originally Posted by splitrmx

I know you know already, but for public record it was mentioned in an Irish Independent article too:

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...n-2947299.html

'It's the normal team. He (Mr Kenny) works on and finalises all his speeches himself," a government source said.

PR consultant Terry Prone, whose Communications Clinic often does work for Fine Gael, was also being mentioned for "polishing".'

It's also worth mentioning again that the director of the Communications Clinic is Tom Savage, who is the Chairman of the RTÉ Authority. The chairman of the Communications Clinic, Terry Prone, writes a weekly opinion column for the Irish Examiner newspaper.

Last time i checked Enda just borrows from Obama.

[dav3]

Originally Posted by seeing_ie

Worth mentioning too that their son Anton Savage, who gets all his media work on his own merits, also works for the Communications Clinic.

Not a chance that he gets all his media work on his own merits. He has a lot of "connections".
Maybe if he stood down as managing director I might have a bit more respect for him.

[tbh]

Originally Posted by dav3

Not a chance that he gets all his media work on his own merits. He has a lot of "connections".
Maybe if he stood down as managing director I might have a bit more respect for him.

sar·casm/ˈsärˌkazəm/
Noun:
The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

[oceanclub]

Fair play to Anton Savage; the Sunday Supplement can only go from strength to strength by replacing a long-time award-winning journalist who took on Lowry and won (BORRRRRRRRRING) with someone who lifted themselves up from the slums of Belvedere College and through sheer hard work, as a teenager, got Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny to let him onto their shows. (http://www.examiner.ie/weekend/featu...uy-141294.html). Having someone who does PR for politicians doing a political radio show is a fantastic idea, since it means we'll only hear about politicians (well, some of them) at their best.

P.

[Nodin]

Originally Posted by oceanclub

Fair play to Anton Savage; the Sunday Supplement can only go from strength to strength by replacing a long-time award-winning journalist who took on Lowry and won (BORRRRRRRRRING) with someone who lifted themselves up from the slums of Belvedere College and through sheer hard work, as a teenager, got Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny to let him onto their shows. (http://www.examiner.ie/weekend/featu...uy-141294.html). Having someone who does PR for politicians doing a political radio show is a fantastic idea, since it means we'll only hear about politicians (well, some of them) at their best.

P.

It's truly wonderful to know we live in a country where ability is treasured over connection.

[Donal Og O Baelach]

Originally Posted by splitrmx

Irish Time article, bits they removed are in bold:

Mine was not a work-related illness. At least not before I entered the hospital. However, when I was released and when I returned to my office, things became different. I knew it would be difficult to explain to my employer, and I knew it would be difficult for them to understand an illness with no visible symptoms. I did not, however, expect that I would be met with casual hostility, with passive-aggressive references to my mental incapacity for my profession, and my apparently perceived “plan” to leave the company entirely in the lurch.

“When I returned from my two-week stint in mental health limbo, where doctors and nurses admonished me for my apparent need for control, my definition of myself through the value of my trade, I expected to be accepted back as the hard-working employee I have always been.

I do not blame my employer. Ultimately those who have not suffered from the illness do not know how to approach it in others – even those who have suffered from it may find it difficult. When I returned I found myself pitying my manager who met the story of my misery with confusion and the suggestion that I could not be trusted with seniority. I was accused of planning my absence. Every question seemed posed with the hope that it might bolster a preconceived notion.

She added:

Clearly, they had no idea what to do.
Much of what my employer has done and said since my absence has been illegal. And I do not think for a minute that what my employer did was an isolated incident.

Thanks for that. The original article was toothless without the omissions.

[oceanclub]

Originally Posted by Nodin

It's truly wonderful to know we live in a country where ability is treasured over connection.

Both Ryan Tubridy & Anton Savage started off as kids reviewing books on RTE. What a great scheme to get average working-class kids into media.

P.

[Teyla Emmagan]

That poor girl.

Am delighted this has come out if it's all true.

[LizT]

Saw that on broadsheet, fair play to them.

Depression is still almost a taboo in this country, a lot of people have no idea how to spot signs of depression, some people think it's still all in someone's head (in my own experience anyway).

Cannot believe this isn't getting more coverage.

[seeing_ie]

worth lifting from broadsheet:

Article from The Phoenix, 4/11/2011:
ANTON’S CONFLICT OF INTEREST
SACKING Sam Smyth from his Today FM Sunday Supplement show says something about the antagonism between the journalist and station owner Denis O’Brien, but the replacement of Smyth with PR consultant Anton
Savage says even more about the news values of the media and telecoms billionaire.
The editorial clarion call within O’Brien’s other national radio station, Newstalk FM, has been for cheery, positive news as opposed to the doom and gloom purveyed by various media (recession, what recession?). It was one of the pressures cited by broadcasters like Eamon Dunphy before he walked out of that station recently. And nobody does good news better than public relations executive Savage, whose presence in both the world of PR and media is ubiquitous.
Clearly, Anton is regarded with much favour at Today FM where he is a presence now on three programmes, if one includes Smyth’s show which he is to take over in the New Year. Anton is a regular substitute for Matt Cooper on Today FM’s The Last Word and he also alternates on the station’s Sunday Business Show. Anton is also a regular sub for various RTÉ programmes during summer hols for the broadcasting stars.
That Anton is a prolific broadcaster is neither here nor there. But he is also a director – along with Mum, Terry Prone and Dad, chairman of the RTÉ board, Tom Savage – in The Communications Clinic. The Clinic’s clients, according to its own promotional literature, include “international blue chips in manufacturing, pharmaceutical, electronics and energy… a bunch of government departments… some politicians” and “a clutch of the country’stop broadcasters”. Crucially, the clinic guarantees client confidentiality.
Quite apart from the good news culture that PR work for the powerful and the wealthy naturally inclines to, this lucrative line of work involves obligation to the same quarters, specifically, in promoting and protecting their good name. And not only does the anonymous client list above include some of the biggest companies in Ireland, it also includes “some politicians”, composed mainly of those in the largest party in government, namely, Fine Gael. In fact, Anton has for some years now trained Enda Kenny in media performance, while Terry trained Gay Mitchell for his presidential outing (you can see more than one reason here for the commitment to confidentiality).
Nobody is accusing Anton of deliberately promoting his confidential clients but there is a blindingly obvious conflict of interest inherent in hosting current affairs and business
programmes that must sometimes touch on the interests of the prominent politicians and businesses that the Clinic services. Equally interesting is the client category of “top broadcasters” whose identity is unknown and whose employers – RTÉ, Newstalk, Today FM? – is also confidential. The phrase ‘conflict of interest’ seems entirely inadequate to describe the multiple situations that Anton finds himself mired in.


So we, the taxpayers, pay the politicians ridiculously inflated salaries so they can pay The Communications Clinic to teach them how to bull**** us, the taxpayers.
It's the circle, the circle of life!


Not forgetting that we, the taxpayers, will probably spend the next 20 years paying for the failure of the politicans to govern effectively.


Grand so.

[mikom]

I believe the thread about Kate Fitzgerald on politics.ie has been pulled.
How much longer will this one last.....

Edit: Seems to be back now.

[seeing_ie]

Would it be wrong to say that part of Kate Fitzgerald's legacy might be to draw attention to the ignorance surrounding mental health in Ireland?

If any good could come from her passing, it's that a light has finally been shone on the murky connections between the political establishment, the media and Terry Prone/Anton Savage/Tom Savage/The Communications Clinic.

Cold comfort to her family and friends.

[El_Dangeroso]

Originally Posted by lizt

Saw that on broadsheet, fair play to them.

Depression is still almost a taboo in this country, a lot of people have no idea how to spot signs of depression, some people think it's still all in someone's head (in my own experience anyway).

Cannot believe this isn't getting more coverage.

Who would cover it?

Shame on the Irish media, this seems to be a slight glimpse into the unseemly cozy cartel that operates between the media and politics in this country.