Blatant Sponsor bias on Newstalk?

Snickers Man

On the way to my nephew's First Communion yesterday and listening to Newstalkk 106 on the car radio. Roisin Ingle (of the Irish Times) was interviewing John Waters (of the Irish Times) on a weekend radio program that is sponsored by The Irish Times.

The subject under discussion was the impending Eurovision song contest and Ireland's entry, which was written by John Waters. Other contributors included Johnny Logan (former winner) Shay Healy, writer of a former winning song, and the Harrington bloke (can't remember his first name) who was also a Eurovision winner.

The whole tone of the program was cheerleading for Ireland's entry, with the clear impression being given that it had a good chance of winning, was being very well received and that the Europeans were well into the whole Irish diddly eidlly deedle of the thing.

I couldn't believe it because I thought the song, singer and band representing Ireland were all dire. But what would I know?

Believe it or not, a better guide to the likely winners of the Eurovision were those well known aesthetes at the Racing Post, who helpfully publish the bookies's odds on all the songs. Had one consulted said organ, one would have learned that Russia, Ukraine and Serbia were the most likely winners, and Ireland were 200/1 outsiders. And so it proved. Serbia won, Ukraine challenged them all the way and Ireland came last by a clear margin.

Did the Newstalk people genuinely believe, in stark contrast to just about everybody else in Europe, and the bookies that the Irish dirge had a chance of winning, or were they being "influenced" by the program sponsor? Who only happens to be their signiicant employer and the employer of the songwriter?

I think we should be told.

flogen

I don't think there's any sponorship bias there as there's nothing at stake for The Irish Times when it comes to the Eurovision.

There could, however, be some personal bias and perhaps Roisin Ingle is friends with Waters from their workplace and as a result was careful not to offend over his song.

Maybe the other guests were bigging up Waters' song because they know from personal experience how hard it can be to deal with the critics and have a "one of us" mentality about all entries.

Then there's the possibility that they were all just showing some national bias, all convinced that Ireland's entry is the best just because they're Irish (kind of like the way Terry "I'm English" Wogan gives out about the way other countries vote rather than accept that the UK entry was a joke too).

Either way, I'm waiting for John Waters' face-saving column on Monday which will read something like "Seriously, it was all a joke - how did you not get that?"

Hobbes

not sure about newstalk but you would of had to have been tonedeaf to think the Irish song had any chance of coming anywhere. It was really really bad.

Snickers Man

flogen wrote:

Either way, I'm waiting for John Waters' face-saving column on Monday which will read something like "Seriously, it was all a joke - how did you not get that?"

That will be worth the purchase price on its own.

haz

Snickers Man wrote:

The whole tone of the program was cheerleading for Ireland's entry, with the clear impression being given that it had a good chance of winning

Like other posters, I think it was a media luvvy-duvvy hug-fest rather than sponsorship interests. John Waters also had a love-in with Ray D'Arcy on Today FM sometime last week. The D'Arcy show had prepared spoken advertisements in Polish, Romanian, Lithuanian etc a) explaining what the song was all about and why Eastern migrants should support it; b) telling them to vote for Ireland, the country they live and work in; and c) telling them to get everyone back home to vote too.

It certainly made me wonder if John Waters had picked the Velvet Revolution purely as a vote-winner.

constitutionus

it does bring up a point about impartial coverage though. surely someone somewhere couldve said " its crap" without being thought of as being negative or condescending of the competition.

when you read the OPs post having such a eurovision heavy representation could hardly be considered impartial. so while i dont think its the sponsers i do think its the inbred nature of irish media thats to blame . they basically need to get out and talk to normal people.

haz

constitutionus wrote:

it does bring up a point about impartial coverage

I heard that Paddy Powers were quoting 4 to 1 for Ireland to come last and 200 to 1 against coming first. My kids were debating the lyrics and looks of Ukraine, Serbia and Russia's songs (and Greece) in the fortnight beforehand, having downloaded all the entries from the Eurovision website. Ireland gave 4, 8 and 6 points to the top three, so most voters had similar preferences.

The selection process is completely out of touch and biased by the media figures involved in it. They should play potential entries at Blast and other live venues where typical txt generation voters listen to music. BlastBeat on RTE showed some pretty talented youth, none to my taste, but I don't vote.

Miguel_Sanchez

Sponsor bias? What are you on about?

Did Dervish sponsor the programme?

It's the eurovision - I don't think it's something that we need to demand fair and impartial coverage of. It'd be like giving out beause Irish soccer pundits were predicting good things for the team before a world cup when the bookies were clearly favouring Brazil.

Snickers Man

Not comparable. Did you ever see one of the pundits givng Ireland a chance against Brazil at the world cup? Well, we never played them there but you know what I mean.

Mind you, I do remember Joe Kinnear tipping us to beat Italy in 1994. And we did!!

ODS

She's on now:(

My how is she just so awful.

"Weekend Blend"?... *goes + sticks head in blender*

DublinWriter

haz wrote:

Like other posters, I think it was a media luvvy-duvvy hug-fest rather than sponsorship interests.

The Irish media-sector is a niche little inbred cliquè.

Such circle-jerkism is not uncommon and I see at least a dozen such examples in the Irish media every week.

jdivision

DublinWriter wrote:

The Irish media-sector is a niche little inbred cliquè.

Such circle-jerkism is not uncommon and I see at least a dozen such examples in the Irish media every week.

Not all of it. Some of it is ridiculous though. One of the guys who presents the Today FM Business show ever second week is in PR and tends to interview his clients most of the time.

Crubeens

Its a very small country though. I think what can sometimes look like a media love-in is more coincidental than orchestrated.

jdivision

usually it's laziness. Questions & Answers was very like that for a while, same old heads, same old boring answers. It's improved somewhat since then. I think with Roisin the feeling is stick to people she knows from work.
The Today FM thing with the PR guy is far too common to be conincidental.