RTÉ suspends 2fm presenter Ashmawy

Lapin

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0304/ashmawyb.html


What do you think ?

Bit harsh or fair enough.

He's not the first high profile person to be caught drink driving,(numerous politicians spring to mind), but its the first time I have heard anyone being suspended without pay for a month.

mike65

Didn't someone at RTE get suspended or fined for drink driving back from the Electric Picnic about 5 years ago.

Joe O'Shea it was (googles great) in 2006 can't find anything about in-house punishment though.

Poly

Seeing as Jerry the great is still idolised in Montrose, cocaine in RTE is OK ?

JonathanAnon

A token gesture from RTE, in the way that a premiership club would fine a player a week's wages for missing training.. He'll be back in as if nothing had ever happened next month..

FlutterinBantam

Lapin wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0304/ashmawyb.html


What do you think ?

Bit harsh or fair enough.

He's not the first high profile person to be caught drink driving,(numerous politicians spring to mind), but its the first time I have heard anyone being suspended without pay for a month.

Geezer has neither talent nor profile.

Hopefully it's the last we hear of him.

Itssoeasy

So does this mean that lucy will be holding the fort for the eight shows baz is missing ? The listening figures will hold steady I'd say.

prunudo

Lapin wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0304/ashmawyb.html


What do you think ?

Bit harsh or fair enough.

He's not the first high profile person to be caught drink driving,(numerous politicians spring to mind), but its the first time I have heard anyone being suspended without pay for a month.

Smells of management wanting him out altogether, bit like with Andy gray and Richard Keyes. I wouldn't be surprised if Baz quits and the weekend breakfast show becomes a thing of the past, no lose any way

Not condoning what he did but as Lapin said many TD's have been caught and nothing happened.

paddylonglegs

shame, good banter between the two of them. Would be good to hear baz back soon

mfceiling

Itssoeasy wrote: »

So does this mean that lucy will be holding the fort for the eight shows baz is missing ? The listening figures will hold steady I'd say.

I'd say all 3 of them will keep listening...

real rocker

paddylonglegs wrote: »

shame, good banter between the two of them. Would be good to hear baz back soon

FFS

paddylonglegs

real rocker wrote: »

FFS

ha ha, what ****ing harm is he doing you?did he abuse you when you were a child or something?

bbability

OK people keep it civil or I'll close the Thread.

RTE crack me up. He hasn't even been convicted in a court of law but yet they've found him guilty. Suspending him is one thing but the press statement was a bit didgy if you ask me. A good brief could bring that to a court and claim he's already had trial by media in my opinion. BTW I'm not conding Drink Driving or anything of the sort but it could have been handled a bit better.

JonathanAnon

JonathanAnon wrote: »

A token gesture from RTE, in the way that a premiership club would fine a player a week's wages for missing training.. He'll be back in as if nothing had ever happened next month..

I reckon Baz would miss his months wages a lot more than a premiership player would miss a weeks though.

Personally I'm not a fan of Baz, reckon he's an awful plank, surprised to hear he was a Dad, would have put money on him being gay tbh.

RGDATA!

bbability wrote: »

OK people keep it civil or I'll close the Thread.

RTE crack me up. He hasn't even been convicted in a court of law but yet they've found him guilty. Suspending him is one thing but the press statement was a bit didgy if you ask me. A good brief could bring that to a court and claim he's already had trial by media in my opinion. BTW I'm not conding Drink Driving or anything of the sort but it could have been handled a bit better.

perhaps he has admitted the offense to them("Mr Ashmawy has accepted the error of his actions "), in which case why would they have to wait until he goes through the courts to discipline him internally? i would say if he was denying the charges he probably wouldn't be disciplined, maybe just put on gardening leave

BrianD

bbability wrote: »

OK people keep it civil or I'll close the Thread.

RTE crack me up. He hasn't even been convicted in a court of law but yet they've found him guilty. Suspending him is one thing but the press statement was a bit didgy if you ask me. A good brief could bring that to a court and claim he's already had trial by media in my opinion. BTW I'm not conding Drink Driving or anything of the sort but it could have been handled a bit better.

Makes no odds. Why would they need to go to the courts? No conviction required.

Apparently he was Tweeting about what he did and this brings both him and his employer into disrepute. Stuff like:

"Feel like I jus drank toilet duck & redbull"

"Its all just went very pete tong! Pints just became this... Uggggh"

"Bytw all u dat new dat was a long island ice tea! U need AA & I dig that bout u"

... is hardly what you'd expect from a broadcaster on a national station.

It was already reported and RTE would have no option but to issue a press statement.

Rubik.

Would RTE have acted differently if it was a higher profile RTE personality? Probably. Gives them the opportunity to claw back some of that higher moral ground lost admist all the speculation over whether Gerry Ryan's drug use was common knowledge within RTE.

edwinkane

Poly wrote: »

Seeing as Jerry the great is still idolised in Montrose, cocaine in RTE is OK ?

Do you really think if Gerry had been convicted for offences relation to cocaine use that he would not have had consequences from RTE? But then maybe you don't want to be fair minded or balanced and realise that to be convicted of the offence of drunken driving is not the same think as to be rumoured to be drunk driving.

JonathanAnon

RoverJames wrote: »

Personally I'm not a fan of Baz, reckon he's an awful plank, surprised to hear he was a Dad, would have put money on him being gay tbh.

yeah I always thought that he was gay as well.. he did that show in Australia with the other two gay chaps, and I assumed that them all being gay was the brief for the show.... And he is very camp..

Fuinseog

Lapin wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0304/ashmawyb.html


What do you think ?

Bit harsh or fair enough.

He's not the first high profile person to be caught drink driving,(numerous politicians spring to mind), but its the first time I have heard anyone being suspended without pay for a month.

he considers himself a bit of a jack the lad and is influential for some people. the days of turning a blind eye to drink driving are over, unless you are a FF politician, but FF politicians are not revered by young people.
he drives a porsche, so I am sure he will survive the month without pay.

Fuinseog

paddylonglegs wrote: »

shame, good banter between the two of them. Would be good to hear baz back soon

they should move him to the Arts show. he is a very deep guy.

JonathanAnon

could he not have rang lucy for a lift anyway???

edwinkane

JonathanAnon wrote: »

yeah I always thought that he was gay as well.. he did that show in Australia with the other two gay chaps, and I assumed that them all being gay was the brief for the show.... And he is very camp..

You always assumed he was gay as well as what? I'm afraid if you think gay men are "camp" it is you who seems to think in stereotypes! Not all gay men are camp. Not all "camp" men are gay!

barryd09

BrianD wrote: »

Makes no odds. Why would they need to go to the courts? No conviction required.

Apparently he was Tweeting about what he did and this brings both him and his employer into disrepute. Stuff like:

"Feel like I jus drank toilet duck & redbull"

"Its all just went very pete tong! Pints just became this... Uggggh"

"Bytw all u dat new dat was a long island ice tea! U need AA & I dig that bout u"

... is hardly what you'd expect from a broadcaster on a national station.



It was already reported and RTE would have no option but to issue a press statement.

Hes a disgrace.

ford fiesta

Fuinseog wrote: »

he drives a porsche, so I am sure he will survive the month without pay.

so you're saying he is financially secure, just because of the car he drives?

JonathanAnon

edwinkane wrote: »

You always assumed he was gay as well as what?

RoverJames said he thought Baz was gay.. I said I thought he was gay as well. But feel free to read (non-existent) homophobic tendencies in my remarks if it serves your agenda..

Hes a disgrace.

Well I wouldnt go that far, but it certainly was very silly to put up a load of pictures of yourself drinking all sorts of concoctions before going drink driving..

zxcvbnm12

why are they jumpin down ur throath about u thinkin he was gay.id say two thirds of the population thought the same thing.im shocked to hear he has a child.i thought he wud be tacklin that gay blonde fella that was on the holiday programme with him!wait that gay blonde fella is probably married with 3 kids!!!!

Taceom

paddylonglegs wrote: »

shame, good banter between the two of them. Would be good to hear baz back soon

I agree with you. I think Lucy and Baz work well together - Lucy on her own seemed flat and uninteresting this weekend.
That said I do think RTE are right to punish Baz in the way they have. Silly man what was he thinking.

barryd09

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Well I wouldnt go that far, but it certainly was very silly to put up a load of pictures of yourself drinking all sorts of concoctions before going drink driving..

agreed.

btw i dont like their show,not hate it or anything,just think 2FM could do better.

Fuinseog

ford fiesta wrote: »

so you're saying he is financially secure, just because of the car he drives?

for me he symbolises celtic tiger cubs who feel the need to splash out and flaunt their wealth. hopefully those days are behind us.

generally those who drive a porsche are financially secure. maybe he is living beyond his means.

Fuinseog

JonathanAnon wrote: »

RoverJames said he thought Baz was gay.. I said I thought he was gay as well. But feel free to read (non-existent) homophobic tendencies in my remarks if it serves your agenda..

gay or ghey?

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

ford fiesta

Fuinseog wrote: »

generally those who drive a porsche are financially secure. maybe he is living beyond his means.

generally those who drive a car like this have taken a loan out for one. we could all do that. lots of people are living beyond their means.

bbability

Ok enough with the gay debate. That's for another forum. Keep it to the radio discussion or thread will be closed.

TimmyTarmac

Anyone remember Mr. Eamonn Dunphy's string of Drink Driving offences and convictions in the late nineties and early 2000s?
It culminated in a 10 year driving ban in 2002 which, I presume, is still in force.
Anyone remember how long RTE suspended him for?
I think it was 0 months and 0 days. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Is it a case of Mr. Dunphy being of 'systemic importance' to RTE or RTE taking this sort of thing more seriously now?

BrianD

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

Anyone remember Mr. Eamonn Dunphy's string of Drink Driving offences and convictions in the late nineties and early 2000s?
It culminated in a 10 year driving ban in 2002 which, I presume, is still in force.
Anyone remember how long RTE suspended him for?
I think it was 0 months and 0 days. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Is it a case of Mr. Dunphy being of 'systemic importance' to RTE or RTE taking this sort of thing more seriously now?

Dunphy didn't give a live commentary of his escapades on a publicly accessible time line. It;s not necessarily what the gentlemen did but rather how he communicated it to the public.

I would speculate that if he had of been nabbed while drink driving, convicted and nobody knew of it until the court case then he probably would have not have been suspended.

Unfortunately for him, what Baz did was completely different.

JonathanAnon

Dunphy is a contractor, so they dont have the right to tell him what to do.. as they would with a staffer like Baz..

Firetrap

I reckon they suspended him because they felt they needed to be seen to do something. It helps too that he's not an A-List presenter and the ratings for his show probably stay much the same, regardless of who's at the microphone.

paulhannon

"RTÉ suspends 2fm presenter Ashmawy"

Who?

TimmyTarmac

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Dunphy is a contractor, so they dont have the right to tell him what to do.. as they would with a staffer like Baz..

I'm guessing that Baz is probably not a staffer and is indeed a contractor, just like Mr Dunphy. The majority of presenters are nowadays, I think.
If a contractor brings the name of a company such as RTE into disrepute, I'm sure RTE would be in it's rights to take some appropriate action.
I know that Baz gave a commentary on his night's drinking, but this would be his first offence. (Again, I could be wrong here)
In the case of Eamonn Dunphy, he has a number of convictions for the same offence, leading to the heavy sentence of a banning from driving for 10 years. No action taken by the State Broadcaster.
Who is the bigger sinner here?

JonathanAnon

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

I'm guessing that Baz is probably not a staffer and is indeed a contractor, just like Mr Dunphy.

I'm not sure.. I know Pay Kenny, Tubridy, Finucane ARE contractors.. But Mooney, who's on over 200k, is permanent RTE staff ... So Baz may or may not be a contractor, given that he is younger and on much less money I would have thought that he was a staffer.. Maybe somebody knows for sure..

In the case of Eamonn Dunphy, he has a number of convictions for the same offence, leading to the heavy sentence of a banning from driving for 10 years. No action taken by the State Broadcaster. Who is the bigger sinner here?

I agree with you, of course, that Dunphy is a far worse offender.. but he is a contractor and as such, it's not up to RTE to tell him how to behave.. it is up to RTE whether to hire him in the future though..

edwinkane

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

Anyone remember Mr. Eamonn Dunphy's string of Drink Driving offences and convictions in the late nineties and early 2000s?
It culminated in a 10 year driving ban in 2002 which, I presume, is still in force.
Anyone remember how long RTE suspended him for?
I think it was 0 months and 0 days. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Is it a case of Mr. Dunphy being of 'systemic importance' to RTE or RTE taking this sort of thing more seriously now?

Indeed.

Compare the action against Ashmawy to the inaction of RTE against its Irish-language political editor, a former member of the IRA, who emailed the family of the IRA victim Jean McConville to say ‘please do not send my anymore of this obnoxious crap’ after they issued a press release during the recent election campaign, highlighting the widely believed involvement of Gerry Adams in her murder.