Drivetime with Mary Wilson

Xenophile

"So what" says Mary Wilson in an interview on today's programme. Arthur Spring repeats it back to her "So what". I never said "so what" says "Mary Wilson".

It was a catty ratty performance by Ms. Wilson, Arthur Spring held his cool and was very impressive speaking on his brief on Child Care.

Arthur Spring is a politician of substance and well worth looking out for in the future!

Woodville56

While I didn't hear the interview referred to by the OP, I'm regularly amazed at the rudeness and cattiness of some of the current affairs presenters /journalists on RTE /TV3 - some quite disrespectful and dismissive towards their interviewees, be they politicians or other public figures. Politeness and professionalism aren't necessarily incompatible when it comes to public service broadcasting.

Xenophile

Interviewers are not content to seek out clarification and get better insight into matters of topical concern, but rather they themselves want to become the news with too many "What if" questions which are not geared towards confidence, progress, peace or stability but rather the opposite.

NIMAN

Woodville56 wrote: »

While I didn't hear the interview referred to by the OP, I'm regularly amazed at the rudeness and cattiness of some of the current affairs presenters /journalists on RTE /TV3 - some quite disrespectful and dismissive towards their interviewees, be they politicians or other public figures. Politeness and professionalism aren't necessarily incompatible when it comes to public service broadcasting.

I actually like this trait in some interviewers.
I think maybe you are mistaking rudeness for them just trying to get an honest answer out of them, or the answer to the question that was asked.

They are faced with people pussy-footing around a question so often, I too would get fed up and keep asking them until they told me what I wanted to know.

Not answering what you were asked, I would class that as rudeness.

honeybear

I heard the whole interview and disagree. AS was saying very little of substance and MW was pressing him for details. AS irritated me-he kept harping on about women. I have been critical of MW in the past but I think she is a good presenter.

Xenophile

honeybear wrote: »

I heard the whole interview and disagree. AS was saying very little of substance and MW was pressing him for details. AS irritated me-he kept harping on about women. I have been critical of MW in the past but I think she is a good presenter.

If you heard the whole interview I suggest you challenge my opening statement.

So what" says Mary Wilson in an interview on today's programme. Arthur Spring repeats it back to her "So what". I never said "so what" says "Mary Wilson".


So many party hacks on here I question the value of trying to make a point here.

Just for the record Arthur Spring was polite, respectful and wholly cooperative throughout the whole interview.

Expunge

Xenophile wrote: »

So many party hacks on here I question the value of trying to make a point here.

Yer a gas man, Xen!

From this thread by yourself.....
"Arthur Spring is a politician of substance and well worth looking out for in the future!"

And from the Tipperary General Election thread in the Tipp forum, also by your good self:

"The only strong candidate allied to a Party is Alan Kelly of Labour."
"Alan Kelly is Tipperary's only hope for a seat in the cabinet position."
"A good reason why Kelly should get your Number One"

And finally...
"Eishtec creating 200 jobs at new Clonmel centre.

I can see the hand of Alan Kelly T.D. at work here"

Xenophile

Expunge wrote: »

Yer a gas man, Xen!

From this thread by yourself.....
"Arthur Spring is a politician of substance and well worth looking out for in the future!"

And from the Tipperary General Election thread in the Tipp forum, also by your good self:

"The only strong candidate allied to a Party is Alan Kelly of Labour."
"Alan Kelly is Tipperary's only hope for a seat in the cabinet position."
"A good reason why Kelly should get your Number One"

And finally...
"Eishtec creating 200 jobs at new Clonmel centre.I can see the hand of Alan Kelly T.D. at work here"

Thanks for the publicity, Tipperary South has not had a full time Cabinet Minister for a period longer than four and a half months since 1957. Yes you read it right 1957. In the interest of fairness and balance it is good that we now have a full time Minister who is not a parish pump politician representing us at National level.

Xenophile

Xenophile wrote: »

"So what" says Mary Wilson in an interview on today's programme. Arthur Spring repeats it back to her "So what". I never said "so what" says "Mary Wilson".

It was a catty ratty performance by Ms. Wilson, Arthur Spring held his cool and was very impressive speaking on his brief on Child Care.

Arthur Spring is a politician of substance and well worth looking out for in the future!

I notice that Mary Wilson is not on the programme this afternoon, maybe she is stressed out after her blatant error of yesterday !

testarossa40

Xenophile wrote: »

I notice that Mary Wilson is not on the programme this afternoon, maybe she is stressed out after her blatant error of yesterday !

And I notice the Radio forum appears to have been hijacked by Labour party activists not only content with peddling their pet Election candidates, but also seeking to character-assassinate working professionals.

Get Lost.

Xenophile

testarossa40 wrote: »

Get Lost.

Are you suggesting that you are not open to honest debate here?

Brendan Bendar

Xenophile wrote: »

Are you suggesting that you are not open to honest debate here?

That's the way it seems to me .

testarossa40

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

That's the way it seems to me .

Party Political Rants are inherently DIShonest and I for one don't appreciate them on this forum - nor the blatant, disingenuous, candidate-plugging. Perfectly acceptable for you to go and fill your boots here instead... B-bye!

PeterTheNinth

My God, Mary Wilson is an insufferable pious prude. Does she ever get down off that high horse of hers?

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

My God, Mary Wilson is an insufferable pious prude. Does she ever get down off that high horse of hers?

Tell us what upset you Peadar..... off ya go lad.....

PeterTheNinth

Well that's generally how I feel about her, tbh. I presume there is not much traffic on any thread with her name because people just dont care about her and her dull show. But the smug, superior, accusing tone that she adopted when interviewing Michelle Mulherin today was ridiculous.

Honestly Mary, do you really think that you are that much better than everyone else?

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

Well that's generally how I feel about her, tbh. I presume there is not much traffic on any thread with her name because people just dont care about her and her dull show. But the smug, superior, accusing tone that she adopted when interviewing Michelle Mulherin today was ridiculous.

Honestly Mary, do you really think that you are that much better than everyone else?

Nice one Peadhar, agree to an extent, but MM came across as a proper chump going on air exposing this.

All this of course is GAA corporate stuff, same as some gimps in RTE who wouldn't know a Hurley from a cricket bat will be 'in boxes' for the Football Final.

Have to agree that Wilson was all in 'smugness central' for that interview.


Wonder was she at the Hurling Final being from Tipp and ostensibly interested in GAA?



Uhmmmmmmmm m

PeterTheNinth

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Have to agree that Wilson was all in 'smugness central' for that interview.

I would agree on Mulherin, and I lost all respect for her when she "voted with the party" that time anyway. But Wilson's childish questions, knowing full well that she hadn't been to many of the matches.

She was the same with Mick Wallace a while back. Looking down her nose at him with his tax problems, as if he was something she scraped off her shoe.

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

I would agree on Mulherin, and I lost all respect for her when she "voted with the party" that time anyway. But Wilson's childish questions, knowing full well that she hadn't been to many of the matches.

She was the same with Mick Wallace a while back. Looking down her nose at him with his tax problems, as if he was something she scraped off her shoe.

Uhmmmm tax 'problems' ?

Like not paying is it ?

Bit of a neck on him Peter, going on about NAMA given that history.

Wouldn't have much time for the bould Mike, in fairness.

honeybear

While listening to Mary Wilson's interview with the Mayo senator today, all I kept thinking was ... why was this even newsworthy

Lazairus

Hello all.

whats your opinion. Do you love the hard news. do you love that Rte presenters are so embedded in politics.

its hard news, politics, more hard news, and a light hearted story somewhere.

It seems that rte drivetime should be called rte political broadcasts.

what do you think? Is this incorrect view? .

Cheers.

Laz

I

heybaby

Lazairus wrote: »

Hello all.

whats your opinion. Do you love the hard news. do you love that Rte presenters are so embedded in politics.

its hard news, politics, more hard news, and a light hearted story somewhere.

It seems that rte drivetime should be called rte political broadcasts.

what do you think? Is this incorrect view? .

Cheers.

Laz

I

Pretty sure there's already a thread

PeterTheNinth

I say keep John Murray on this show. Leave Mary Wilson on a permanent holiday.

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

I say keep John Murray on this show. Leave Mary Wilson on a permanent holiday.

While I was a critic of John Murray on the 09-10 slot, he is doing well in this slot.

Don't think he has the 'edge' to do it full time, but he certainly has improved a lot

Proves my point that that is his best at presenting data which requires no 'personal' input, just straightforward reportage and interaction with a series of events.

Don't think I could take the Dubbalin drawl for an extended period though.

But fair play to John, he is making a good fist of it.

PeterTheNinth

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

While I was a critic of John Murray on the 09-10 slot, he is doing well in this slot..

But this was always my point about Murray. The first time I heard him he was filling in for Marian Finucane and he was good at it. But the only thing that RTE had free was Ryan Tubridy's old slot, when Tubridy moved to fill in for Gerry Ryan. And then for the few years we had John Murray trying to do comic intros and telling knock knock jokes, offending as many people as possible. Now they have moved him in to sport, something that he obviously has absolutely no interest in.

John is good at the serious political stuff, so if they are going to have him on air, then this is what he should be doing. And since the bar is set soooo low by Mary Wilson to start with.

As I once heard said "If the bar was set that low, I would feel no sense of achievement in having jumped it".

padd b1975

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

Well that's generally how I feel about her, tbh. I presume there is not much traffic on any thread with her name because people just dont care about her and her dull show. But the smug, superior, accusing tone that she adopted when interviewing Michelle Mulherin today was ridiculous.

Honestly Mary, do you really think that you are that much better than everyone else?

It was a nothing story in the grand scheme of things.
She adopted a mischievous line of questioning to which Mulherin had no credible answers.
I enjoyed the interview to be honest, sometimes we need some pantomime stuff to lighten the mood.

I don't understand why anyone can dislike Mary Wilson. Nobody ever accuses Philip Boucher-Hayes (whom I find to be occasionally pompous) of being patriarchal or priggish, yet the far more mild-mannered M.W. is inevitably criticized as a matriarchal prig. There even seems to be a gendered quality to the criticism. It's all a bit unfair.

I don't think she's RTÉ's best current affairs interviewer (I'd reserve that accolade for Audrey Carville), but she's certainly above average by RTÉ's standard. She speaks clearly, she prepares well, she asks intelligent questions, and displays very little political bias. She doesn't seem 'pally' with anybody in politics, probably because she arrived in Drivetime from the courts, and not as a political correspondent.

I wouldn't like to see her move out of this slot. My heart sinks every time I hear John Murray fill-in for Wilson. Murray is just not as professional a broadcaster in my view, and his political bias is just not debatable at this stage. George Lee must be looking at Murray and thinking 'wtf'?

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

But this was always my point about Murray. The first time I heard him he was filling in for Marian Finucane and he was good at it. But the only thing that RTE had free was Ryan Tubridy's old slot, when Tubridy moved to fill in for Gerry Ryan. And then for the few years we had John Murray trying to do comic intros and telling knock knock jokes, offending as many people as possible. Now they have moved him in to sport, something that he obviously has absolutely no interest in.

John is good at the serious political stuff, so if they are going to have him on air, then this is what he should be doing. And since the bar is set soooo low by Mary Wilson to start with.

As I once heard said "If the bar was set that low, I would feel no sense of achievement in having jumped it".

I would not agree that John is good at the serious political stuff

John is passable at reportage and presenting a current affairs type of show with no in depth or confrontational type of interviews, passable.

He keeps the show moving along at a brisk pace, asks the questions written on his control sheet, but other than that serious political stuff- nah

Not bad, but not Premiership standard.

honeybear

Imo, Mary is better than any of her subs. However, like all other RTE presenters, it is amazing how many days off they all have.

Brendan Bendar

John Murray is on again this week , well today anyway.

Does anyone think as I do that he is making a biggish play to replace Wilson ?

Giving it socks and in fairness doing quite well.

Moving the programme along at a good deal faster pace than Wilson does.?

Anyone any comments?

Brendan Bendar

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

John Murray is on again this week , well today anyway.

Does anyone think as I do that he is making a biggish play to replace Wilson ?

Giving it socks and in fairness doing quite well.

Moving the programme along at a good deal faster pace than Wilson does.?

Anyone any comments?

Think he's found his niche very good alright!

Euphoria Intensifies

I have to agree. John Murray has definitely impressed me over the last week. Seems far more comfortable and on the ball compared to when he's on the sports shows at the weekend. Good flow to his interviews and seems able to go "off-script" when needed.

However, It's not hard to be an improvement on Mary Wilson.

Brendan Bendar

Heheh before we deify poor John, let's not lose the run of ourselves.

I'll check back if he does a hard hitting interview with a senior politician.

A genuine hard hitting interview now !!

honeybear

I prefer listening to Mary than John. Like most (all) RTÉ presenters, she's been off a lot

P. Breathnach

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Heheh before we deify poor John, let's not lose the run of ourselves.

I'll check back if he does a hard hitting interview with a senior politician.

A genuine hard hitting interview now !!

That's a fair test.

Quite a few RTÉ news/current affairs staff might fail it. Some seem to equate a badgering style with getting stuck in on the issues.

Euphoria Intensifies

Brendan Bendar wrote:

I'll check back if he does a hard hitting interview with a senior politician.

That would be the real test indeed Brendan. Although I've taken a liking to the bould John this past week, he hasn't been visited on by too many of the "big boys".

PeterTheNinth

If it means a) getting Mary Wilson off the air and b) getting John Murray out of the sports department, then YES give John the job. And he is actually very good at this job. It's something that he very obviously has an interest in, as opposed to sport which you can tell (in spite of his best efforts to sound enthusiastic) that he has no interest in.

PeterTheNinth

He can even pronounce Olivia O'Leary's name right.

Though it appears there is nothing that he can do about her subjective, pious monologues. Nothing to say on Hilary's lies, about how she supported the women who took cases against Bill, how she kept the mail server in her bath (putting her secrecy ahead of the safety of the lives of Americans).... ?

mbur

heybaby wrote: »

Pretty sure there's already a thread

No there isn't. (Two words - Search Tools)

I have mixed feelings about this show. They finally have a decent presenter in John Murray but they still very much follow the party line when choosing guest speakers and such. Classic example today. To follow a speech by Jeremy Corbyn they get some toff from a RW UK rag to do the usual MSM hatchet job on the Labour leader. If you want your news with the usual massive dose of RW propaganda then this is probably the pick of the bunch. Only because it has the best presenter.

Interesting to hear Mary Wilson recently saying on-air that she is a PAYE worker.

I would have assumed she was was a very highly paid contractor, since she has the leading Drivetime show in the country (236,000 last JNLR), at a notoriously competitive time of day (car radios are far less tolerant than kitchen radios).

On a somewhat related topic, it was interesting to hear Cormac O hEadhra from Late Debate, and sometimes presenter of Drivetime, saying on air that he earns less than a TD's basic salary (87,000 Euro).

No accounting for talent in RTE.

Corca Baiscinn

I enjoyed Joseph O' Connor's piece today re Bob Dylan and tried to find the link to send to someone but the Drivetime highlights didn't show it and the listen back option wasn't up yet on my mobile. I was going to listen back and send the person the time of broadcast. Does anyone know if his pieces are copyright protected or is it possible to podcast them?

dxhound2005

It's good to hear Barry Lenihan having a bit of fun with the English language. Either that or the Quango hammer must have addled his brain. Two new words, Rawshus and Debockery.

Listen at 2 mins 40 and 5 mins 40.

http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b9%5F21105601%5F83%5F16%2D12%2D2016%5F

coylemj

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Interesting to hear Mary Wilson recently saying on-air that she is a PAYE worker.

I would have assumed she was was a very highly paid contractor.....

Only if there was a risk that another broadcaster might offer her a slot which I would have thought was highly unlikely. She is a hopelessly useless presenter, she interrupts people as a matter of 'style'. Her MO is similar to that of Brian Farrell on TV current affairs years ago.

When you hear Mary Wilson even interrupting fellow RTE reporters, you realise that she has no intellectual input to any of the debate, she clearly thinks that cutting across people constitutes 'debate' as far as her puny brain is concerned.

PeterTheNinth

"You You You've been in the job for nine months now, and you had a rocky start. .. Do you think you're getting the hang of it".

Yes Mary, unlike yourself who has been in the job for years and are still as dreadful as you were the first day on the job.

citykat

I have to get this off my chest. I absolutely despise her pronunciation of Olivia O'Leary...O'Lairy. It drives me nuts when i hear it. I have never heard it pronounced like that by anyone else in this country.

Oops69

citykat wrote: »

I have to get this off my chest. I absolutely despise her pronunciation of Olivia O'Leary...O'Lairy. It drives me nuts when i hear it. I have never heard it pronounced like that by anyone else in this country.

Utter pointless pretentiouness, as for O'Lairrry , I'm sure she's probably prerecorded months worth of anti-Trump outraged rants Already and has put her feet up, the two are insufferable.

PeterTheNinth

citykat wrote: »

I have to get this off my chest. I absolutely despise her pronunciation of Olivia O'Leary...O'Lairy.

It's worth having John Murray for that alone. Drives me up the wall as well.

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

It's worth having John Murray for that alone. Drives me up the wall as well.

:eek:


Sssssssssteady.......Peter.

Gwynplaine

She's good, most of the time. Her pronunciation of 'O'Leary' does annoy me.
'Olivia O'Layery'

Expunge

'Olivia O'Layery'

That's how Olivia O'Leary herself pronounces her own name. I have heard her several times saying it that way.

Must be how dey say it in County Carla!

JackPerry

On Thursday's Drivetime the reporter Sandra Hurley made the ridiculous claim that the Child Abuse Inquiry cost six thousand times the original estimate of 250 million.
She clearly stated this which would mean the cost was 15 thousand billion.
No attempt by RTE to correct this, any old thing goes on RTE these days.