Aggressive TD with Sarah McInerney on drivetime

PuddingBreath

Hi,

I'm possibly wrong on the legalities of this but i don't think it's acceptable... it's as follows.

I was listening to drivetime on rte radio 1 yesterday eveing (wednesday 24th) and Sarah was talking to a TD between 5:30 to 6pm(I think it was Micheal Mcgrath from FF, I missed some of it).

So towards the end she asked a simple question, did the irish government talk to russia about getting the sputnik vaccine.
The contributor, in my opinion, got overly aggressive with her and in my opinion shouted her down, listing out which vaccines we do have, yada yada yada, he at no point answered the question.

Now as a tax payer I have to contribute towards RTE's funding and TD's wages. I find it highly inappropiate that a simple yes or no question is not only being not answered, the RTE employees are being shouted down aggressively. I believe that TD should face censure for his behaviour, for all the crap we had to listen about Trump for the last 4 years a lot of unacceptable behaviour over here is ignored. TD's are going onto our national brodcaster(i normally listen to an hour of drivetime a day only, so god only know what else i miss) and not answering simple questions and in this case bullying(IMO) reporters.

so my questions are, does anyone know where i can get a recording of that show, if anyone else was listening and thought the same ? I will be making a complaint to RTE, the political party involved(as i said i'm unsure what TD it was, just going off the voice) or the Dail standard committee or something.

SNIP. Please do not use abusive language in this forum.


(please forgive my spelling/grammar)

Brussels Sprout

Whatever about the shouting down I find it hard to believe that you are surprised that a politician dodged a Yes/No question. They pretty much never answer those with a Yes or No.

markjbloggs

Not entirely true :- examples.....

YES - do you want a larger payrise than anyone else in the public sector?

NO - do you accept responsibility for your previous screw-ups?

a simple one-word answer will be forthcoming to these and a few other questions regarding their self interests

crossman47

PuddingBreath wrote: »

Hi,

I'm possibly wrong on the legalities of this but i don't think it's acceptable... it's as follows.

I was listening to drivetime on rte radio 1 yesterday eveing (wednesday 24th) and Sarah was talking to a TD between 5:30 to 6pm(I think it was Micheal Mcgrath from FF, I missed some of it).

So towards the end she asked a simple question, did the irish government talk to russia about getting the sputnik vaccine.
The contributor, in my opinion, got overly aggressive with her and in my opinion shouted her down, listing out which vaccines we do have, yada yada yada, he at no point answered the question.

Now as a tax payer I have to contribute towards RTE's funding and TD's wages. I find it highly inappropiate that a simple yes or no question is not only being not answered, the RTE employees are being shouted down aggressively. I believe that TD should face censure for his behaviour, for all the crap we had to listen about Trump for the last 4 years a lot of unacceptable behaviour over here is ignored. TD's are going onto our national brodcaster(i normally listen to an hour of drivetime a day only, so god only know what else i miss) and not answering simple questions and in this case bullying(IMO) reporters.

so my questions are, does anyone know where i can get a recording of that show, if anyone else was listening and thought the same ? I will be making a complaint to RTE, the political party involved(as i said i'm unsure what TD it was, just going off the voice) or the Dail standard committee or something.

SNIP. Please do not use abusive language in this forum.


(please forgive my spelling/grammar)

Listen to Morning Ireland and you'll get plenty examples of agressive interviewing. Gavin Jennings is the worst followed by Audrey carville but even Mary Wilson has now got the bug. I think its an instruction to all of them. They ask questions that can't be answered and keep up the barrage even when told so.

VinLieger

Not sure what interview you were listening to, replay is here starts around 4:50
FYI the interview was with Minister of state for European affairs Thomas Byrne

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21929545

I used to listen to Sarah when she was on NT and it doesn't seem like shes changed up her, in my opinion, overly aggressive interviewing approach.

Sarah seems to think its the job of an interviewer is to catch the interviewee out by pinning them to something and then she can get her "Gotcha" moment. Shes always been like this and she spent the entire interview once again trying to do this so when he got frustrated near the end I don't think he was at all in the wrong.

Also i think you are incredibly naive if you think this was an outrageous interview to listen to and comparing that interview to trump is hyperbolic in the extreme.

That interview is honestly one of the tamest things i've listened to.
Censure?? Give me a break......

Big Ears

I didn't hear the interview and his response could have been completely out of order for all I know.

However one think I will say is that asking a question like that about Sputnik is a loaded question, both McInerney knows it and McGrath knows it and perhaps that's why she got an aggressive reply.

For Geopolitical reasons, most Western European countries will not be looking to acquire that vaccine, Russia and the EU are in truth very much adversaries and it's probably with great frustration that a lot of EU countries are reliant on Russia for energy.
They'd prefer no interaction with Russia at all and would only resort to a Russian vaccine if there was no other vaccines available.

Now people can say that's right/wrong or things should be different as it's a pandemic etc, but in reality it's the truth, and McInerney already knows why that option won't be explored.

JJayoo

Completely disagree with the OP, I thought the guest did a great job at standing his ground.

Brussels Sprout

VinLieger wrote: »

Sarah seems to think its the job of an interviewer is to catch the interviewee out by pinning them to something and then she can get her "Gotcha" moment. .

Miriam O'Callaghan does this exactly as well on Prime Time. It's really annoying. The primary reasoning behind her questions appears to be catching people out rather than gaining information.

I'm not advocating soft-ball interviews but I don't just want to hear a series of questions with no time for the interviewee to answer properly.

Breezer

I heard the interview. It was Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fáil.

For context, the CEO of the company that makes Sputnik V had been on the programme earlier and had stated that talks had taken place between his company and the Irish Ambassador to Russia about supplying Sputnik V to Ireland. He was evasive when asked if any talks had taken place with an Irish government minister but eventually more or less admitted they hadn’t.

Sarah later took this up with Thomas Byrne and asked what he knew about it. Obviously he was a bit blindsided by the question but instead of saying that it’s not his department and he had no knowledge of it one way or the other, which I think would have been fine in this context, he went out of his way to answer a different a question and then shouted over Sarah when she tried to get him to answer the question that was asked.

It was mild. Nothing out of the ordinary for an Irish politician, and nothing I’d imagine Sarah McInerney will be losing too much sleep over.

PuddingBreath

Breezer wrote: »

I heard the interview. It was Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fáil.

For context, the CEO of the company that makes Sputnik V had been on the programme earlier and had stated that talks had taken place between his company and the Irish Ambassador to Russia about supplying Sputnik V to Ireland. He was evasive when asked if any talks had taken place with an Irish government minister but eventually more or less admitted they hadn’t.

Sarah later took this up with Thomas Byrne and asked what he knew about it. Obviously he was a bit blindsided by the question but instead of saying that it’s not his department and he had no knowledge of it one way or the other, which I think would have been fine in this context, he went out of his way to answer a different a question and then shouted over Sarah when she tried to get him to answer the question that was asked.

It was mild. Nothing out of the ordinary for an Irish politician, and nothing I’d imagine Sarah McInerney will be losing too much sleep over.

Hi, thanks a million for that. It sounds about right from what I heard, as I said I didn't catch all of it.
Some people on here seem to think it was a gotcha question and that there's wider geopolitical issues etc, but !!!!! I thought there's this virus going around that's killing people, so I'd imagine if there was the government should be hunting down any vaccines they can get their hands on, or any treatment and taking any action possible to save lives and never mind the games. If a journalist working for the state broadcaster asks that question then I can't see why it isn't answered.
A year ago when this virus first hit the country I was just like everyone else, but quickly I became disheartened, when Tony holohan had to be asked for weeks before they could give the average age of death along with the median(addition and division is beyond our civil service?) I stopped watching.
biden said to trump pre election that all the covid deaths were trumps fault so, the 4000 deaths in Ireland are on LV and MM's heads then so? New Zealand and others have shown that people don't have to die.
What Thomas Byrne should have said is of course we'll talk to the Russians, of course we want to save lives, but no, the bureaucracy must come first, saving lives .....?
Instead he just shouts her down aaaaaannnnddddd we're all still locked up.
Someone mentioned naive too, yeah I probably am. But now I'm also gone very cynical. I have done a complete 180 degree from when I was younger and believe the civil service needs to be ripped apart and privatised wherever possible. I'd start with the HSE and give vouchers to OAPs, medical card holders etc to get care in the now private hospitals.
Again, my problem with all of this is that the politicians need to stop the foookery and start keeping covid out of the country. Dear TDs, Answer a question with a bit of manners, we're paying your wages, I want to know why every avenue isn't being exhausted!!!

I can see myself and the family leaving Ireland for good after all this.

PuddingBreath

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Miriam O'Callaghan does this exactly as well on Prime Time. It's really annoying. The primary reasoning behind her questions appears to be catching people out rather than gaining information.

I'm not advocating soft-ball interviews but I don't just want to hear a series of questions with no time for the interviewee to answer properly.

I hate that crap too where they constantly interrupt when being given an answer. Luckily I miss 99% of it as I work evenings. Even when they do answer though the response is rarely a surprise, just disappointment. A year in and still no comprehensive quarantine for visitors, from what I can tell/see there's tourist/visitors roaming around my local(famous tourist) town, but hey, time to shut the school's again(we got books sent home incase they don't reopen... Letter from the teacher)

PuddingBreath

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Whatever about the shouting down I find it hard to believe that you are surprised that a politician dodged a Yes/No question. They pretty much never answer those with a Yes or No.

Not in the least bit surprised, but it's time to call them out on it. People are dying, time for the civil service to pull the finger out..... That won't happen though

PuddingBreath

JJayoo wrote: »

Completely disagree with the OP, I thought the guest did a great job at standing his ground.

What's the harm in getting the vaccine off Russia? If it's safe then who cares? As a neutral country this is the closest thing we'll ever get to a war effort type scenario probably.... And we're doing terrible. If someone is drowning in the river I don't care what colour the lifebuoy is.

PuddingBreath

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Whatever about the shouting down I find it hard to believe that you are surprised that a politician dodged a Yes/No question. They pretty much never answer those with a Yes or No.

Not surprised, just sick of them. We need new parties but a lot less politicians in general. I'd get rid of 80% of them.

PuddingBreath

crossman47 wrote: »

Listen to Morning Ireland and you'll get plenty examples of agressive interviewing. Gavin Jennings is the worst followed by Audrey carville but even Mary Wilson has now got the bug. I think its an instruction to all of them. They ask questions that can't be answered and keep up the barrage even when told so.

That's not on either, it's time for the theatre to end. Jokes on us, we pay for it all 😭

VinLieger

PuddingBreath wrote: »

Hi, thanks a million for that. It sounds about right from what I heard, as I said I didn't catch all of it.
Some people on here seem to think it was a gotcha question and that there's wider geopolitical issues etc

It was a gotcha question so that she could pin any answer he gave to the government in future interviews if or when we do get the sputnik vaccine, she spent the entire interview trying to catch him out as she always does.

PuddingBreath wrote: »

, but !!!!! I thought there's this virus going around that's killing people, so I'd imagine if there was the government should be hunting down any vaccines they can get their hands on, or any treatment and taking any action possible to save lives and never mind the games.

Is the vaccine approved by the EMA? No then why would we be looking to obtain and administer it to our populace?

PuddingBreath wrote: »

If a journalist working for the state broadcaster asks that question then I can't see why it isn't answered.

Dont really get the big hard on you have for RTE being the state broadcaster tbh? They aren't public servants looking to help the country they are just journalists looking for a scoop to get more money into their pay packet nothing more.

PuddingBreath wrote: »

biden said to trump pre election that all the covid deaths were trumps fault so, the 4000 deaths in Ireland are on LV and MM's heads then so? New Zealand and others have shown that people don't have to die.

Well Trump ignored the Virus for 2 months, then downplayed it for another 2 months and then told everyone to not wear masks, supported anti-lockdown protests and touted false medical cures so the 2 situations aren't really comparable

PuddingBreath wrote: »

What Thomas Byrne should have said is of course we'll talk to the Russians, of course we want to save lives, but no, the bureaucracy must come first, saving lives .....?

Again is Sputnik approved by the EMA? No so there's no point in discussing it at that level, also he raised a very pertinent question they have only vaccinated 4% of their population for what purpose are they trying to push the vaccine into other countries? When dealing with russia or rather Putin theres always ulterior motives

PuddingBreath wrote: »

Instead he just shouts her down aaaaaannnnddddd we're all still locked up.
Someone mentioned naive too, yeah I probably am. But now I'm also gone very cynical. I have done a complete 180 degree from when I was younger and believe the civil service needs to be ripped apart and privatised wherever possible.I'd start with the HSE and give vouchers to OAPs, medical card holders etc to get care in the now private hospitals.

The Civil Service needs to be privatised? Are you possibly confusing this with the public service? Because privatising the civil service means getting rid of the civil service by definition.

PuddingBreath wrote: »

Again, my problem with all of this is that the politicians need to stop the foookery and start keeping covid out of the country. Dear TDs, Answer a question with a bit of manners, we're paying your wages, I want to know why every avenue isn't being exhausted!!!

I was with you here until you went with the tired "we pay your wages" barstool mantra.

PuddingBreath wrote: »

I can see myself and the family leaving Ireland for good after all this.

LOL and where will you go? Ireland isn't perfect but neither is any other country. Yes New Zealand looks great on the surface from afar but it isn't without its own issues, for instance did you know it has its own housing crisis that is very similar to ours?

JJayoo

PuddingBreath wrote: »

What's the harm in getting the vaccine off Russia? If it's safe then who cares? As a neutral country this is the closest thing we'll ever get to a war effort type scenario probably.... And we're doing terrible. If someone is drowning in the river I don't care what colour the lifebuoy is.

Russia have vacinated a tiny % off their own population yet are offering to sell the vaccine to anyone and everyone, it also hasn't been cleared by the EU, so for the presenter to start challenging the guest looking for a yes/no answer on wither or not they will be contacting Russia looking for a vaccine is pretty stupid.

Baseball72

I listen mainly to Matt Cooper in the evening who is excellent - he is fair but also asks the hard questions without the aggression.

I do dip into Morning Ireland as the alternative on NT is not great but do switch over when Gavin Jennings (sorry Dr. Gavin Jennings) becomes aggressive and downright rude to their guests.

Brian Dobson at lunchtime takes the same approach - "sorry to cut across you" - no they are not!

The RTE presenters are all about promoting their own ego, and as several of you have said in your posts, try for a "gotcha" moment. Its not journalism - its a high cost shock jock approach - which we partly fund through the licence fee. Its not public service broadcasting - its "how great am I" broadcasting.

Joe_ Public

VinLieger wrote: »

Again is Sputnik approved by the EMA? No so there's no point in discussing it at that level, also he raised a very pertinent question they have only vaccinated 4% of their population for what purpose are they trying to push the vaccine into other countries? When dealing with russia or rather Putin theres always ulterior motives

I think the ulterior motives are fairly obvious. It's the same reason both China and India have been exporting far more doses than they've been administering to their own populations. At least, until internal criticism forced the indian government into an export ban, anyway. It's all down to vaccine diplomacy, a global contest for soft power. Putin can score bully points by getting vaccines out there while the US hoards its supply and thinks only of itself first and foremost. I read somewhere where, between them, India and China had given away, donated, 10s of millions of doses. Obviously, they're not doing that purely out of the goodness of their heart, but i suppose it's good that vaccines are getting out there. The Russians do have a major issue with vaccine hesitancy alright, whether that's just general or specifically related to sputnik, not sure.

blanch152

PuddingBreath wrote: »

What's the harm in getting the vaccine off Russia? If it's safe then who cares? As a neutral country this is the closest thing we'll ever get to a war effort type scenario probably.... And we're doing terrible. If someone is drowning in the river I don't care what colour the lifebuoy is.

Are we really doing terrible?

Do you have any statistics to back this up, or are you just going on the mob-type rage we hear every day from mindless commentators on the radio.

https://covid-19.geohive.ie/pages/vaccinations

According to this, we have vaccinated 515,800 people, over 10% of the population. We are way ahead of Australia who have vaccinated less but have five times the population.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/charting-australias-covid-vaccine-rollout/13197518?nw=0


You mentioned New Zealand in another post, well New Zealand have managed to vaccinate 41,000 people, way short of us.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/439112/covid-19-50-new-vaccinations-centres-to-open-next-week

These are facts.