Varadkar, Martin & Ryan walking off a stage together to avoid a journalist. Is this acceptable?

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121811562#Comment_121811562

No problem.

Again don't think its true that they only get soft questions from the rest though

Look how Cath Martin got caught out on Primetime if you want a recent example and that was the underrated Miriam O, fair dues to her!

Maybe phrased less confrontationally. And giving people time to answer properly.

Enoigh rope..

Looks like he waited till they were leaving, bad timing..

Nobody wants to be fielding questions from people in a rushed reply who don't listen to answers.. And write an incorrect report regardless of what was said.. Would he have form in this?

They surely are well used to answering " hard" questions or they shouldn't be in politics.

Going to only get harder for them anyway over the next while and that would be from all quarters.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121812182#Comment_121812182

When was the last time Michael Martin or Leo Varadkar got asked hard questions?

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121812033#Comment_121812033

Yes and then they upload it to social media as some sort of 'gotcha' moment. Holly Cairns hadn't got a clue what the Gript fella was asking her or what the quote referred to.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121812476#Comment_121812476

Well, you're a journalist or member of the media, are you? (not getting personal skimpydoo but you did mention it in a post a day or do ago here)

Maybe you can tell me.. why they don't get asked so called ' hard questions'??

I 'm not 100% convinced that is the case as it obviously depends on what people want them to say in reply. And whether they feel those questions have been answered or not.

Point is, they seem to readily have answers that THEY are happy with and it is up to the media to push it a bit further if not satisfied with those answers.

Having said that, I thought in my naivety that journalism was the pursuit of truth in the public interest or interests of society and not in the interests or agenda of any particular political persuasion?

Are you in fact agreeing that ALL MSM is biased politically and that is why those questions that are being defined as hard (but nobody here is saying what in fact those questions are) are not being posed?

Or are you saying press conferences are FIXED so that only certain questions can be asked?

And what do YOU consider' hard questions '?

Intetested in the reply.

I would think that one that excercises them a litte that they have to come up with something new themselves , not spin.

We have seen Varadkar frequently caught out, no catchy turn of phrase available and he has to row back and/or explain at a llater time.. So is that not somebody throwing something difficult at him?

Martin is a smoother operator rarely caught without a spin or charming deflection

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121812522#Comment_121812522

She knew full well but couldn't answer because she knew he caught her out.

Gannon smirking beside her, the smirk might be wiped off him after the next election.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813678#Comment_121813678

The question was a totally random one about something a Soc Dems TD said in the Dáil a year ago, nothing to do with Cairns' speech at her party conference last Saturday night or points from her current manifesto. It would be like Varadkar or Martin being quizzed on something a backbencher had said in an obscure speech in the Dáil last year (and the SDs are not even in government).

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813678#Comment_121813678

I don't know if it will be nor could I possibly say as I don't speak for those voters in his constituency.. Do you?

So you think every badly phrased, aggressively touted question no matter how obscure, deserves a politician's full attention?

Does this idea of respect not go both ways?

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813705#Comment_121813705

they have 6 TDs, i'm not even a party member and I remembered the speech Murphy gave so are you seriously suggesting she had no idea what he was talking about?

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813712#Comment_121813712

She gets very soft interviews from both RTE and VM1, he wasn't agressive at all and as I said above its just not credible that she had no idea what he was talking about.

Goldengirl

Did he put it up as a clip , the non response?

To be fair people need to be given time to answer just as the thread here is asking about this guy not been given the time to ask his question..

It's two sides of the same coin.

Also it takes all sorts in politics.. Not everyone is aggressive or shouty person just as in the Dáil.

A lot of HC's support is exactly for her quiet assertive style.

I disagree that she had 'soft' interviews.. The VM one in particular was fairly aggressive in tone but HC handled it.

Mr. teddywinkles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799931#Comment_121799931

It's called biased journalism in the government's favour. Not one hard question. These fookers should be making these guys **** their pants when in front of them. There job outright is to answer the hard question. Not script with favorable q n a. Especially on the varies unsavoury topics which this government has ignored for years now and turned public opinion massively against them.

Francie Barrett

I am on the fence about Gript.

But I think for Varadkar to attend a press conference, to listen to a question from them, and then to ignore it and walk off is outrageous.

CramCycle

It's no different than a dash cam video, it's better to see the whole thing through. He wasn't noticed, not out of badness, not out of protection but the conference was over, others were talking, this guy seen a chance to make a YouTube short.

I love that his YouTube fans are swarming to boards to validate his average sleight of hand but that's ok it was, the people a few feet from him would barely have heard him let alone the lads on stage.

I say this as someone who neither likes the people on stage or the youtuber who posted the video.

Fair play for 12 pages on boards, far better than the 12 likes on YouTube I thought it would top out on. It's as badly made as the videos my kid watches.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813936#Comment_121813936

Think that wraps it up nicely 😁 agree..

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813855#Comment_121813855

I'm not.

The more dismissive the three Government parties are to Scallan and his fellow bottom feeders, the more preferences they are getting from me.

Gript? More like Grift.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813855#Comment_121813855

Good thing that didn't happen then.

Silentcorner

The real scandal here is not a single other journalist asked the same valid question when they had a chance!! Why are we treating these leaders the way we used to treat Bishops?

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813604#Comment_121813604

I am indeed a journalist.

The reasons they don’t get asked hard questions by the MSM is as follows. Firstly they want to be able to interview them i the future or get exclusives from them. Secondly, they are keeping ministers onside as they would like a job in the future as an advisor to a minister, mainly due to the €100k plus yearly salary that they will never earn as a journalist. 

Journalism should be based on the pursuit of truth in the public interest or interests of society but you only have to look and see the MSM in the UK and how they have acted towards those against Brexit. You also have to look at how the MSM in Ireland act if there is a story that might tarnish SF, they are all over it. A good example of this is the Big drugs bust in Tralee, and the fact that the guy who is the manager of the garden centre was going to be a FG candidate in the next election, but somehow this is not mentioned. If he was going to be running for SF it would have been mentioned.

A few years ago the government wanted the digital age of consent to be 13, and I was one if the journalists who wanted it to be 16. I wrote an article stating why it should be 16. Thankfully the government lost and digital age of consent was set at 16.

A lot of MSM is biased towards FF, FG and The Greens as they think it’s better the devil you know.

However, it’s good to see the MSM giving people like Brenda Power and Michael McDowell the opportunity to state why they are advocating for a no vote in the up coming referendums.

I don’t think that press conferences are fixed but if they can find away to stop the awkward questions being asked they will.

To me a hard question would be asking a government minister why they are relying on the courts to define what a durable relationship is? If the courts decide not to go the government way a lot of time and money has been wasted on a referendum. Another hard question would be are certain NGO’s advocating a yes vote in the referendums because they rely on government funding?

Varadkar has been caught out numerous times and it has been brushed aside as if nothing happened, because he is still the Taoiseach and leader of FG.

Francie Barrett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814129#Comment_121814129

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dHWZdWSLUs

Varadkar clearly walks out mid-sentence.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814268#Comment_121814268

Mid sentence of an utter narcissist speaking into his own mic and dubbing it over the audio.

Please tell me people don't think that is all the same audio feed? It is not even well done.

Francie Barrett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814317#Comment_121814317

Unless you can provide evidence, your claim is defamation of character.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814337#Comment_121814337

The utter charlatan is welcome to sue me.

That is quite clearly not the press conference audio feed and anyone who thinks it is is pretty naive.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813722#Comment_121813722

When you watch the Gript clip, both Holly Cairns and Gary Gannon are looking at the Gript guy with total and utter bafflement when he asks the question - not an 'Oops, we've been found out' reaction.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814214#Comment_121814214

I watched the Catherine Martin press conference live on Friday evening from Government Buildings - contrary to the nonsense put out by Gript crowd, she was asked many hard questions and was very much on the defensive throughout (and the Greens are a party that are hated by the Irish far right and accused by them of having a cosy relationship with the media).

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814366#Comment_121814366

She was asked hard questions because the RTE debacle has been dragging on for nearly a year and Martin has not done much. She should have been well gone by now for her handling of the situation.

Homelander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814337#Comment_121814337

Do you seriously believe his audio feed is the same feed as the event? Beacuse it blatantly is not.

There's no conspiracy. The event just ended before he could ask his question.

The idea that his question was so impactful, so powerful and earth shaking that all three had to walk away is completely laughable.

It wasn't even a difficult question.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814368#Comment_121814368

For sure and I think she handled the sacking of the RTE chairperson badly. But it did expose the idea that the Irish media have a really cosy relationship with the government as a bit of a nonsense - she was being asked some very hard questions throughout the conference and looked uncomfortable and defensive.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814317#Comment_121814317

Its blindingly obvious it was recorded separately. That Scallon fella is going to be found out bigtime, he's getting by so far on the gullibility of his braindead followers.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814214#Comment_121814214

Ok. Fair play for honesty . skimpydoo

Few things here.

Hardly right that some journos are too busy looking towards their career trajectory and thus don't push for answers from politicians. Hardly the fault of the politicians then.

But thats not all the journalists surely. There's a bit of homogeneity in views because our politics is very centrist too. But proper journalism should strive for balance.

We do need more diversity of views.

I would think that the editors shoud make a point of pushing for more diversity and balance in reporting.

Are they happy for their pieces to be the same as all the other publications?

You would think that that should be the deciding factor in whether a pay rise is warranted?

Or are the paymasters getting too much of a say?

Michael McDowell and Brenda Power.. Good to hear alternate voices, yes, but in a reflective measured tone.

In fairness to MSM those groups who have been coming out against the' care' part of the referendum have been getting coverage also.

While I agree that the politicians should have less control over what questions are asked and by whom, I think that elevating Gript to a "must be allowed question" is a stretch.

The writing is blogging at best, opinion led with very little balance and verification appears to be hit and miss. Its shady funding is a concern also.

Its a rag and doesn't deserve the pages of mentions it gets on boards. But its feeding an agenda for those further to the right who aren't getting much from other media atm.

Having said that if people read it and like it and it feeds their curiosity then the question is do people need to be served with a better supply of diverse media in the mainstream.?

(But many who read it like the very fact Gript is not mainstream because they are into the whole "MSM controlling the narrative" view .)

Anyhow, the point of the thread is, was that reporter ignored and if so was it right that he was?

I gave my opinion to start that I wasn't sure he was and tbh I am still not sure.

Do I care that that reporter was ignored? Not particularly because I don't rate his style of questioning nor the publication.

But the bigger question is was it right?

And this I think is the main issue.

As you have pointed out we have a lack of our senior politicians being faced with questions that they may find harder to spin out of and this has been getting worse in the last few years. Covid and the authoritarianism of NPHET press briefings while possibly necessary during the pandemic, didn't help as it has set a precedent which doesn't go well with the tyoe of discourse we are used to in this country.

Leo et al have run with this as a modus operandii and frankly its not good enough.

So editors in the media and television need to shake themselves out of their complacency, earn their money and put the pressure on.

People are not happy with the way things are going and that needs to be reflected in the news.

(TLDR: Bring back Questions and Answers..,)

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814337#Comment_121814337

Gavin Reilly specified he was using his own microphone and given the distance away plus the fact he's clearly speaking at room level. Yep, they were unlikely to have heard his question.