Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

Aidric wrote: »

Exactly the reason for my previous post. Gilroy has no credibility after the Cheltenham whitewash.

Ok, but are you then going to say the same about all the media organisations who sent people to cover Liverpool V Atletico Madrid. The city of Madrid was on lockdown at the time, yet Atletico Madrid fans and the Spanish media was allowed to travel. The real culprits here are the UK's bonkers herd immunity strategy, and in our case regarding Cheltenham - the Irish racing lobby, who I suspect would have very strong influences in Government circles here.

Ahwell wrote: »

Ok, but are you then going to say the same about all the media organisations who sent people to cover Liverpool V Atletico Madrid. The city of Madrid was on lockdown at the time, yet Atletico Madrid fans and the Spanish media was allowed to travel. The real culprits here are the UK's bonkers herd immunity strategy, and in our case regarding Cheltenham - the Irish racing lobby, who I suspect would have very strong influences in Government circles here.

As is often cited by people here, OTB is usually very quick to jump on a cause and to start the hand wringing. OTB as a whole and Gilroy in particular bizarrely seemed to lose most of their critical faculties the week of Cheltenham. I recall Gilroy delivering a sermon about how it should go ahead one morning before the festival.

It was only much later in the week when public opinion started to sway against people at Cheltenham and those promoting it that OTB started to question it in any way - probably when they realised they were in danger of a public backlash. They let themselves down, and once again it was shown that they have a conscience as long as it does not impact on their bottom line. They were fully invested in Cheltenham and obviously were drawing a lot of money from their sponsors, and a global pandemic was not getting in their way. You can be sure that their attitude emboldened many of the people who refused to take this crisis seriously.

I think it's funny now to listen to Molloy banging on ad nauseam about the corona virus crisis. He's not qualified to talk about it and the show should be cut way back and just talk about sport or how corona virus is impacting it. Listening to him and Pat Nevin giving their back of a fag box opinions garnered from Twitter is irresponsible. I just wanted a little diversion from the crisis and my kids last night and ended up turning him off.

I think in all this it's pretty clear that OTB has behaved yet again in a hugely hypocritical way.

Deleted User wrote: »

It was only much later in the week when public opinion started to sway against people at Cheltenham and those promoting it that OTB started to question it in any way - probably when they realised they were in danger of a public backlash. They let themselves down, and once again it was shown that they have a conscience as long as it does not impact on their bottom line. They were fully invested in Cheltenham and obviously were drawing a lot of money from their sponsors, and a global pandemic was not getting in their way. You can be sure that their attitude emboldened many of the people who refused to take this crisis seriously.

Again, this is not true. If anyone cares to look at Tuesday nights newsround, it's on Youtube, Richie and Joe were very strongly questioning the decision for Cheltenham to go ahead. As for Gilroy delivering a sermon, I had a quick look through Monday's OTB AM, I can't find it. If you can show it to me fair enough, there would be no defending it. What I do remembering him saying sport should go on behind closed doors, but this was before players and coaches started testing positive.

I think on this thread OTB is often criticized for stuff every other mainstream sports show does. Did RTE cover Cheltenham? I'm assuming they did. I'm also assuming they sent far more then one person to do so. Going back to Liverpool V Atletico Madrid, Sky's Sunday Supplement had two journalists on who had been at Anfield, they were both saying how crazy the situation was - but they still went and their editors still sent them.

Deleted User wrote: »

I was mostly referring to Gilroy. I'll try and dig out the clip that really annoyed me. I would assume as editor he felt under pressure to defend the decision.

If you can find it, fair enough, I couldn't.

Aidric wrote: »

A look at Gilroy's twitter account will give you clarity. Of course he wasn't going to come out on OTB programming and kick up a fuss. He knows who his paymasters are.

Sorry, you going to have to be a bit more specific - do you mean the title in the bio, or the content of some of his posts?

Tell me how wrote: »

That's just because you don't like it. The accusation of hypocrisy is there because some are motivated only to find fault and complain. It is what it is, but doesn't mean it can't be highlighted.

Can you point to a topic on which you think they have been virtue signalling which was not an active conversation in houses and workplaces around the country at the time or which was not directly related to some element of sport.

I mentioned hypocrisy first in this thread and I have nearly always been positive in the past. You can take issue with something and call it out for what it is without just looking for something to find fault with and complain about. That also seems like an odd way of looking at the situation.

Deleted User wrote: »

Strange way of looking at it.

I think the poster is entitled to point out that if they are going to take the high moral ground on many issues then they need to be consistent. It seems like a very valid point to me,

Ok, it's valid to you, but it's not to me and I've explained why above. So I don't think the show has a problem that needs to be solved, that poster just has a problem with the show. That's not the same thing.

Tell me how wrote: »

How do you think they should have handled covering a racing meeting which had the approval of the UK government to be held, which the Irish government neither called to be cancelled or suggested people did not travel to, and which they had most likely contracts in place to provide coverage for in conjunction with PP?

And they discussed on the show that they personally felt it was a bad idea.

How would you have handled it?

Had the Irish government called for it to be cancelled or people not to travel they would have created a diplomatic problem with the UK. Their hands were tied. It was a time for people and broadcasters to show leadership and responsibility.

I'd have made an editorial decision to ignore the racing side of things and maybe just read out the results at the end of a new bulletin. RTE did this. Discussing the racing and form etc at length each day was the most jarring part.

There's a difference between some of the presenters discussing how they felt about it very briefly and what would have happened in any other situation had OTB not had skin in the game - Richie, Joe and Ger pontificating to us all about how much of a disgrace it was, at length and ad nauseam.

My overall point is that they are compromised by money. At times during the OTB AM show it was like they were just a vehicle for a bookmaker to make money. It's hard to listen to them sounding off about all sorts of matters when you know that they will stay quiet if it affects Newstalk's bottom line. Their hands are tied but it makes them look silly.

If you don't agree with me, that's fine. Fair play for having your opinions and sticking doggedly to them. I can admire that and we can agree to disagree on the matter.