Please tell me this is a joke?
I haven’t been listening for a while before 6 due to work commitments but missed this completely. I am speechless.
What's the supposed difference between The Last Word and The Hard Shoulder?
The hard shoulder is meant to be a hard news program whereas The last word is more of a light entertainment/Magazine show
Not sure if Matt would agree with that - he "prides" himself on asking the hard questions etc
He hasn't asked a hard question in a decade. That shows credibility as news coverage has been hollowed out to non-existance at this stage
In fairness he did give Mick Barry a bit of a kicking yesterday about the Ukraine war.
Shooting fish in a barrel admittedly but someone has to pull the trigger.
he only grills Cal as he doesnt jump into the echo chamber coops and the other one does
I couldn't be arsed to listen back, but what was Barry's angle on it all?
I find this useful, I've often tuned in mid conversation and if an non regular expert is not renamed towards the end of the interview, you'd never know who you were listening to.
Doing it for regular contributors might be pointless, but it keeps it consistent.
No money to be donated by the government to help Ukraine.
He had to be asked four times before he would admit that much.
Usual guff about how the money would end up going to big business as well.
I listened back. Guff and blather as usual. Everything must accord with a pre-conceived world view; nothing new ever upsets Mick's analysis - the goodies and baddies are never changing. Reincarnation of Joe Higgins.
Is the Cal & Marion gone? I don't catch the show live I just pick out podcast episodes and that weekly slot hasn't been showing up in a while.
no there are still on the show .
Didn't think it possible to find a presenter with an even more reedy sounding voice than Matt but Ian Guider manages it
Have gone back to Matt Cooper after some time this week. I think they has rowed back on covering "woke" topics.
The political discussion from Matt is almost of old. For about 4-5 years he has offered little more than scoffing at Trump, Boris and other misc. people. Real lowest common denominator stiff.
Roe McDermott was on the show twice this week and her contributions now are like day and night. Really considered, interesting observations. I know she got a slap on the wrist but she has lost the four or five chips she had on her shoulders and has mellowed out completely.
I think it says a lot about the current relevance of TLW that, despite everything going on with the world right now, this thread went three months without a comment.
The Last Word at least had the courage to cover the topic of trans athletes being banned from competing at elite level women's sport yesterday.
I imagine most shows would have run a mile from it in case they suffered the wrath of the same people who were so abhorred by recent Liveline discussions.
More a reflection on boards.ie than anything else tbh. Loads of threads on this site that were once very active have completely flatlined in the last 12 months.
Well that's a fair point too, but other radio show threads remain busy
The problem with the Liveline discussions was that people were peddling hurtful shite which has had trans people trying to figure out who they are were literally killing themselves over.
The discussions on The Last Word and Newstalk have been fair and a lot more considerate to the group of people that were completely alienated by Liveline.
Ian Guider in for Cooper today ,didn't think it possible to find someone with an even higher pitched voice than Matt but they managed it
Awful voice for radio
Matt just signed off a piece there telling us that Roe McDermott is a relationship writer with XXXX and a movie critic with Hot Press.
How do you get qualified for those 2 jobs? Talk about making up careers. I suppose she has found 2 different organisations to pay her for doing these jobs, so gotta admire her.
The Cal and Marion slot is turning into such a car crash these days it’s a wonder it’s not put out to pasture.
When I do tune in to the show , that is a section I always switch away from. It's so predictable like a " good cop bad cop " section. It just bores me these days.
A complete waste of time.
Cal had an absolute mare. He needs to move aside. He was very bad when it came to Trump but had recovered but that was dire.
At about 3 minutes to 6 Matt Cooper said that Leo is having a paramilitary party meeting in Kilkenny.
-,,,
His delivery of basic sentences is awful too. He's like an AI version of Pat Kenny.
There was a very good podcast recently where he interviewed John Gibbons about on 10 myths climate change deniers argue, but it isn't appearing anymore on the list of podcasts. Funny!
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