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

Gavan Reilly says..........😩

You said both those things.

I don't think so. There are a couple of things like when Leo Varadkar said that Ireland might have to pay more money to not take in anymore migrants, Hardly nobody in the media brought it up to his face that Ireland has an opt-out in that area due to the Lisbon Treaty, so they're no reason to be wasting money when he could've just said no. He doesn't want to because they want to look good in the eyes of the EU.

I hardly ever hear any hard questions and then when they go off on a word salad, basically rambling on about anything apart from answering the question. I've no doubt in my mind that some in main stream media are afraid to rock the boat. I think if they answered the question instead of walking off it would've looked better, but not, it seems like they've something to hide. If you're a government minister then you should be open to questions from every media, these people make laws that affect people's lives on the daily, and they should be pulled up and questioned, If they don't like the questioning then maybe politics isn't for them.

Don't think you do.

Pal.

Varadkar says what's been said countless times on this thread.

The press conference was over. Not everyone gets to ask their question, and shouting questions as the press event is over doesn't mean you're entitled to a response.

This happens in every press conference in the world.

Gript is trying to make a conspiracy out of absolutely nothing whatsoever, and people like yourself are peddling it.

You'd swear Leo walked out of an interview after being asked about being caught on tape taking a bribe.

It's a completely nothing-burger of an incident and Gript is making themselves look pathetic in my opinion.

The only conspiracy theories I see being peddled here are the totally unproven allegations that Gript doctored the clip.

It's funny how disinformation becomes acceptable to some when it supports their own view point.

The clip that Gript uploaded was not from the official TV feed but from their own camera and own microphone.

On the TV feed, you couldn't even hear the Gript fella's voice or make out a word that was said.....just some incoherent mumbling at the end as the leaders walked off.

If Grift said it was raining I'd leave the umbrella at home.

It’s not the fault of the politicians but they will favour journalists who will give them an easy ride. When Vincent Browne was hosting the Tonight Show, Enda Kenny when he was Taoiseach never once appeared on the show as he knew Vincent would ask the questions he did not want to face.

You are right in saying that proper journalism should strive for balance, sadly in the MSM you won’t always get that. I have stated on here before on various threads that I am no fan of the current government but I will acknowledge when they do something good.

Regarding editors, we need more editors built in the mould of Ben Bradlee who worked for the Washington Post. Under his editorial management, The Pentagon Papers and The Watergate stories were published. Two of the biggest stories in American and possibly World journalism. Sadly a lot of editors prefer the status quo that we have at the moment. However, I do love it when they get egg in their face and this brings to mind Philip Ryan’s story about the SF database. Phillip was the co writer of Leo A Very Modern Taoiseach, so you have an idea where his political allegiances lie, and the story backfired big time as other parties including FF and FG admitted that they had databases too.

I think Michael McDowell and Brenda Power were very measured and both being barristers have a firmer grasp on the constitution than some of our government ministers do.

I don’t think Gript must be allowed a question and that should also apply to all media outlets. If a minister has limited time to answer questions at a press conference or event then let the attending journalists know and maybe state we only have time for X amount of questions. 

I don’t think it was right that Ben was ignored and if Leo acknowledged his question and said I am running late that would have been fine because Leo would be seen as being courteous.

We need more camaraderie amongst journalists at press conferences. I remember during Covid, Boris tried to ban certain journalists and media organisations from attending the daily Covid briefings. All the journalists who were allowed in threatened to leave if Boris did not rescind the bans. We need journalists here to stand up for the rights of all journalists getting the chance to answer questions.

Bringing back Questions and Answers would be great but not until the RTE situation is fixed as RTE don’t know yet what their future funding model will be.

The government is not a big fan of Social Media as it allows views that go against the government thinking to be shared openly. I am not talking about far right thinking but people who have openly condemned government policies with reasonable arguments to why they are doing this.

Leo recently said “The social media site X "has always been a bit of a sewer" and does not uphold its own guidelines”. This is not true, because X only went really bad when Musk took it over. If X has always been a bit of a sewer why is Leo and other government ministers on it? Surely if it’s a sewer you stay well clear of it.

Yeah like we should take your word on it about it being edited.

First you thought his name was Gannon.

At the second attempt Scallon.

Maybe now you at least know it's Scallan.

Pal.

Yes, there is a government TV feed for all press conferences provided to all broadcasters if they wish to air it live.

I managed to find the press conference on my own recordings of the RTE News channel for that day for but I'm not sure there's any online link. Anyone watching the end of the press conference on TV wouldn't have been aware anything had happened : Martin stopped talking at his lectern and he and Varadkar then left, but you could only hear faint and indistinct voices in the room and couldn't make out a single word that was said (not even with headphones on). The Gript guy was speaking into his own handheld microphone, not the press conference one that was used during the briefing, therefore you couldn't even hear him on TV.

I’ve said it before, society is paying a major price for the decline of the media over the last 20 years. Who can blame journalists if they’re thinking of their own futures rather than holding people to account?