The Weekend On One With Brendan O'Connor

not sure they’d be interested in €72

Yeah, strangely she managed to sail on un-cancelled.... when people like George Hook were dumped unceremoniously for (in his case) speaking common sense.

May be it depends on the institution you work for? or the gender/religion/minority you offend.

Shame on the Irish Times.

Before I say anything about Hook. I need to make clear my stance on him. I think he was a poor interviewer who was compromised by commerical deal, dealt in contrarian hyperbole and should never have been hosting a current affairs show.

I also don't agree with saying Hook was speaking common sense. It also didn't help that some questionable things he put into his started to get main stream attention. He deserved to be cancelled and so does Ingle. Both blamed engaged in victim blaming. But given the fact the Blackrock boys were children with no agency and the power imbalance involed. I think what Ingle said was worse then what Hook said.

But you didn’t end up saying anything else about Hook! All you did was ‘make clear your stance on him’. Poor interviewer, maybe. Contrarian, certainly. But host of what was once the most popular programme on Newstalk. Many people appreciated what he had to offer.

You haven’t provided any justification for his cancellation. All you’ve done is say you don’t agree it was common sense and stated that he deserved it. Well, I would argue the opposite on both. Whether or not what Hook said was reasonable, it fell very far short of the bar in a civilised society for ruining someone’s career and reputation.

So of I remember correctly he blamed a rape victim for getting raped. Which is an awful thing to do. Then when people went and re read his biography he has a throw away line about once you have drunk women near by. It is time to fill your boots.

People argued that in his biography he was implying that sober men should take advantage of drunken women. Which is honestly a resoable arument.

At that point he became toxic and advertisers didnt want to be associated with him. That is why he was dropped. Times moved on and Hook thought it was still ok to blame victims on what happened to them.

That coupled with some of the stuff from his biography made him the story. He could have easily gotten out of it by apologising and saying "I appreciate that times have moved on and in hindsight I was wrong to say those things and to write those things. I apologise to anyone who has been hurt or offended". But he was too arrogant to do that and doubled down. Newstalk lost advertising. So they dropped him.

Would you like to break down why you think what Hook said was resonable. Please be ensure the context and the other things that came to light from his biography. It wasn't one thing that got him canclled but a culmulation of things.

So of I remember correctly he blamed a rape victim for getting raped.

Ah, so that’s where you went wrong - you don’t remember correctly. He was discussing the case of a woman who was raped when she went back to the house of someone she met at a bar. Hook, in very sympathetic tones, wondered why we don’t encourage young women to protect themselves. You can say that was an out-dated view to hold, but there was no suggestion of blame on her part.

There was an apology:

“I wish to apologise unreservedly for comments I made about rape on my radio programme on Newstalk yesterday. … I apologise for the comments which caused hurt and offence, and for this I am truly sorry”.

The biography thing I’m not sure about, but much of your argument seems to rest on Newstalk being justified in cancelling him because of the backlash he received, without addressing whether the backlash itself was justified.

I liked George Hook. You can't expect to have interesting characters on entertainment shows and at the same time expect them not to say anything at all controversial.

The man apologised. He was definitely wrong in the way he said what he said. But he apologised.

That's why Brendan O'Connor is the way he is today. Because as a nation we're still not passed crucifying people for having wrong opinions.

Maybe George's weakness is people know who he is.

"If you were affected by anything on today's show......"