The Last Word

jay0109 · 12-07-2019 2:49pm

robo wrote: »

So has Matt & his team been reading this thread cos looks like they dropped the TV slot & have a new slot called "Culture Club" & it started this week with Paul Howard (Ross O'Carroll creator) and he discussed his fave tv, music, gigs, plays etc. Was actually good...compared to the latest TV slot (the one that doesn't include Ed Smith)

The Culture Club is just a rip-off off a similarish weekly piece that Ray Darcy does on his RTE1 show....which had Howard on it at 1 stage uuring the past 12 months if memory serves me correctly

NIMAN · 12-07-2019 8:48pm

They were discussing US Love Island again tonight, so looks like your hopes have been dashed.

jay0109 · 12-07-2019 8:52pm

Gannon tonight compared the various comings and goings on Love Island to the Premier league transfer window when she was trying to defend the show which the 2 Lads said was pure, unadulterated crap that is being orchestrated and scripted.
Her response was to say whole workplaces shut down every year due to debates over millionaire footballers moving from club A to club B, all of which is preplanned and arranged so why bother getting into following it !!!

ButtersSuki · 12-07-2019 9:15pm

jay0109 wrote: »

Gannon tonight compared the various comings and goings on Love Island to the Premier league transfer window when she was trying to defend the show hich the 2 Lads said as pure, unadulterated crap that is being orchestrated and scripted.
Her response was to say whole workplaces shut down every year due to debates over millionaire footballers moving from club A to club B, all of which is preplanned and arranged so why bother getting into following it !!!

She must be trolling. At least I hope she's trolling........

Ursus Horribilis · 12-07-2019 10:00pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

She must be trolling. At least I hope she's trolling........

Perhaps she is part of a conspiracy by the patriarchy to make women look empty headed. Either that or she's some sort of elaborate joke by the production team. Honestly, if her IQ dropped by just a point or two, they'd need to water her daily. I'm not sure which is the worst. The nonsense she spouts or the hypocrisy.

12-07-2019 10:33pm

jay0109 wrote: »

Gannon tonight compared the various comings and goings on Love Island to the Premier league transfer window when she was trying to defend the show hich the 2 Lads said as pure, unadulterated crap that is being orchestrated and scripted.
Her response was to say whole workplaces shut down every year due to debates over millionaire footballers moving from club A to club B, all of which is preplanned and arranged so why bother getting into following it !!!

what work place shuts down for football transfers???? and mostly in offices ive worked in, its debates on crap like big brother/love island get harped on in the office....jesus she's annoying and not very bright....im guessing she's confusing wwe and football together with the preplanned/arranged bit

Buford T. Justice XIX · 13-07-2019 8:37am

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

Perhaps she is part of a conspiracy by the patriarchy to make women look empty headed. Either that or she's some sort of elaborate joke by the production team. Honestly, if her IQ dropped by just a point or two, they'd need to water her daily. I'm not sure which is the worst. The nonsense she spouts or the hypocrisy.

Quite a drop in standards over the years, from Robert Fisk being a regular to Jennifer Gannon being a regular.

ButtersSuki · 13-07-2019 8:43am

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Quite a drop in standards over the years, from Robert Fisk being a regular to Jennifer Gannon being a regular.

Thanks Buford, I nearly drowned myself in coffee going down the wrong way after guffawing when I read your post. :pac:

ButtersSuki · 15-07-2019 12:20pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Thanks Buford, I nearly drowned myself in coffee going down the wrong way after guffawing when I read your post. :pac:

Related to the above, would love to hear Gannon’s thoughts on how to bring peace to the Middle East. Would make for an “interesting” listen.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 15-07-2019 1:00pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Related to the above, would love to hear Gannon’s thoughts on how to bring peace to the Middle East. Would make for an “interesting” listen.

I'm probably being unfair on Miss Gannon, she wasn't brought in to discuss middle eastern politics and I'm sure she is well able to supply the opinions that she is asked to supply.

I don't particularly like talk radio and TLW was the only talk show I listened to but the focus is now on a magazine format where there is more and more fluff being discussed and less and less current affairs being discussed. Which is fine but not in the least bit interesting to me.

I'm actually surprised Matt is still in place there. I've been a fan of his for an age, back to before his days as editor of the Sunday Tribune.

Maybe he is content to cruise through the remainder of his contract and save the heavier discussions to his TV show? I think that's a pity as he always had an interesting take on current affairs and I admit I miss that.

Ursus Horribilis · 15-07-2019 1:30pm

I wonder is it a resource issue too? That it's cheaper to bring in people like Gannon to talk fluff and fill airtime?

retalivity · 16-07-2019 10:34pm

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

I wonder is it a resource issue too? That it's cheaper to bring in people like Gannon to talk fluff and fill airtime?

Its probably a factor alright, at least youd hope people dont get good money for the drivel like gannon produces.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

17-07-2019 7:04am

Probably a combo of station tightening it’s belt and times ban...the journals ‘journalists’ and freelancers/bloggers/offended twitter users are cheaper and want a leg up in career opportunities

Dr_serious2 · 17-07-2019 10:05am

Matt seems to agree with most of the rubbish they come out with too though If he didn't want Jennifer Gannon, Aoife Barry or Eoghan McDermott I presume they wouldn't be on. Sad that standard of contributer has sunk so low.

NIMAN · 17-07-2019 8:57pm

I would have considered MC a serious journo and presenter in the past.

But not any more.

The quality of his show has plummeted over the years, he talks about nonsense that he would never have in the past, has poor contributors on, and seems happy to phone it in daily.

If he had any scruples he'd have left long ago.

Easy pay cheque.

Dr_serious2 · 17-07-2019 9:50pm

NIMAN wrote: »

I would have considered MC a serious journo and presenter in the past.

But not any more.

The quality of his show has plummeted over the years, he talks about nonsense that he would never have in the past, has poor contributors on, and seems happy to phone it in daily.

If he had any scruples he'd have left long ago.

Easy pay cheque.

The only time he shows any passion is his frankly disgraceful treatment of Cal Thomas. By God Marion McKeown gets an easy ride on that slot, poor Cal has to listen to the presenter going on biased rants.

technocrat · 17-07-2019 10:27pm

Unlike say Yates or even Hook he stands for nothing totally unprincipled.
Every NIMBY around gets an easy ride and is never challenged on often dubious ‘facts’!

A case in point during the Metro launch last year he had every crank and critic on to talk down the project without giving the pro side a fair hearing.

Funnily enough last week during a discussion about air quality where he’s walking route had some of the highest levels in Dublin he bemoaned:

“The air quality is not going to improve anytime soon now that Metro project isn’t going southside”

CatFromHue · 18-07-2019 12:02am

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Communicorp thing to have Yates be a bit of a righty and Cooper a bit of a leftie.

pjohnson · 18-07-2019 7:04am

Dr_serious2 wrote: »

The only time he shows any passion is his frankly disgraceful treatment of Cal Thomas. By God Marion McKeown gets an easy ride on that slot, poor Cal has to listen to the presenter going on biased rants.

Cal seems to love this whinge aswell. Matts entitled to ask him questions.

ButtersSuki · 18-07-2019 7:21am

Dr_serious2 wrote: »

The only time he shows any passion is his frankly disgraceful treatment of Cal Thomas. By God Marion McKeown gets an easy ride on that slot, poor Cal has to listen to the presenter going on biased rants.

But Cal, but Cal, but Cal.....

pjohnson · 18-07-2019 7:41am

ButtersSuki wrote: »

But Cal, but Cal, but Cal.....

That only happens when Cal starts on the whataboutery.

ButtersSuki · 18-07-2019 10:09am

pjohnson wrote: »

That only happens when Cal starts on the whataboutery about 2 or 3 times during every Cal Thomas segment.

FYP. :pac:

I’m not a Cal Thomas supporter btw, and I used to like Matt a lot; but Matt is far from neutral when he interviews him or moderates between him and McKeown (apologies if I’ve misspelt her surname, there are many versions of it).

If I had to sum up the show today versus the heady heights of years ago I’d describe the current version as lazy by comparison. I rarely listen anymore, I prefer to podcast.

Chip Whitley · 21-07-2019 9:38am

Sorry lads, but Cal Thomas tends to talk a load of nonsense particularly when defending Trump and Matt Cooper is entitled to call him on it.

dominatinMC · 21-07-2019 10:32am

Chip Whitley wrote: »

Sorry lads, but Cal Thomas tends to talk a load of nonsense particularly when defending Trump and Matt Cooper is entitled to call him on it.

I agree Cal does talk a bit of nonsense from time-to-time. But it's the double standards of Matt which annoys me. He calls out Cal (sometimes rather aggressively) but never once disagrees/calls out some of the more left-leaning contributors. I haven't listened too regularly lately, so can't name check too many contributors, but I do recall the likes of Roe McDermott being able to talk whatever ****e crossed her mind without ever being questioned on it

ButtersSuki · 21-07-2019 10:41am

Chip Whitley wrote: »

Sorry lads, but Cal Thomas tends to talk a load of nonsense particularly when defending Trump and Matt Cooper is entitled to call him on it.

dominatinMC wrote: »

I agree Cal does talk a bit of nonsense from time-to-time. But it's the double standards of Matt which annoys me. He calls out Cal (sometimes rather aggressively) but never once disagrees/calls out some of the more left-leaning contributors. I haven't listened too regularly lately, so can't name check too many contributors, but I do recall the likes of Roe McDermott being able to talk whatever ****e crossed her mind without ever being questioned on it

I agree. As I pointed out in my earller post I'm not a fan of Cal Thomas (and as the above poster alluded to) but Cooper calls him out on pretty much everything he says, yet lets the left wing contributors say just about anything unchecked. It's a complete double standard.

quintana76 · 21-07-2019 7:36pm

Matt has long lost any sense of objectivity. He is meant to be the chairman of the debate. A chairman is meant to be neutral. Himself and Marion McKeown are in lockstep against Cal. What annoys me about Marion is the laugh in her voice as she talks about people who have views she considers absurd, almost below contempt. They are in reality just different opinions. She comes across as a true bubble dweller. She seems to live in a world were everyone has the same opinions. Any who digress are somehow mentally challenged at best, morons at worst. It is an expression of supeme golden circled arrogance. Same with Matt. In the current established media world opinions are uniform or hidden.

BPKS · 24-07-2019 11:13am

One of the most embarrassing pieces of radio was on The Last Word yesterday.

Matts team of leftie snowflakes had spent a lot of time on google compiling clips of various stupid things Boris Johnson has said over the years.

Matt then would put on a sad voice, sighing (D'Arcy-esque) intermittently between the clips.

It so so cringe worthy I felt compelled to listen, just to see if Matt could make an even bigger gobsh1te of out himself. It ended with Matt saying "Good Luck Britain. You'll need it".

jay0109 · 24-07-2019 11:50am

I heard that too last night, with his quip at the end. The Ray D'arcy comparison is very apt.

He also had a fawning piece during the Business news on the sales/profit announcement at the Irish Times. But analysis I've read elsewhere was saying the opposite!

robo · 24-07-2019 9:37pm

So they have replaced the Friday interview with TV on a Friday and TV on a Wednesday is now "Culture Club" ...whihc is past guests from the Friday interview asked back on to tell us all about their fave TV, songs, films etc from back in their day.
Honestly, I don't see the point in this segment. So far 2 of the guests (Paul Howard & Lynn Ruane) have been interviewed numerous times on TLW, and now they are back to give an insight into their "Cultural" likes

24-07-2019 10:24pm

robo wrote: »

So they have replaced the Friday interview with TV on a Friday and TV on a Wednesday is now "Culture Club" ...whihc is past guests from the Friday interview asked back on to tell us all about their fave TV, songs, films etc from back in their day.
Honestly, I don't see the point in this segment. So far 2 of the guests (Paul Howard & Lynn Ruane) have been interviewed numerous times on TLW, and now they are back to give an insight into their "Cultural" likes

as i said in the Today fm thread, its lazy/cheap content creation, to kill air time, no doubt you'll hear the usual suspects doing this soon, Roe McDermott,, Gannon (blithering on about Love island being the most important thing on telly while pontificating or having a sjw-esque rant) The Eoin McDermott fella, Nick Ferrari and the usual "contributors", and its a way for these "celebs" to shill/plug something and eventually, TLW will replay clips throughout week dissecting what they said, like what the D&D show does.

And I can see this bit being given to the likes of Gannon using it to whinge/blame men about cultural appropriation on this slot

jay0109 · 24-07-2019 11:20pm

Lynn Ruane gets some amount of coverage in the Irish media. Says it all

26-07-2019 9:20pm

jay0109 wrote: »

Lynn Ruane gets some amount of coverage in the Irish media. Says it all

A girl who grew up in relative poverty, who started taking heroin by the age of about 13, went off the rails and then somehow changed her life around, got herself a scholarship to Trinity and an OIreachtas seat despite having no personal, political or family connections.

She's been doing all of the things we tell addicted people they can do, and now someone is saying she should be a bit more quiet?

Ruane gets a lot of media attention because she's a public representative with a political genesis unlike anything we've seen before. Even if you disagree with her politics, you can't mean that what she did is ordinary, as though she just inherited a seat from one of her parents?

quintana76 · 27-07-2019 2:11pm

jay0109 wrote: »

Lynn Ruane gets some amount of coverage in the Irish media. Says it all

Being an ex president of the Trinity Students Union would have a certain resonance within RTE. They have employed many student union heads. 'Working class salt of the earth' Joe Duffy was one such.
The politics appeals to them.

Aidric · 27-07-2019 4:48pm

quintana76 wrote: »

Matt has long lost any sense of objectivity. He is meant to be the chairman of the debate. A chairman is meant to be neutral. Himself and Marion McKeown are in lockstep against Cal. What annoys me about Marion is the laugh in her voice as she talks about people who have views she considers absurd, almost below contempt. They are in reality just different opinions. She comes across as a true bubble dweller. She seems to live in a world were everyone has the same opinions. Any who digress are somehow mentally challenged at best, morons at worst. It is an expression of supeme golden circled arrogance. Same with Matt. In the current established media world opinions are uniform or hidden.

I agree. I used to enjoy the last word because it was an enjoyable alternative to the staid delivery of Drivetime on RTE. Cooper didn't take himself too seriously and hit the right note as a result.

Unfortunately he has now descended in to the worst form of cheap hysteria that is polluting intelligent discussion. His interviews are delivered with a cheap affected tone that amounts to nothing more than low level trolling. It's tabloid journalism designed to provoke and adds nothing to the subject being discussed.

fryup · 27-07-2019 5:48pm

^^^^^^^^^^^

he's still better than Wilson or Yates

Aidric · 27-07-2019 5:51pm

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^

he's still better than Wilson or Yates

low bar there

CatFromHue · 29-07-2019 2:25pm

santino wrote: »

True that. Love Ed calling it straight.

I had an issue today (I'm not outraged though).
Matt has of late been forgetful to give the language warning in the music and tv slots (only slots I listen to).
It's either in place or it's not. If he forgets, it's sloppy, if it's done on purpose it's flaunting the pre watershed rules.
I don't have a problem with it but the piece they played 're. Louis Theroux and the Baptist nuts had a load of f-bombs and Matt gave his usual apology with a hint of 'sure I did it again'. Not good enough.
I sent a text for the first time in around 10 years but it wasn't acknowledged.

He remembered on Thursday for the film slot but then they played a clip where every third or fourth word was the F word.

Just seemed stupid to play such a clip even with the warning.

NIMAN · 29-07-2019 2:55pm

Trying to be edgy.

dominatinMC · 29-07-2019 6:12pm

NIMAN wrote:

Trying to be edgy.

May as well just rename the show to "Matt and the Millennials" at this stage. Show has lost any semblance of professionalism

JoeA3 · 08-08-2019 6:39pm

They had a contributor on this evening, I didn’t catch his name, but he was a finance expert of some sort, which is unfortunate because he had a real problem pronouncing “growth”. After hearing “groat” 4 or 5 times within a few minutes I had to switch over! Even worse than Matt and his Sahurdays

ButtersSuki · 08-08-2019 6:58pm

JoeA3 wrote: »

They had a contributor on this evening, I didn’t catch his name, but he was a finance expert of some sort, which is unfortunate because he had a real problem pronouncing “growth”. After hearing “groat” 4 or 5 times within a few minutes I had to switch over! Even worse than Matt and his Sahurdays

Prob. still better than "Tea-ay-turr" (theatre).

retalivity · 08-08-2019 7:05pm

I was driving all day monday, heard an ad for tlw with a snippet from some eejit(gannon?) soapboxing about patriarchy, toxic masculinity, blah blah blah....not even a back and forth discussion, just her rambling on for about 20 seconds. This was advertising the show!!

I know that these ads are usually something controversial or a hook to get someone to listen more, but this felt like pure virtue signalling - "look how progressive we are!"

08-08-2019 9:44pm

retalivity wrote: »

I was driving all day monday, heard an ad for tlw with a snippet from some eejit(gannon?) soapboxing about patriarchy, toxic masculinity, blah blah blah....not even a back and forth discussion, just her rambling on for about 20 seconds. This was advertising the show!!

I know that these ads are usually something controversial or a hook to get someone to listen more, but this felt like pure virtue signalling - "look how progressive we are!"

who does she actually appeal to, pumping the American identity politics crap should be stopped over here....stick to the tv reviews Jen which your barely capable of doing (how she has never seen the wire and breaking bad and claims to be a tv reviewer is beyond me and thinking its a badge of honour - they basically hired a teenager to review crap they watch, like love island)….

djemba djemba · 28-08-2019 7:35am

The slot with cal was infinitely better last night. Marian was on holidays and it was cal and and an Irish American with a Boston accent (he had been on before just can't remember his name).

Matt seemed far more balanced and allowed the two guests talk rather than having to back up Marian all the time.

Jayesdiem · 28-08-2019 7:41am

djemba djemba wrote: »

The slot with cal was infinitely better last night. Marian was on holidays and it was cal and and an Irish American with a Boston accent (he had been on before just can't remember his name).

Matt seemed far more balanced and allowed the two guests talk rather than having to back up Marian all the time.

It was good but the Boston accent is very hard to listen to. I’ll be happy when Marian returns.

jay0109 · 28-08-2019 7:58am

Larry Donnelly of NUIG I think it was

djemba djemba · 28-08-2019 8:13am

jay0109 wrote: »

Larry Donnelly of NUIG I think it was

That's him.

ButtersSuki · 31-08-2019 6:18am

Jennifer Gannon again on yesterday when asked about Ross O’Carroll Kelly/Paul Howard immediately starting talking about the “importance” globally (no less) of the “omg what a complete Ashling” instead. Can you talk about the topic you were asked and not make everything a f***ing feminazi SJW crusade? Her tv pick of the week was predictably a Harvey Weinstein documentary which she introduced by way of an uninterrupted 2minute or so monologue on strong women,#metoo, blah blah blah etc. etc.

31-08-2019 8:44am

She also had a rant about characters like Tony Soprano, Walter White , Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders before that.

She used every segment in the piece for an SJW rant. It's tiresome at this stage.

At least there was yer man on (can't remember his name) for some actual tv reviews.

ButtersSuki · 31-08-2019 8:59am

5555555555 wrote: »

She also had a rant about characters like Tony Soprano, Walter White , Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders before that.

She used every segment in the piece for an SJW rant. It's tiresome at this stage.

At least there was yer man on (can't remember his name) for some actual tv reviews.

I came in about halfway through the segment so missed that. Well she hadn’t watched either The Sopranos or The Wire until very recently and I doubt she has watched both given their length so I guess she’s just making assumptions there.

Joe O’Shea was the other reviewer.

The Last Word

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