'Let me answer the question please...' - lies, damned lies and RTE statistics

by Edmund Stapleton - Its a secret Mon Jul 20, 2009 14:01

This former member of the public sector branch of the Workers Party attacks the public sector relentlessly and expects to be taken seriously - all the while showing his ignorance of bent statistics and failing to spot that Morning Ireland (in the form of Cathal MacCoille) has done its employer's best on his behalf - listen to audio above.

Eoghan Harris Sunday Independent July 19 2009
Although I am no longer a socialist, the passion for social justice still burns in my breast [??]. And if I were an active trade unionist I would advocate taking it first from the fat cats -- from the politicians, the judges, the higher civil servants, and work all the way down, pro rata, through the ranks of the public service. Now you might think the same passion for social justice runs through the ranks of politically correct RTE reporters. Not so. Last Friday week, the CSO issued a report which showed that if we benchmarked public-sector pay against other equivalent European countries, we would have to cut public sector pay by an astonishing 32.43 per cent.
The CSO report has ramifications for RTE staff. Which may account for the difference between the coverage of the CSO report on the private-sector station, Newstalk 106, and its non-coverage by the public-sector station, RTE.
Newstalk's lunchtime show led with the CSO report, RTE News did not mention it at all.

Rubbish - as the Morning Ireland audio above shows - RTE made a fool of itself when it pressed the Harris line.

Soon enough journalists in both Newstalk and RTE will figure out they are involved in beggar my neighbour journalism, bent statistics and and employer propaganda. Eoghan Harris is right about one thing, he is no longer a socialist. Workers in either the public or private sector realise that his is just an opinion for hire to the highest and strongest bidder. Public sector workers are mainly low paid workers. If any in the private sector are worse off, it is because their bosses are stingy self-regarding profiteers and because capitalism is a failure.

by pat c Mon Jul 20, 2009 14:45

Edward (may I call you Ned?)

Harris seems to think that if he keeps on telling lies that no one will dare to challenge him. Or if they do then he will get away with bluster and abuse. So much of what he writes is nonsense yet he is so self-deluded that he thinks he is some kind of trend setter: he really believes that other journalists look to him for a lead.

Not even the IBEC running dogs of Morning Ireland take any lead from him. They are bad enough anyway. That rabid dog Aine Lawlor was at it again this morning. Now you wouldn't expect me to have much sympathy for the Garda but the GRA rep was defending ex tra payments for working unsocial hours. He pointed out that these payments were common throughout both the public and private sectors yet Lawlor went for his throat and said that all of that has to change now!

Journalists in RTE along wiith other workers get extra payments for working unsocial hours. Would they ever consider having a word with Lawlor and the other Trade Union haters on Morning Ireland? Lawlor was far worse during the Electricians dispute. She was effectively a paid spokesperson for the employers.

In the Irish Times you will also find the likes of Mark Hennessy and Stephen Collins raving not just against public sector workers but how all workers need to take a pay cut, how social welfare paym,ents must be cut! These guys earn over €100,000 pa, why shouldn't they pay more tax?

Hennessy is a particularly loathsome creature, when the public health doctors were on strike he called for them to be sacked. What ever happen to journalistic ethics? Didn't the NUJ have a process wherby members could be charfed with unethical behaviour? Surely calling for striking workers to be sacked is unethical.

Some really nasty journos out there. I hope Griffith College will produce a few more good ones.