Tina Fey does Sarah Carey

“I THINK I understand why, in the last two years and contrary to the usual trend, birth rates grew as the economy collapsed. In a sea of psychic pain, the birth of Cecelia Ahern’s daughter, Robin, was a rare source of good news. Who wouldn’t like a piece of the hope and happiness a new baby brings? I’ve never met her, but she seems to be a remarkably nice woman; unspoiled in attitude, diligent in her work and deserving of every happiness. I wish her all the best as she sets out on the challenging role of motherhood.

She is blessed to have her own mother and sister nearby. Yet I still have this urge to rush round to her house and tell her a few things early on. I know “middle class” is often employed as a term of abuse, but successful, middle-class women face a particular psychological challenge on becoming mothers.

The hardest thing about rearing children, especially for highly capable women like her – oh alright, women like me – is that we approach the task in the same way we did our academics, our career and our homemaking.

We set a goal, consult the experts, implement best practice, press return, and it all comes together.

If Cecelia is like all the other professional women, she knows that if she sets high standards and a good routine early on then she has the power, the determination and the resources to shape her adorable baby into an admired child and a well-adjusted, high functioning adult.

But one day, and maybe it won’t happen, but it probably will happen, she’ll find herself shouting in frustration…” [Tiny Fey does Sarah Carey, Irish Times]

via something called Twitter, and a person called Hugh Green

Oppositional journalism, the Irish way

Ireland’s finest political correspondents weren’t too happy with Vincent Browne’s ‘Christmas Snarl‘ in the Irish Times last week. Both Harry McGee and Deaglan de Breadun took issue with Browne’s ‘irony-stroke-cynicism’, rubbishing the idea that the political corrs are a ‘cosy lobby’ and questioning his own credentials when it comes to confrontational journalism.

Browne’s snarl went like this:

“THE POLITICAL correspondents are a rough crowd. At the annual Taoiseach’s lunch for them on Monday they really stuck it to Brian Cowen. One put it to him straight up: how the past year had been for him personally. That was a humdinger. I bet that set him back in his tracks. “For me personally, it was the most difficult year I faced in my political lifetime,” he was forced to concede.

Under further pressure, he conceded: “I think that everybody is finally beginning to come to terms with what was a very difficult time for a lot of people.” He found some consolation, however: “I have been lucky to have had good colleagues who were equally determined to put the country first.”

Of course, whatever about Browne’s alleged contradictions, he couldn’t be more accurate on this issue. Jody Corcoran’s piece in the Irish Independent today is a great example – a 25 minute one-2-one interview with Cowen, over 3,000 words and only 2 questions. Still though, Corcoran isn’t completely oblivious…

“I decide I had better try to rattle him a bit — I am aware that I have been getting too pally with him lately — although, I suspect, I’d have more success trying to rattle Bhudda.” [Jody Corcoran, Irish Independent]

Which must have been exactly the kind of thing David Leigh was thinking of when he described the function of oppositional journalism in the Guardian:

“It’s important that the various media behave as countervailing powers in a democracy: in fact it’s absolutely necessary. When Jeremy Paxman says of a politician “Why is this lying bastard lying to me?” he is actually articulating (in admittedly uncouth terms) a sophisticated understanding of the nuances of democracy. This isn’t a moral argument. It’s a practical one. Oppositional journalism punctures self-serving gibberish and exposes unwelcome facts. This helps make democratic society self-correcting.” [David Leigh, The Guardian]

The worst is yet to come

according to Fox ‘News’

Congratulations Brian, You’re Fab!

Front page of the Irish Times today, along with a photo of what looks like Cowen pegging a snow ball at a social welfare recipient:

Cowen says 2009 most difficult year of his political life

“TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has described the past 12 months as the most difficult of his political life but has insisted that the economic situation has been stabilised as a result of the measures his Government has taken.”

Seems like Fintan O’Toole was right when he said the terms of the debate have been set and the papers can do nothing but adhere to them. Cowen laid out a list of achievements and a timetable, and here we are 98 days later with letters of congratulation from both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times.

Cowen clears hurdles but he must get off the fence

“The hurdles Cowen identified back at the start of September — “the Lisbon Treaty, restructuring the banking and bringing forward the Budget” — are all overcome, provided Budget 2010 passes, as expected. The Taoiseach can justifiably breathe a sigh of relief at his Government remaining intact.”

How Brian Cowen’s 100 crucial days played out

“All of these Deputies supported the Budget despite speculation that some or all of them might go overboard. Cowen and Carey were also the prime movers at Cabinet in bringing forward the Social Welfare Bill by a week. This passed through the Dáil on Friday December 11th – which was 98 days after Cowen first spoken about a crucial hundred days for the country on the Late Late Show.”

Read this book

Favouring the Rich – A Media Prerogative?

A new MediaShot available here.

“NO one is actively celebrating the achievement of a further €4 billion fiscal adjustment”

so says Garret FitzGerald.

“Cutting civil and public servants’ wages…Slashing welfare rates…Cutting child benefit…Taking all these steps in a single budget would once have been in the realm of political fantasy land. Yet that is what the Government did this week. Coming at the end of a year in which income taxes were increased dramatically and a public sector pension levy was introduced, it is truly extraordinary. For all the talk about his leadership style, our relatively novice Taoiseach deserves credit for carrying his Cabinet, his party and his Dáil majority through for these necessary draconian measures.” [Noel Whelan, Irish Times]

“The Government didn’t lose a single TD or any of its Independent supporters in the vote on the first cut in social welfare rates since Ernest Blythe’s budget of 1924. That is a tribute to the skill with which the public was softened up for the measure and the way it was packaged and delivered.” [Stephen Collins, Irish Times]

“There will be many editorials written about the harshest budget in the history of the State. Suffice to say, on first reading, that the decisions taken rise up to the occasion financially. They were courageous, bold, above party politics, above sectional interest and they appear to have put the country first.” [Editorial, Irish Times]

“Cowen finally walks the walk…WHATEVER your opinion of the National Asset Management Agency, the outcome of the Lisbon Treaty referendum or Budget 2010, you have to admit that Brian Cowen’s Government, despite being probably the most unpopular in the history of the state, is managing to get a lot done…This week’s strong start could be undermined by any weakening of resolve.” [Editorial, Irish Independent]

“Despite the harsh nature of the budget, there is still a lot of pain to come and we can be certain that this time next year, we will be struggling to come up with another €4 billion in fiscal adjustment. There is no choice however, and at least the minister is now addressing the key issues in a reasonably strong manner. Some measures to stimulate employment, such as cutting employers’ PRSI would have been welcome, but we can’t have everything.” [Jim Power, Irish Examiner]

Gogartygate: Letter to Irish Examiner

12 December 2009

Dear Sir
 
As reported in today’s Irish Examiner, Deputy Paul Gogarty (Green) was to be heard in the Dail yesterday afternoon attempting to persuade Deputy Emmet Stagg (Labour) – and the country at large of the sincerity of his conviction that while inflicting savage cuts on those who cannot afford them might be a wrong thing, it was also a necessary thing. Deputy Stagg evidently had some understandable difficulty with the internal contradiction in Deputy Gogarty’s assertion. At any rate, I think I might have worked out what Mr Gogarty must be driving at: the cuts are a wrong thing in so far as they severely penalise those who are innocent of responsibility for the government’s incompetence and mismanagement; but they are a necessary thing in so far as to say so keeps Mr Gogarty earning approximately 120K per year and the Green Party in power propping up the same incompetent government. I apologise in advance for the unparliamentary language of what I am about to say – and I hope he will take this on the chin for the country – but fuck Paul Gogarty. And fuck the Green Party. Again, my profuse apologies for the unparliamentary nature of what I just said. I’ve become a little thin skinned about suffering cringe-making, self-serving rationalisations from Green Party Deputies.

Yours sincerely

Miriam Cotton

TRNN Exclusive on Honduran Election Fraud

Dear Paddy Smyth [Irish Times Foreign Editor],

Will the Irish Times be covering election fraud in Honduras? The RealNews covered it here [below]. Or will the Times’ Latin America coverage be made up of misleading factoids, “Opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo won a presidential election on Sunday, which was scheduled before the coup,” and cynical US platitudes, “The vote could allow Honduras to move on from the five-month crisis and focus on a new leader.”

Best wishes,

David

1. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4573

2. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1203/breaking44.html

via…http://www.canuckmediamonitor.org/