Brendan O’ReganLast week was the first for Newstalk’s new schedule, and they’ve had some thorough changes.
I’m glad to see Shane Coleman at the helm on the new Breakfast show. The laddish approach of the Donoghue/Yates combo has given way to a more serious tone, and it looks like Morning Ireland will now have a worthy competitor.
Coleman is ably supported by Colette Fitzpatrick, and while I was uneasy about the role of crime journalist Paul Williams and what kind of ‘edge’ he was to bring to the table, he has been suitably subtle for now, though I wasn’t impressed last Monday by his soft interview with right-to-die campaigner Tom Curran on Belgium’s ground-breaking, grave-making, policy of euthanasia for children (Curran was ‘very undecided’ about this).
The Pat Kenny Show has moved back an hour to a 9am start which takes some getting used to – is this to hook the audience so they will be less inclined to switch to Today With Sean O’Rourke at 10am? They’ll need to try harder than that. Kenny got off to a notable start – an interview with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who seems to have been remarkably quiet in recent weeks.
Well, Kenny, the Enda one, gave us the cringe-worthy quote of the week when he declared that he’d got his ‘mojo’ back. ‘Tis far from mojos he was reared. More interesting I thought was his admission, early in the interview, that he had lost seats due to his abortion Bill, what he called, without any sense of the irony, the ‘Protection of Life’ Bill. What a dismal legacy.
Last Monday Kenny interviewed Fr Vincent Twomey who defended the Church’s teaching on contraception in Humane Vitae. Now that was no soft interview – no problem if the approach is applied consistently, which it isn’t.
George Hook has moved from the evening slot to a new lunchtime show, High Noon – I miss both The Right Hook and the previous Lunchtime Show, but Hook is his old self, and while I’d prefer if presenters kept their own views to themselves, especially on contentious issues,
Hook does give a fair hearing to what might simplistically be called a conservative viewpoint and he is sympathetic to a religious outlook on life, thus providing some badly needed diversity on Newstalk.
Last Thursday he had an interview with Senator Rónán Mullen, with whose views Hook seemed sympathetic. This was prompted by what Baroness Warsi in the UK had to say about the role of religion in the public square. Mullen thought we needed a ‘confident Christianity’, a ‘spirit of fraternity’ with Muslim immigrants and a promotion of ‘authentic human rights’.
First outing
Jonathan Healy has moved from the Lunchtime Show to the Sunday Show and one of his first outings was a soft interview with Cork Obstetrician Dr Keelin O’Donoghue.
She was arguing for more pre-natal screening to detect ‘foetal anomalies’.
You’ll notice that the language around this area is getting more vague – it used to be about ‘fatal foetal abnormalities’, but Dr O’Donoghue was broadening the debate to ‘fatal anomalies’, or ‘major foetal abnormality’.
She even suggested that where the prognosis was ‘terribly uncertain’, or involved a ‘significant disability’ that parents will want the choice to terminate or continue, with supports.
She was choosing her words carefully, but though not arguing for or against abortion, she said: ‘I’m not saying those services shouldn’t exist’, and suggested in the future we may be providing abortion services ‘in the proper way’. I heard no acknowledgement of the humanity of the unborn child, and she wasn’t challenged on that.
I remember a time when the evening shows started at 5pm, which seemed kind of natural, then Newstalk dragged it back to 4.30pm to get in there first but predictably the other stations soon followed suit. Now Newstalk’s new show, Drive (really?) starts at 4pm. It just doesn’t feel right.
It is presented by Sarah McInerney a serious journalist whose style I like so far, and Chris Donoghue, formerly of Breakfast. Regular readers will know I‘m not a fan of his, but while it’s going OK so far, I’m waiting to see if the controversial social issues will be handled in an even-handed and fair manner.
With the dubious ‘Citizen’s Assembly’ on the abortion issue coming up (99 people to represent the entire population?) we’ll find out soon enough.
Pick of the week
WOMEN OF GRACE
EWTN Monday, September 26, 4.30 pm
Joan of Arc: what the Maid of Orleans has to say to 21st Century women.
ALEPPO: LIFE UNDER SIEGE – PANORAMA
BBC 1 Monday, September 26, 8.30 pm
In the battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, ordinary civilians are suffering on both sides.
16 LETTERS
RTE 1 Wednesday (night), September 28, 12.20 am
1916 through the written words of ordinary and extraordinary people, presented by Ryan Tubridy at the GPO.