Courtney McGrailOn his Today With Seán O’Rourke show (RTÉ Radio 1) Wednesday morning of last week the presenter described it as a ‘political earthquake’, and words like ‘extraordinary’ and ‘revolution’ were scattered about liberally.
A restless sleep Tuesday night of last week saw me checking intermittently on developments in the US election so I could gradually see things turning Trump’s way, which no doubt lessened the final shock at dawn. I couldn’t stand either candidate so I was doomed to wake up miserable on Wednesday morning anyway, though with Trump’s victory I got an extra layer of unease, even dread.
I listened to much of the early coverage on USA’s NPR, whose live feed was broadcast through the night by Newstalk. I found the coverage interesting, lively and factual.
Turning over to BBC World Service and thought there was more negativity as an interviewer grilled some Trump supporters.
On Wednesday’s RTÉ’s Morning Ireland long-time Clinton supporter Linda O’Shea-Farren was distraught and could hardly speak at times. Indeed liberal tears did drown the wind on a grand scale. That morning’s Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk) was particularly sour. Kenny started by playing some of Trump’s crude comments about women (at a time when children were in cars going to school), and later Chris Donohue described some of Trump’s political allies as ‘stooges’. In studio US ambassador Kevin O’Malley maintained his statesman-like dignity and objectivity as Kenny tried in vain to get him to make a partisan statement.
The show typified the unbalanced approach the Irish media took throughout the campaign.
Celebrities
On The Last Word (Today FM) on the Wednesday evening I heard about all the celebrities bemoaning the election of Trump, and I thought who cares what Lady Gaga thinks about politics. I saw Miley Cyrus’ tearful lament on Sky News and it was quite embarrassing.
On the Thursday morning I was taken aback to hear of the street protests in American cities and felt that democracy was in double trouble. Have we more to fear from left wing intolerance that from its right wing counterpart?
Also on Thursday, that issue surfaced in an interview with Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Leonnig, interviewed on Today With Seán O’Rourke. In town for the Cleraun Media Conference, she said she’d noticed in the US journalists crossing a line and becoming one-sided in this campaign. “Our job is: investigate,” she said, and “figure out what the powerful don’t want revealed.”
She thought integrity and values might be regarded as old school, but they were the core bedrock beliefs of investigative journalism.
Several commentators referenced Brexit which was appropriate enough but some of the reaction to Trump’s victory was over the top.
Analogy
On Sky News I saw film maker Michael Moore taking to the streets, adapting the Brexit analogy and saying that the Trump victory was ‘America leaving America’. What?
On Thursday’s Pat Kenny Show one young woman said she was “crying all day” while another said she’d better “sort out her birth control”. What? I heard other extreme analogies – comparing the result to the attacks on New York on 9/11 and Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Ryan Tubridy was one of those using the latter analogy on last Friday night’s Late Late Show (RTÉ 1) when he hosted what masqueraded as a debate on the Trump victory with journalists Colette Browne and Katie Hopkins.
There had been over 600 emails to RTÉ objecting to Hopkins’ appearance (so much for freedom of speech) – ultimately the item was embarrassing and cringe worthy. Tubridy imperiously scolded Hopkins, though she was a guest on his show (so much for hospitality).
Hopkins complained about labels (e.g. ‘racist’) but dished out some of her own (e.g. ‘feminazi’). Tubridy, Browne and the audience ganged up on Hopkins, while Hopkins and Browne tore at each other relentlessly (so much for the reasoned debate that might have been). Tubridy lamented the language used by Hopkins, but it was he who first quoted Trump’s offensive words about women!
Among the more reflective treatments of events was last Saturday morning’s Talking Point (Newstalk), when presenter Sarah Carey cast a critical eye on the media’s role. Harry Browne of DIT reckoned the media was blinded by the “spectacularly attractive” circus elements of “trumpism”, while Terry Prone identified an “overwhelmingly coercive liberal consensus” and thought the media were addicted to opinion polls, which she describes as “inherently false”. Listen back!
Pick of the week
LIFE AND DEATH THE PENTECOSTAL WAY
BBC 2 Sunday, November 20, 9.00 pm
With traditional Christianity seeing its numbers fall, how has the Pentecostal faith become so successful in the UK?
THE MEANING OF LIFE WITH GAY BYRNE
RTE 1 Sunday, November 20, 10.35 pm
This week’s guest is US Archbishop Charles Brown, papal nuncio to Ireland.
QUEST FOR SHAKESPEARE
EWTN Friday, November 25, 7pm
PORTIA, GATE OF VIRTUE: The Merchant of Venice offers an introduction to Shakespeare’s Catholicism.