Newstalk Megathread

Harry Angstrom

Tara Duggan is insufferably annoying. That is all.

kneemos

Didn't get his name but there was some bloke on with the ability to out talk Bobby.Thought he wasn't there for nearly a full minute when I turned it on.

CountyHurler

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Tara Duggan is insufferably annoying. That is all.

Foghorn Tara Duggan AND cure for Insomnia, Bobby Kerr... Newstalk really dont get the point that it's the team of Hook, McIntyre and Coleman that makes the Friday show work.. Getting three random clowns doesnt work.

Wilberto

CountyHurler wrote: »

Foghorn Tara Duggan AND cure for Insomnia, Bobby Kerr... Newstalk really dont get the point that it's the team of Hook, McIntyre and Coleman that makes the Friday show work.. Getting three random clowns doesnt work.

I'd take Ciara Kelly before Dave McIntyre every time.

Harry Angstrom

McIntyre is another smug annoying waste of space.

I kinda like Ciara Kelly.

Mr Pseudonym

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

McIntyre is another smug annoying waste of space.

I kinda like Ciara Kelly.

McIntyre is unbearable. But, it feels to me like the smugness of one who's insecure.

I kinda like Shane Coleman.

theholyghost

Sorry lads but Abi Bowman tonight trumped them all, the most incessant loudmouth I think I've ever heard on the radio. At least McIntyre is just a clown!

constitutionus

Jaysus Chris had Richard bruton squirming pretty badly this morning on why the gov didn't take say jack about the rights of women on Dubai etc

He tried his best but there was no way to come out of that without sounding like we didn't give a toss as long as we got the moola

Bits_n_Bobs

constitutionus wrote: »

we didn't give a toss as long as we got the moola

Which I think is what Ivan said...real politic

Imhof Tank

constitutionus wrote: »

Jaysus Chris had Richard bruton squirming pretty badly this morning on why the gov didn't take say jack about the rights of women on Dubai etc

He tried his best but there was no way to come out of that without sounding like we didn't give a toss as long as we got the moola

You have got to be joking - it was the listeners squirming, not Bruton.

Classic case of Chris attempting to “set the agenda”. He is trying to spark the interest of the audience in a non-story.

If Eamonn Gilmore gave a speech about human rights abuse in the gulf states tomorrow Chris would be the first man to accuse him of damaging our trading relationships.

DeanAustin

Imhof Tank wrote: »

You have got to be joking - it was the listeners squirming, not Bruton.

Classic case of Chris attempting to “set the agenda”. He is trying to spark the interest of the audience in a non-story.

If Eamonn Gilmore gave a speech about human rights abuse in the gulf states tomorrow Chris would be the first man to accuse him of damaging our trading relationships.

Isn't that his job - to play devil's advocate and put across an opposing view?

Imhof Tank

DeanAustin wrote: »

Isn't that his job - to play devil's advocate and put across an opposing view?

That's not what he's doing though.

He is adopting the opposing view (on whatever subject) as his own personal view and portraying himself as a fearless young go-getter making government minsters squirm.

He thinks this is what the listeners want - a tabloid message with no nuance whatsoever.

Layinghen

Think Chris has bigger problems after this mornings mangling of the words "cuts" and "grants" and coming out with a very naughty word!!!!!!!!!

According to Independent.ie he has tweeted that saying that word on air should have got him fired.......

Muff Richardson

Imhof Tank wrote: »

You have got to be joking - it was the listeners squirming, not Bruton.

Classic case of Chris attempting to “set the agenda”. He is trying to spark the interest of the audience in a non-story.

If Eamonn Gilmore gave a speech about human rights abuse in the gulf states tomorrow Chris would be the first man to accuse him of damaging our trading relationships.

He embarrassed himself earlier on in the morning with the same point with Ivan citing a previous diplomatic visit to Malawi where we got on our high horse about their anti homosexual laws and how we should have stood up for ourselves now as we did then. Ireland is practically pan handling at the arabs doorsteps looking for business and he thinks we should start giving them s*it about their human rights records. He couldnt quite grasp the difference between Ireland being in a position to lecture other countries about their domestic policies when we are providing them with aid and lecturing countries about their policies when are desperately looking for business from them. In spite of this being spelt out to him by Ivan he decided to pursue the story anyway, presumably because he still didnt quite understand how basic diplomatic relations function or he had nothing else and has zero iniative for anything other than what he has on his wikipedia laden printouts.

If Bruton was squirming it was most likely because he didnt know how to explain the glaringly obvious to an imbecile so called journalist as he so often tells us he is. He is the furthest thing imaginable from a journalist, or one with any talent or competence anyway...pathetic is the only word.

And just as a by the way, we are just looking for the moola and couldn't give a toss about womens rights in Dubai, just like we couldn't give a toss about lads getting banged up in prison for getting up on each other in Malawi, but sure it'll look good and get a few extra votes from the pro gay camp for whoever kicked up a fuss

serfboard

Muff Richardson wrote: »

Ireland is practically pan handling at the arabs doorsteps looking for business and he thinks we should start giving them s*it about their human rights records.

FYP.

Can you imagine Enda or Richard - "Lads, ye're an absolute disgrace with yer human rights record - down with this sort of thing.

Ehmmmmm ... any chance of a few quid?"

Bits_n_Bobs

Layinghen wrote: »

Think Chris has bigger problems after this mornings mangling of the words "cuts" and "grants" and coming out with a very naughty word!!!!!!!!!

According to Independent.ie he has tweeted that saying that word on air should have got him fired.......

Heard the 'cuts' one and wondered at the time had I misheard it Bit OTT calling for his head over one mangled word....

Layinghen

That's the thing nobody is calling for his head. Chris made the comment himself!!!

delaad

Can anyone tell me who Noel D Walsh "parliamentarily assists"? And what this parliamentary assistance consists of?

Bits_n_Bobs

Seriously...PK opening with an interview about a program who no-one has seen about someone I would prefer not to see again...yawn.

constitutionus

give em an excuse to attack gerry adams again TBH. theyre crest fallen at the latest poll results.

Mousewar

Seeing Chris on the front page of the Indo yesterday made me think about how well he's doing despite that little gaff.
I went to school with him. Hard to believe how well he's doing these days given that I knew him as just another quiet kid. He's a very good broadcaster and has achieved an incredible position given his age. Really pleased for him.

McDave

Mousewar wrote: »

Seeing Chris on the front page of the Indo yesterday made me think about how well he's doing despite that little gaff.
I went to school with him. Hard to believe how well he's doing these days given that I knew him as just another quiet kid. He's a very good broadcaster and has achieved an incredible position given his age. Really pleased for him.

Good for you! He gets quite a ragging here. Personally I find him a cheerful guy with a good personality, discharging a wingman role very well indeed.

Pity that Ivan can't up his game and drag Breakfast out of the superficial, overscripted walk-through it can't seem to transcend.

Imhof Tank

Mousewar wrote: »

Seeing Chris on the front page of the Indo yesterday made me think about how well he's doing despite that little gaff.
I went to school with him. Hard to believe how well he's doing these days given that I knew him as just another quiet kid. He's a very good broadcaster and has achieved an incredible position given his age. Really pleased for him.

In what sense is he a "very good" broadcaster in your opinion? Do you actually listen to him - he is congenitally incapable of stringing a sentence together properly.

In my opinion he is a glorified newsreader who got lucky.

ballsymchugh

Imhof Tank wrote: »

In what sense is he a "very good" broadcaster in your opinion? Do you actually listen to him - he is congenitally incapable of stringing a sentence together properly.

In my opinion he is a glorified newsreader who got lucky.

just out of curiosity, why do you listen to so much stuff that winds you up??

Mousewar

Imhof Tank wrote: »

In what sense is he a "very good" broadcaster in your opinion? Do you actually listen to him - he is congenitally incapable of stringing a sentence together properly.

In my opinion he is a glorified newsreader who got lucky.

I'm not an expert on this stuff. In my opinion he is tremendously well prepared for every episode and seems to do great research. He has good diction and communicates well with the guests. And has a good relationship with Yeats. Overall he seems to help anchor the show very well.
We'll just take it that you disagree. I don't really want to get into a debate about it.

But he definitely didn't get lucky. He worked very very hard.

wnolan1992

Mousewar wrote: »

But he definitely didn't get lucky. He worked very very hard.

I'd agree with this tbh.

You can argue all day long about his abilities as a broadcaster, but he does come across as being a very hard worker.

He's by no means perfect, and still has a hell of a lot to learn if he's every to be taken seriously in that space, but he's really young still. As much as I like listening to Ivan Yates, I'd wonder if he's the right the guy to help further Chris along that road.

Ol' Donie

I think he's improved quite a bit over the last while. More power to him I'd say.

Mr Pseudonym

Mousewar wrote: »

I'm not an expert on this stuff. In my opinion he is tremendously well prepared for every episode and seems to do great research. He has good diction and communicates well with the guests. And has a good relationship with Yeats. Overall he seems to help anchor the show very well.
We'll just take it that you disagree. I don't really want to get into a debate about it.

But he definitely didn't get lucky. He worked very very hard.

I'm not a fan of his, but I agree that his diction is good - although he struggles over the odd "th". I think he's lucky in that Newstalk wanted to differentiate itself from RTE. Therefore, they hired a young and "with the kids" presenter as a foil to Yeats. IMO, Chris Donoghue doesn't bring any authority: it still feels, to me, like he's there on work-experience.

But, he seems like a nice guy, and doesn't irritate me to the point of annoyance like he does for many!

And, Mousewar, why no debate?!

Imhof Tank

ballsymchugh wrote: »

just out of curiosity, why do you listen to so much stuff that winds you up??

Because I like Ivan.

I just cant believe these posts about Chris' alleged good diction and ability to communicate. You guys couldn't be paying attention. I would challenge any of you to pick out any random 5 minute segment of the show any day in the last six months where he doesn't absolutely mangle a reference, or get his plurals mixed up with his singulars, or say million instead of billion, or say something happened this year when he means last year or vice versa.

Also, this business about him being so young, he must be pushing 30 at this stage, no? So why do people constantly make allowances for him due to his age?

And finally he has plenty of experience as well - in the job how many years at this stage? And getting worse as time goes by IMO.

Imhof Tank

OK boredom got the better of me so I listened again to the first 5 minutes of today's show after the 8 am news. In that time Chris came up with these:

Re the water authority costs issue: ".......was this an outlay, the set up, or was it reports?"

Re Paisley "Dr Paisley the DUP leader who brought his party into powersharing in Stormont after a long time not going into it" and "a lot of people will have a lot of scrutiny of what he has to say......."

And to finish with a real Chris special "......HIQA - the Health Information and Equality Authority......"

How anyone can defend this guy is a mystery.

Wilberto

Imhof Tank wrote: »

And to finish with a real Chris special "......HIQA - the Health Information and Equality Authority......"

How anyone can defend this guy is a mystery.

Maybe he said "the Health Information and.....eh......Quality Authority?? :p:D

Aidric

Chris suffers from being in a rush all the time. The bottom line is that he is anchoring a current affairs programme and I don't remember once thinking this guy is in control of this interview. He is a soft touch and his interviewees walk all over his interrogations.

Imhof Tank

From their webpage

Chris Donoghue - Chris is a Newstalk veteran having worked at the station since early 2004. He loves nothing more than getting stuck into politicians and was based in Newstalk’s Dail office for a number of years. Chris also traveled coast-to-coast in the US covering the 2008 Presidential election and was based in Chicago with the Obama camp. He began presenting Newstalk Breakfast in August 2010.

Skid X

Chris Donoghue is working there for 10 years now.

At what point will people stop saying "ah, you have to remember he's only young"? Nobody says "George Hook rambles a lot, but you have to make allowances for his age".

DEFTLEFTHAND

That must be a misprint. He's only 29 now, he was hardly hired as a Dail reporter at 19.

Imhof Tank

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

That must be a misprint. He's only 29 now, he was hardly hired as a Dail reporter at 19.

"Based in the Dail office since 2004" - not a Dail reporter since 2004.

YTS type gig probably at that time.

Aidric

Imhof Tank wrote: »

YTS type gig probably at that time.

:pac: Still hasn't lost that air of a work experience student

Mr Pseudonym

I am not a fan of his. However, I think you guys are being unfair. He's no worse than Finucane!

Imhof Tank wrote: »

OK boredom got the better of me so I listened again to the first 5 minutes of today's show after the 8 am news. In that time Chris came up with these:

Re the water authority costs issue: ".......was this an outlay, the set up, or was it reports?"

Re Paisley "Dr Paisley the DUP leader who brought his party into powersharing in Stormont after a long time not going into it" and "a lot of people will have a lot of scrutiny of what he has to say......."

And to finish with a real Chris special "......HIQA - the Health Information and Equality Authority......"

How anyone can defend this guy is a mystery.

I'm going to do the same with Sean O'Rourke on Monday to prove that anyone can be made to sound stupid when you take selected, out-of-context excerpts from a transcript of their unscripted conversations.

Also, he has only been a presenter for three-and-a-half-years - his time as a reporter shouldn't be counted.

Imhof Tank

Mr Pseudonym wrote: »

I am not a fan of his. However, I think you guys are being unfair. He's no worse than Finucane!



I'm going to do the same with Sean O'Rourke on Monday to prove that anyone can be made to sound stupid when you take selected, out-of-context excerpts from a transcript of their unscripted conversations.

Also, he has only been a presenter for three-and-a-half-years - his time as a reporter shouldn't be counted.

Those examples were taken from a randomly selectred 5 minute slot. Take any other 5 minute slot and you would hear the same sort of stuff.

The challenge with Chris would be to pick a 5 minute slot where he doesn't mess up. I doubt that could be proven even with selective editing

Patrick2010

I find Marion Finnucane very difficult to listen to , she starts saying one thing, stutters, goes off on a tangent before eventually finishing her question. It'd be interesting if a similar transcript was done for her.
Having said that I do find Chris a self-righteous pain. I pity the poor girl who does the TV highlights of the week on Monday morning, nature programmes, foreign language series are good for Chris, anything of a popular nature bad and gets Chris's scorn.

Imhof Tank

Patrick2010 wrote: »

Having said that I do find Chris a self-righteous pain. I pity the poor girl who does the TV highlights of the week on Monday morning, nature programmes, foreign language series are good for Chris, anything of a popular nature bad and gets Chris's scorn.

Yes all for the image of course.

He'd probably love to follow Mrs Browns Boys but fights the urge.

beagle

Imhof Tank wrote: »

Because I like Ivan.

I just cant believe these posts about Chris' alleged good diction and ability to communicate. You guys couldn't be paying attention. I would challenge any of you to pick out any random 5 minute segment of the show any day in the last six months where he doesn't absolutely mangle a reference, or get his plurals mixed up with his singulars, or say million instead of billion, or say something happened this year when he means last year or vice versa.

Also, this business about him being so young, he must be pushing 30 at this stage, no? So why do people constantly make allowances for him due to his age?

And finally he has plenty of experience as well - in the job how many years at this stage? And getting worse as time goes by IMO.

Agree with this.
His diction is awful. He seems to have some kind of speech 'impethementh'.
Worse still, are his attempts at 'the banter'. All the ' Yatesy, Yateser, granny Yates etc. is just ****. Granted, it was much, much worse with the awful Casey.
The most cringeworthy interview I ever heard was Chris interviewing Anne Doyle last Feb. He came across as a fawning sap.
I mostly stopped listening to the show after that, and only returned fully when Ivan came back.

Imhof Tank

The Th - T issue is a minor gripe really given he has so many other serious problems.

However one he must dread when he sees it on the script is "Think Tank".

Comes out as Tink Thank

Ol' Donie

Anyone listen to this "You couldn't make it up" show?

I'm really enjoying it tonight, I must say. Very pleasantly surprised by it.

CountyHurler

I dunno Donie, every time they try and do something like this it's the same forced laughter, studenty feel to it... And why is Pat O'Mahony presenting this?

"Chris Hatfield should feel at home in the Dáil as it is also full of space cadets"..

Watch out unFunny Friday, you have competition.

kneemos

Might be better in the studio.

Ol' Donie

CountyHurler wrote: »

I dunno Donie, every time they try and do something like this it's the same forced laughter, studenty feel to it... And why is Pat O'Mahony presenting this?

"Chris Hatfield should feel at home in the Dáil as it is also full of space cadets"..

Watch out unFunny Friday, you have competition.

Ah, I know what you mean, but it's still better than I expected.

I think that space cadet joke got a bit of a sarcastic cheer.

I just think the idea of Dennis Rodman meeting the Korean lad online is dead funny.

CountyHurler

Far too much time investment in setting this up, for not very many laughs..

kneemos

Fairly risque in fairness.

wnolan1992

I've enjoyed it in previous weeks, but thought it was poor tonight. Though Joe Rooney was trying way too hard and failing miserably. Gave up on it after the first round.

Opening joke about the water board was pretty amusing though.