Marian Finucane

CountyHurler

Marion fairly coasting through the last half hour... play a few oul mp3s and bring somebody in to studio to give the background...

Harry Angstrom

my friend wrote: »

Who?

Eoghan O'Neachtain, the former Government and military press officer.

Dan Jaman

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Eoghan O'Neachtain, the former Government and military press officer.

Somebody who seems to have a clue, for a change.

CountyHurler

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

michael999999

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

What gets me is they always mention Robin Williams drink and drug history when talking about him.

Yet you won't hear them mention it when they talk about Gerry Ryan!

michael999999

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

What gets me is they always mention Robin Williams drink and drug history when talking about him.

Yet you won't hear them mention it when they talk about Gerry Ryan!

michael999999

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

What gets me is they always mention Robin Williams drink and drug history when talking about him.

Yet you won't hear them mention it when they talk about Gerry Ryan!

CountyHurler

I don't think that anybody needs to explain to Marion how "generous" RTE are.

CountyHurler

michael999999 wrote: »

What gets me is they always mention Robin Williams drink and drug history when talking about him. Yet you won't hear them mention it when they talk about Gerry Ryan!

Kind of funny there when they were talking about Joan Burton being selective about which stories she comments on.. It's seems RTE suffer from the same ailment.

emo72

Have a good slurp there Marion?

CountyHurler

"Brian Carney is evil"..

Even though he has been convicted of murder, is she allowed to say that on national radio..

constitutionus

this is getting into REALLY dodgy territory !

CountyHurler

I'm not sure Marion should be joking about the BAI. They could well be looking in to other elements of today's show..

constitutionus

ok i know it politically incorrect and im going to hell....


... but everytime they mention "Baby gammy" i just crease up !

Callan57

CountyHurler wrote: »

I'm not sure Marion should be joking about the BAI. They could well be looking in to other elements of today's show..

That BAI issue is baffling, apparently they got 1 complaint! I don't know what the listnership figures for Mooney are but surely the response to 1 complaint was seriously OTT.

constitutionus

Callan57 wrote: »

That BAI issue is baffling, apparently they got 1 complaint! I don't know what the listnership figures for Mooney are but surely the response to 1 complaint was seriously OTT.

that'd let sarah carey off the hook every time then !

Callan57

constitutionus wrote: »

that'd let sarah carey off the hook every time then !

Who????

IvyTheTerrible

Ah yes Marian, let's not reward excellence, let's join the race to mediocrity. God forbid someone feels bad because they're not good at something.
They won't even give gold stars in primary school now because it makes the other kids feel bad.

CountyHurler

God this woman is annoying... "That's loike a very lorge chunk of change"..

constitutionus

my god this is one vomit inducing circlejerk !

its like listening to a paralel universe.

"welcome to planet D fur"

Callan57

CountyHurler wrote: »

God this woman is annoying... "That's loike a very lorge chunk of change"..

Where is she from with that accent?

constitutionus

beats me.

probably cavan

CountyHurler

Callan57 wrote: »

Where is she from with that accent?

Rural Louth she said... !!!

constitutionus

louth ?!?!?!?

shure she sounds nothing like gerry adams !

Onthe3rdDay

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

That's However what Marion's show sounds like a lot of the time. It's a long way from Women Today in the 80's...

Callan57

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

Worse was when Marian started to talk about Dara Ó Briain's tweet only to be interrupted by one of her panelists pointing out that he had just mentioned that tweet ... not sure does she not off for parts of the prog or was it just a "senior moment.
What did presenters do before Twitter & YouTube?

Onthe3rdDay

Callan57 wrote: »

Worse was when Marian started to talk about Dara Ó Briain's tweet only to be interrupted by one of her panelists pointing out that he had just mentioned that tweet ... not sure does she not off for parts of the prog or was it just a "senior moment.
What did presenters do before Twitter & YouTube?

They spent the week looking at the Newspapers preparing for the show at the weekend.

Dan Jaman

It's not so much a show, more a gathering of the braincells after a night on the p!ss.

Onthe3rdDay

It's August and there could be some excuse for Marion as she's not used to broadcasting During this month.

However, a lot of the problem I have with this show is that there is no control over Marion whatsoever. There's a Series Producer, 2 or 3 Researchers, there's often another producer drafted in because of the huge amount of work that has to be done.

I have noticed that certain shows that go out on RTE Radio One aren't up to scratch when certain producers are in charge. I don't know if they're star struck dealing with the people they have to deal with or they lack confidence but there's little control over the presenter. Surnames beginning with + and + seem to be particularly lax. Again, that might be unfair as the presenters might be very hard to deal with. I will say a friend of mine is very good at predicting what producer produced when there's a car crash of a show.

RabbleRouser2k

CountyHurler wrote: »

How many times are we going to hear that Pagliacci story on Radio One this week.. That's at least the third time I've heard. it.

Gossiping about Williams' death like a bunch of old fishwives...

Now, now, fishwives often have something relevant to talk about...Marion on the other hand....

And yes, the vultures often come out to pick through the life of someone famous.

RabbleRouser2k

michael999999 wrote: »

What gets me is they always mention Robin Williams drink and drug history when talking about him.

Yet you won't hear them mention it when they talk about Gerry Ryan!

RTE do everything but comment on Gerry Ryan's drug addiction... And nevermind that Williams actually admitted he had a drugs problem, and then went to rehab to help him with his drugs and alcohol problems.
And he remained sober for far longer than Ryan was doing drugs.

Gerry Ryan...spent over the odds amounts to cover up his drug and alcohol addiction, and then made sure that the people paying the license fee kept him in drugs.
Ryan lost quite a lot of things due to his addictions, including his life.
Williams suffered from depression, which is what led him to take drugs and drink, not the other way around. That his depression worsened, and he did not resort to his old addictions, is commendable in and of itsself.
The sad thing is that he just could see a future for himself once he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. I imagine for a guy who was so energetic, and hyperactive, that to lose so much of that would have been like a jail sentence.
Hence why he possibly took his own life, sadly.

Onthe3rdDay

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

RTE do everything but comment on Gerry Ryan's drug addiction... And nevermind that Williams actually admitted he had a drugs problem, and then went to rehab to help him with his drugs and alcohol problems.
And he remained sober for far longer than Ryan was doing drugs.

Gerry Ryan...spent over the odds amounts to cover up his drug and alcohol addiction, and then made sure that the people paying the license fee kept him in drugs.
Ryan lost quite a lot of things due to his addictions, including his life.
Williams suffered from depression, which is what led him to take drugs and drink, not the other way around. That his depression worsened, and he did not resort to his old addictions, is commendable in and of itsself.
The sad thing is that he just could see a future for himself once he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. I imagine for a guy who was so energetic, and hyperactive, that to lose so much of that would have been like a jail sentence.
Hence why he possibly took his own life, sadly.

Difference here is that they don't know williams and they don't Know his family. So he's fair game as far as they're concerned. If you can't say something to someone's face you shouldn't be saying it at all.

But that is a trait of gossipy Ireland. Talking about others when they're not around, but you expect more from a show that costs over a million a year to put on air.

RabbleRouser2k

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

Difference here is that they don't know williams and they don't Know his family. So he's fair game as far as they're concerned. If you can't say something to someone's face you shouldn't be saying it at all.

But that is a trait of gossipy Ireland. Talking about others when they're not around, but you expect more from a show that costs over a million a year to put on air.

Yeah, they can say 'we didn't know Williams, hence why we talk about him like we did'. But one can argue that the people of Ireland did not know Ryan, but we were funding him, hence why we should have known about his predilections towards having a good time, even if it cost him his life, and by paying over the odds for cocaine, he cost many an innoent person their life too.
And then they quickly sweep it under the carpet any time they air a program about him.
I wonder if Reeling in the Years will mention it in years to come? They bloody well should, to be honest.

CountyHurler

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

And nevermind that Williams actually admitted he had a drugs problem, and then went to rehab to help him with his drugs and alcohol problems.And he remained sober for far longer than Ryan was doing drugs.

One thing that I thought was particularly clumsy, was when one of the male contributors started talking about Good Will Hunting and said something about how ironic it was that he was troubled just like his character, yet nobody knew it.... The man was a self confessed alcoholic, depressive, addict... Everybody KNEW for a long time that Robin Williams had problems... And I think making these types of "profound" parallels are just lazy and not really helpful in any way..

RabbleRouser2k

CountyHurler wrote: »

One thing that I thought was particularly clumsy, was when one of the male contributors started talking about Good Will Hunting and said something about how ironic it was that he was troubled just like his character, yet nobody knew it.... The man was a self confessed alcoholic, depressive, addict... Everybody KNEW for a long time that Robin Williams had problems... And I think making these types of "profound" parallels are just lazy and not really helpful in any way..

Yeah, as a comedian, he was one of the few that was openly honest with his problems, even incorporating it into his act on occassion.
Some other comedians keep that element of their problems out of the public eye, focusing on other stuff. Williams was one of the few who spoke openly about his troubles.

CountyHurler

And while I'm on a roll...

I think it was that same male contributor on the show that made some statement to the effect that he just wasnt strong enough to fight depression... As if it was something that just happened this year, and he found that he wasnt just up to the fight... In reality, Robin has been battling depression for YEARS.. And I would think, similar to what was posted above, that possibly the Parkinson's diagnosis pushed him over the edge..

I was a huge Robin Williams fan... Mrs Doubtfire was just epic..

RabbleRouser2k

Imagine if he had die of, I dunno, complications from diabetes. Would they have said 'He wasn't strong enough to fight diabetes?'.
Yes, that guy sounds like an insensitive soul. But then again, there is a great deal of insensitivity going on in RTE. Maybe once one walks in the door, they become a soulless, emotionless automaton.

Onthe3rdDay

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Imagine if he had die of, I dunno, complications from diabetes. Would they have said 'He wasn't strong enough to fight diabetes?'.
Yes, that guy sounds like an insensitive soul. But then again, there is a great deal of insensitivity going on in RTE. Maybe once one walks in the door, they become a soulless, emotionless automaton.

I don't think they become a soulless, emotionless automaton, but they're either paid to turn up or are there promoting a viewpoint, they have to say something.

The big problem with the show is that there seems to be no work whatsoever done research wise in the previous week. Half the time they don't know what they're talking about. Marion is intelligent and can bluff her way around certain subjects and use 30 words to fill airtime when 4 would do but that doesn't cover up everything. Guests are encouraged to talk about things they know little about. It's like the comedy clips that pop up that just happens to be someone's hobby.

It really is mad that It costs 17 million a year to run Radio One and there is over 4 percent of that budget going on this show every year. (If we're to be conservative and say 700,000 to keep the show on the road) There are full service Local radio stations around the country that provide 1,000's of hours of current affairs every year for roughly the same amount. I wouldn't mind if Marions show was great radio but it's not.

RabbleRouser2k

Yeah, I always listen to local radio, or some music station. I like talk radio, but for the most part, if I want that, then I will listen to a podcast or something.
Marion just seems so behind the times, and so poorly researched. She has one show a week, yet she cannot even manage to do an ounce of research...just bluff her way through.
Darn lazy, and yet she is getting paid far more than many of our politicians.

Onthe3rdDay

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Yeah, I always listen to local radio, or some music station. I like talk radio, but for the most part, if I want that, then I will listen to a podcast or something.
Marion just seems so behind the times, and so poorly researched. She has one show a week, yet she cannot even manage to do an ounce of research...just bluff her way through.
Darn lazy, and yet she is getting paid far more than many of our politicians.

To be fair it's two shows a week for up to 2/3's of the year. and she is getting paid far more than ALL our politicians. And you might not agree with them nor think they should be doing the job but any politician I know in National politics is putting in 60 and 70 hour weeks...at least.

RabbleRouser2k

Well, I don't think anyone has ever agreed with a politician on every opinion.
I did not know Marion had two shows. Still completely overpaid however.
I remember at one point it was tipped that she would replace Gay Byrne when he was leaving the Late Late. Before Pat Kenny got the gig.
I think a woman could present the Late Late show, definitely not Marion.

Onthe3rdDay

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

I remember at one point it was tipped that she would replace Gay Byrne when he was leaving the Late Late. Before Pat Kenny got the gig.
I think a woman could present the Late Late show, definitely not Marion.

She could have, she was once a decent broadcaster but she got stale. She comes across as someone who just pops in for the paycheck now. Part of the problem was that she went from doing 5 days a week to 2 days and on top of that up to a few years ago she used to be off for months at a time. Presenting is like a muscle in the body, if you don't exercise it, the skill becomes weaker.

She also appears to have a very poor production team behind her. When she makes mistakes no one ever seems to pick them up, it's almost as if no one is listening at the station.
To be fair others like Pat also make mistakes but not as often, plus he does seem to want to do the job.

RabbleRouser2k

I remember for the first two or three years of the Late Late, Pat had a terrible production team, so much so that he went through about 2 or 3 production teams in the first 2 or 3 years. Now, Pat was a divisive host most of the time, but with a bad production team, he was often left hanging.

But regarding Marion...yeah, that's kind of sad. I remember when she was considered part of the 'holy trinity' of presenters within RTE. Her, Pat and Gaybo. Then, gradually, she slipped further and further down the scale. Thought she might keep working on it, but you have surprised me by revealing how far she has fallen.

Many others slipped, but despite the dips, they worked and remained pros. Some of them, actually, quite recently, are regaining their listeners (Ronan Collins springs to mind). I think it's because alot of RTE's 'new talent' proved to be new, but not talented.

Raspberry Fileds

Raspberry Fileds wrote: »

This month's issue of Village magazine has a piece on the Marian Finucane Show. It gives a breakdown of the professions of guests on the Sunday panel over a representative period and shows that they are overwhelmingly involved in media or are politicians. Lawyers also feautre regularly. The analysis is pretty rudimentary and I disagree with the general thrust of the piece ("Why is the man-on-street not represented?") but it may interest some.

The Village has uploaded the article I mentioned above to its website: Marian Finucane Show: professionals over weekend brunch. By Ronan Lynch | Village. The paper edition gives some sort of chart in place of the spreadsheet.

RabbleRouser2k

Really interesting article, and goes on to show how her defense of her pay packet is lacking quite a lot of evidence, on her part.

Onthe3rdDay

You couldn't defend that pay package by any measure. It's bad enough she's paid 295,000 in 2012 but the 492,000 she earned in 2011 should be subject to an Government inquiry. Assuming she was on air 80 hours in 2011. (being Generous) that would mean that she was paid 6,150 an hour.

Now Terry Wogan who a few years earlier was on air approximately 600 hours on BBC Radio 2 plus some TV work. By Marion Standards he should have been paid over 3 and a half million euro a year. He was on £800,000 in his final year. Plus he had 8 million listeners compared to Marion and her 360,000. Even if we said UK had the same population as Ireland, Terry would still be coming in at 720,000 listeners.

Of course they're different shows, and Terry doesn't read the papers like Marion does, but I do find it baffling at times. There are not enough ads going out to even cover her wages and the wages of her staff.

Dan Jaman

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

There are not enough ads going out to even cover her wages and the wages of her staff.

Ach, there's always the endless well of money from my (and your) pocket.

Raspberry Fileds

Raspberry Fileds wrote: »

The Village has uploaded the article I mentioned above to its website: Marian Finucane Show: professionals over weekend brunch. By Ronan Lynch | Village. The paper edition gives some sort of chart in place of the spreadsheet.

Glad it was of interest. I'm not sure I agree that the analysis is especially good. The piece feels disjointed to me, combining criticism of Finucane's salary, the banality of the discussion, Finucane's presenting ability, and the programme's guest policy.

The central topic of the article is the guest policy, but I'm not sure the facts speak for themselves. What exactly is wrong with there being a preponderance of journalists and politicians? As long as there are neutral guests to balance the discussion, what is wrong with having vested interests?

A more interesting analysis might have been of the political allegiance of the politicians. I have done that below using the names given in the Village spreadsheet:

Lapin

Interesting.

The Village article doesn't say what year their sample of guests was taken but your pie chart is a reasonable reflection of the political breakdown of this country in recent years with one glaring exception.

Sinn Fein seem to be very unrepresented on the programme in relation to their numbers in the Dáil. Which surprises me all the more considering every second voice I hear on the radio seems to belong to Mary Lou.

Raspberry Fileds

Lapin wrote: »

Interesting.

The Village article doesn't say what year their sample of guests was taken but your pie chart is a reasonable reflection of the political breakdown of this country in recent years with one glaring exception.

Sinn Fein seem to be very unrepresented on the programme in relation to their numbers in the Dáil. Which surprises me all the more considering every second voice I hear on the radio seems to belong to Mary Lou.

Sinn Feinn's proportion is clearly of most note. But it would be a travesty if airtime for politicians was allocated on the basis of proportion of parliamentary seats. I would dispute somewhat that that is a reasonable reflection; perhaps immediately after the election, but not now.