Liveline Thread 20/7/2013 to 12/10/2013

Lady Chatterton

shockwave wrote: »

The person sitting in the chair is irrelevant, people will always ring liveline regardless of who presents it.

I totally agree, people tend to use the show as an Ombudsman type service, it's sad to say but a call to Liveline is likely to yield better results as the Ombudsman's office is so under resourced these days.

Liveline has proven to be an effective way of embarrassing public bodies like the HSE into making changes (Grangegorman patients controversy) and ministers into performing U turns (disability cuts etc.).

Degringola

Really annoys me the way most of RTE feels entitled to take off every Bank Holiday.

dvcireland

tomorrow on Liveline, callers discuss how they are affected by the bus strike:

".....jaysis, how am i meant to sign on the labour and get back to werk with this bleedin' bus strike....."

neris

dvcireland wrote: »

tomorrow on Liveline, callers discuss how they are affected by the bus strike:

".....jaysis, how am i meant to sign on the labour and get back to werk with this bleedin' bus strike....."

Id say john from cork will be really affected. joes affraid to get into local issues outside of dublin for fear of being caught out or not knowing
his geography. We have 98fm & fm104 for dublin issues w don't need liveline

JonathanAnon

I know what some of you are worried, but I'd just like to confirm that some of the buses WILL be running in the morning..

Harry Angstrom

shockwave wrote: »

The person sitting in the chair is irrelevant, people will always ring liveline regardless of who presents it.

People might still ring in but I doubt as many people will be listening if there was a change of presenter. If this thread is even a tiny barometer of the national listenership tastes, when Damo took over from Joe for a couple of weeks the amount of posts went down. I'd be far less inclined to listen to Liveline if Damo was at the helm than Joe Duffy. For all that Joe can be a cantankerous and infuriating cabóg at times, there's still something about the guy that makes me want to listen to it more when he's in the chair rather than anyone else.

JonathanAnon

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

People might still ring in but I doubt as many people will be listening if there was a change of presenter. If this thread is even a tiny barometer of the national listenership tastes, when Damo took over from Joe for a couple of weeks the amount of posts went down.

Sorry Harry, I'm gonna have to take you up on this one... To quote Tony Hancock.. "What a load of old rubbish"..

The problem when Damo takes over is that RTE dont allow him to cover anything that is coming within an ass's roar (you like the farming metaphor?) of getting RTE in the courts again.. The stabilizers are firmly fixed to the bike when Damo is in the hotseat.. Maybe for good reason given what happened when Evelyn O'Rourke stood in a few years back, and given what happened with Martin Cullen and others.. I think the show in general is less entertaining because the producers are overly cautious about tackling any contemporary issues for fear of being sued..

Harry Angstrom

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Sorry Harry, I'm gonna have to take you up on this one... To quote Tony Hancock.. "What a load of old rubbish"..

The problem when Damo takes over is that RTE dont allow him to cover anything that is coming within an ass's roar (you like the farming metaphor?) of getting RTE in the courts again.. The stabilizers are firmly fixed to the bike when Damo is in the hotseat.. Maybe for good reason given what happened when Evelyn O'Rourke stood in a few years back, and given what happened with Martin Cullen and others.. I think the show in general is less entertaining because the producers are overly cautious about tackling any contemporary issues for fear of being sued..

Well Jon, to paraphrase Voltaire, I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it .
I reckon the listenership for Liveline would go down if Joe Duffy left, not that I think he'll leave, but I can't really think of anybody who could fill his shoes. People talk about Philip Boucher Hayes but I'm sure listening to somebody speaking with a plum in his mouth would become a lot more irritating over time than listening to Joe's "salt of the earth" Dubalin tones.

JonathanAnon

With regard to Duffy leaving, I think the same was said about Marian. "The show wont be the same without her", "It wont be the same with another presenter" etc etc.. yet they retained their listenership with Joe Duffy, who is a very limited broadcaster..

Noel Kelly would try to tell you that about the "talents" of his client, but realistically Joe Duffy was Gay Byrne's lackie for a few years which got him in the RTE door. And once you have a foot in the door in RTE, you just move up through the ranks based on year's service not on talent.. PBH, who would probably be hated by some because of his private school boy characteristics, walked in the door for an afternoon without any experience and livelined Joe Duffy off the park... And so could another presenter..

Frankly, the first time Joe Duffy's biases started to show through, he should have been let go from the position anyway.

Dan Jaman

One thing I like about Marian Finucane was the way she'd let people get quite slanderous on air. JD has a large streak of yellow running down his back in that regard.

Harry Angstrom

JonathanAnon wrote: »

With regard to Duffy leaving, I think the same was said about Marian. "The show wont be the same without her", "It wont be the same with another presenter" etc etc.. yet they retained their listenership with Joe Duffy who is a very limited broadcaster..

Noel Kelly would try to tell you that about the "talents" of his client, but realistically Joe Duffy was Gay Byrne's lackie for a few years which got him in the RTE door. And once you have a foot in the door in RTE, you just move up through the ranks based on year's service not on talent.. PBH, who would probably be hated by some because of his private school boy characteristics, walked in the door for an afternoon without any experience and livelined Joe Duffy off the park... And so could another presenter..

Frankly, the first time Joe Duffy's biases started to show through, he should have been let go from the position anyway.

They haven't just retained the listenership with Joe Duffy, they've increased it. I'm no apologist for Joe - as I've said, he can be ignorant and cantankerous and his biases have started to show, but the same accusation could be levelled against Pat Kenny with his obvious antipathy towards those on social welfare, particularly the unemployed; and also Marian Finucane and her obvious reluctance to rein in Dave Fanning with his ranting tirade against the Catholic Church on her programme a couple of years back.

At least Duffy got into RTE off his own bat, unlike many who cruised through the doors because of family connections - Tubridy being the most obvious, although I wonder if Uncle Myles put in a good word for Philip as well?

JonathanAnon

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

At least Duffy got into RTE off his own bat, unlike many who cruised through the doors because of family connections - Tubridy being the most obvious, although I wonder if Uncle Myles put in a good word for Philip as well?

Ah here, I'm not gonna start defending Tubridy..

Roger_007

I see that this thread has turned into a general assessment of the merits and demerits of RTE broadcasters. If that be so then I think that RTE current affairs output, (in which I would include Liveline), has a poor history of being an impartial broadcaster. It is not down to individual presenters but there seems to be a policy of not asking the awkward, but obvious, questions. Just a couple of examples from recent times:-
- During the debate on the abortion legislation, nobody put it to Lucinda Creighton and Peter Matthews et al. what they hoped to achieve by looking to have the 'suicide' clause omitted when the Supreme Court judgement still stood anyway and includes the 'suicide' clause.
- During the Magdelene Laundries debate nobody asked the spokespeople for those women why they did not sue the religious orders for false imprisonment given that their whole case was based on the fact that they were 'locked up' and detained illegally and against their will.

What RTE need is a Jeremy Paxman and a policy of asking the awkward, and sometimes unpopular, questions.

Dan Jaman

Roger_007 wrote: »

- During the Magdelene Laundries debate nobody asked the spokespeople for those women why they did not sue the religious orders for false imprisonment given that their whole case was based on the fact that they were 'locked up' and detained illegally and against their will.

Are you trying to imply these people weren't 'locked up'? There might not have been iron shackles on their feet, or cells with barred windows and locked iron doors, but by feck they were locked up well and truly - by a society of schitheads run by schitheads that treated them like schit.

SEPT 23 1989

Wheels on the bus and brawling religious travellers

JonathanAnon

Today, Travellers who have set down and stopped travelling, and people who want to travel but cant..

ButtersSuki

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Wheels on the bus and brawling religious travellers

Has potential, but then again we all know from previous experience that the preview has rarely anything to do with the show. A quick call on the BatPhone from Jack O'Connor (or his Bus Driving equivalent) to Joe to postpone any talk of striking workers will soon change "d'agenda" for the day.

JonathanAnon

You've got him on a better line!!!!!! :eek:

ThisRegard

First caller will be a striking wurker loive from the picket line I'd say. If the majority of callers are supporting the strikers I call shenanigans as not one news source I read today indicated this.

neris

Poor auld salt o de earth dub story for joe. We did find out last week he has a soft spot for the poor aul criminals

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/man-killed-in-taxi-hijack-had-just-learned-he-was-dadtobe-29477422.html

neris

ThisRegard wrote: »

First caller will be a striking wurker loive from the picket line I'd say. If the majority of callers are supporting the strikers I call shenanigans as not one news source I read today indicated this.

Amazing how the trade unions support labour court decisions that go their way but get all upset when it goes against them. Poor public sector workers my asss. If that was a private company there would have been massive lay offs and route cuts.

Lapin

Expecting a disgruntled Dub to tell Joe that the Dublin Bus strike has brought the whole country to a standstill.

neris

Wish bernard and jennifer "the apprentice" would ever fock off. About as funny a pair as syl fox and doc savage

neris

Eh duh

neris

The dort goes to coolmine? Since when

valleyoftheunos

Its a disgrace Joe! A disgrace!

syklops

/me turns on radio.
"Its a disgrace!"
Yep, its on the right station.

yop

Is she a fkn clown. A disgrace.
Taxi wasn't on, wasn't meant to be on.

Now, national radio stations covered this since Thurs.

What a moaning bixtch

Lapin

The DART goes to Coolmine now ???

IvyTheTerrible

Did anyone else hear Joe tapping his pen while he was pretending to listen to this woman?