Has anybody watched Rip off Republic on RTE

hshortt

cuckoo wrote:

Anyway, from an environmental point of view all those nappies are just going to end up chucked in the bin

No no, we'll have a Nappy mountain similar to the Sugar and butter ones we used to have and hear about!

Surely they'll be given to a hospital or some other cause.

cheers

Jip

TmB wrote:

Just heard on the 5pm news that there are calls to abolish the groceries order.... Good man Eddie!

May or may not happen, but at least people are talking about it. I'd never even heard about it before Monday night.

Is this the first news you've watched ? Various groups and organisations, including some of the supermarkets, have been calling for it's abolishment for a number of years now. It has been discussed god knows how many times on various news and current affairs programs, both on T.V. and the radio over the years.

People are given Mr. Hobbs too much credit. Or else many of our citizens have their heads in the sands and need a box in the corner of their living room to tell them what to do. Says alot.

CJhaughey

Jip wrote:

People are given Mr. Hobbs too much credit. Or else many of our citizens have their heads in the sands and need a box in the corner of their living room to tell them what to do. Says alot.

You said it.
People just don't seem to have any interest in consumer affairs, sure they will bitch and moan about prices but do nothing.....

Seth Brundle

CJhaughey wrote:

You said it.
People just don't seem to have any interest in consumer affairs, sure they will bitch and moan about prices but do nothing.....

two simple but common examples of this are petrol prices and insurance prices. Most people will not shop around to find cheaper sources! We as a nation are full of lazy whingers!

pan

>two simple but common examples of this are petrol prices and insurance prices. >Most people will not shop around to find cheaper sources! We as a nation are >full of lazy whingers!

I always shop around for these thing, but hey that just me
I kinda of agree, but you got to have hope that the people every once in a while wake up and protest and this just might be one of these times!!!

Keep the faith,

pan

DannyD

Sent 3 separate envelopes to Martin today.

DublinWriter

rondjon wrote:

If RTE were really serious about it, they'd have it on in prime time at the beginning of September when there's a bigger chance of people watching it.

The BBC show a weekly consumer affairs programme (Watchdog).

It's indicative of how 'establishment' RTE are when everyone gives them a big bula-bus for this 4-part series.

Firstly, I'm amazed that it even got shown in the first place. But then again, RTE normally go for a little nap between June and October, and I'm sure that someone, somewhere in Montrose was having a Toffee-Crisp when it got commissioned.

Don't forget, Scrap Saturday and Bull Island, axed at the peak of their popularity. Look carefully and you can see someone suspiciously resembling Dermot Morgan in that picture of the Grassy Knoll...

...but back to reality. I've suddenly developed amazing psychic powers of premonition! Re the Groceries Order, Michael Martin will commission a study, which in turn will establish a committee, a sub-committee of which will establish the terms of reference for the establishing of a study to be carried out by what ever Director of what ever obscure and previously unheard of consultancy company happens to be playing golf with one of the members of the sub-committee that weekend.

You see, the words 'do something' and 'Michael Martin' are words that should not be used in the same sentence. If he really wanted to help the Irish people then he should have introduced a 'consultant' ban on himself. He's a twenty a day man!

Just remember the 50 million Euros he p*ssed away in the space of two years on un-read and un-acted on reports and studies into the Health Service which are sitting on shelves in Leinster house to this day.






Sure it was great, but we need more of this type of programming on Irish TV, and not necessarily something that rips of the format of The Mark Thomas Project.

Capt'n Midnight

eoin_s wrote:

An EXCELLENT point - is RTE not one of the best cases of a monopoly in Ireland? Look at the quality advertisement-free broadcaster that is the BBC - that is what I would expect from my TV license.

Well the BBC do collect slightly more license fee than RTE and have some economy of scale. TG4 shows how you can provide good TV on the cheap, but TV3 is just awful when you consider just how much public service is done by the ITN network. RTE should trim the fat - especially that waste of space Gerry Ryan and a few others who are costing each of us about 50c per license.

Anyway back up on topic:

Saw on another thread that if you are sending a letter (or nappy) to a Gov't dept that you can just write FREEPOST on the envelope and so don't even need a stamp

DublinWriter - don't forget Hall's Pictorial Weekly but Bull Island pulled too many punches - they had so much material that they didn't use. Mark Thomas , oh yeah - he'd have a field day over here.

Telefís

I do not deem it 'an excellent point' regarding RTÉ's funding - RTÉ depend on advertising revenues just like the majority of public service broadcasters in Europe do - most are dual-funded, the BBC are almost one unto themselves.
If you want licence fee exclusivity, are you prepared to fork out €250+ like Denmark?


A very good programme overall - very good production values, very well written, Hobbs is an excellent host and the prog had some interesting content.
The first VT clip was particularly funny about the low cost economy myth, though the kids wore a bit thin as the programme went on.

I thought that the bin prostester clip was aboslutely farcical though - talk about sensationalism and clawing for a response from the audience.
Everyone has seen this clip 100 times over - it's only because people as a group respond alound that the clip came across as 'significant' when the audience gasped.

The reality is that the majority of people in this country agree with the bin charges - polluter pays etc. If there's one tax or charge that is worthy in this state, and that is reasonable, it is the bin tax.
It was just chucked in there to generate a bit of hype and it was hugely successful.

But otherwise a great production and I look forward to the others.

DublinWriter

Telef&#237 wrote: »

If you want licence fee exclusivity, are you prepared to fork out €250+ like Denmark?

For a decent service, yes I would. Just look at what the average punter with basic Sky satellite services is paying in this country annually.

I know this is OT, but personally I think the licence fee should be abolished in this country. The licence fee only consitutes 30% of RTE's annual income, and a crappy service made 30% worse will still be a crappy service.

You'll never have fair and impartial consumer affrairs programming on RTE so long as their true paymasters are Renault Ireland, Dunnes Stores, et al.

CJhaughey

DublinWriter wrote:

T
You see, the words 'do something' and 'Michael Martin' are words that should not be used in the same sentence. If he really wanted to help the Irish people then he should have introduced a 'consultant' ban on himself. He's a twenty a day man!

Just remember the 50 million Euros he p*ssed away in the space of two years on un-read and un-acted on reports and studies into the Health Service which are sitting on shelves in Leinster house to this day.

Sure it was great, but we need more of this type of programming on Irish TV, and not necessarily something that rips of the format of The Mark Thomas Project.

In fairness to Michael Martin he did in fact implement the smoking ban against the lobbying by the mostly FF publicans.
No mean feat considering what they did to Mullah McDowell's proposal for café bar licenses.

DublinWriter

CJhaughey wrote:

In fairness to Michael Martin he did in fact implement the smoking ban against the lobbying by the mostly FF publicans.
No mean feat considering what they did to Mullah McDowell's proposal for café bar licenses.

The laziest route politically in this country is 'tax and ban'.

What ever pressure he came under by the publicans over the smoking ban was more than counteracted by the support he got at grass-route level during the FF ard-fhes back in Killarney back in 2001(?). He admitted publically after that he was about to cave-in on the whole thing up until that point.

Like Bertie, his style is more about procrastination and doing nothing in order to protect his own political-hyde rather than taking bold risks.

Telefís

You seem to be contradicting yourself there DublinWriter - you want the licence fee abolished, yet equally don't want advertisers to fund the station either?

You've said this a few times about the licence fee constituting 30% of RTÉ's funding - this is not the case - it makes up at least 55% of the station's income, a huge difference amounting to millions of euro.
RTÉ simply could not operate on 30% - it was on its knees before the licence increase when it was 35%!

Agreed about the service needing to be improved, but as it stands the fee is at worst reasonable.

DublinWriter

Telef&#237 wrote: »

You seem to be contradicting yourself there DublinWriter - you want the licence fee abolished, yet equally don't want advertisers to fund the station either?

I wasn't being clear - RTE should be soley funded by ads.

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Agreed about the service needing to be improved, but as it stands the fee is at worst reasonable.

There's only one programme I watch on RTE and that's Q&A. That's it. Honestly. Nothing else. I don't see why I should pay RTE €127 of my hard earned a year just because I own a TV set.

RTE was on it's knees financially because of a huge-middle management layer surrounding it like a spare-tyre. There's a awful lot of dead wood in Montrose that needs trimming.

Telefís

A lot of this fat was trimmed during the cutbacks - though yes the average staff worker and technical crew seem to have borne the brunt of it.

The licence fee is a tax, no doubt about it, but a worthwhile one I think.

finfacts

The lamentable state of Irish consumer policy:


Consumers' "champion" Eddie Hobbs leads the charge as Irish consumer policy remains hostage of vested interests
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002903.shtml


Michael Hennigan

esperanza

kbannon wrote:

two simple but common examples of this are petrol prices and insurance prices. Most people will not shop around to find cheaper sources! We as a nation are full of lazy whingers!

I too am at odds in understanding why so many Irish people think it's wrong to shop around. Snobbery? Or perhaps us being Catholic (over 90%) has something to do with it. The French are also less price-conscious (also a Catholic majority) than the Germans (almost 50% catholic/protestant) or the British for example. Protestants have an apathy for hierarchical structures and favour social mobility. (If you spend less on the basic necessities, you can spend more on education and career development thus changing your social class). Whereas there is generally less social mobility in Irish social classes, Catholics tend to be more traditional and not eager to change the status quo. What do you think?

Rather than saying the Irish are lazy, I would call them conventional, they prefer to stick to the tried and tested instead of trying something new.

RainyDay

finfacts wrote:

The lamentable state of Irish consumer policy:


Consumers' "champion" Eddie Hobbs leads the charge as Irish consumer policy remains hostage of vested interests
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002903.shtml


Michael Hennigan

Hi Michael - The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind in relation to your criticism of Eddie's possible vested interest or conflict of interest given the ads that appear on your website for Rabobank and (via Google syndication) http://www.mortgageplus.ie/ - Are we supposed to take you seriously as a independent commentator?

transylman

Two interesting pieces in todays Sunday Business Post.

A political apointee (formerly of the PDs) to the RTE Authority has written a complaint to RTE about the programme. A lot of politicians are also said to be outraged by the programme.

Around 700 nappies have been received by Micheail Martin so far.

finfacts

RainyDay wrote:

Hi Michael - The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind in relation to your criticism of Eddie's possible vested interest or conflict of interest given the ads that appear on your website for Rabobank and (via Google syndication) http://www.mortgageplus.ie/ - Are we supposed to take you seriously as a independent commentator?

If your case is that every media organisation that accepts advertising cannot be independent, then we plead guilty as charged. That would apply to the Irish Times, Vincent Browne's Village or whatever. I in fact had never heard of mortgageplus.ie until your post.

We don't have any relationship with a financial institution - either a business relationship with individuals or corporate. Google ads are placed via search technology while ads such as Rabobank come via independent agencies who make assessments on where to place them in terms of audience etc.

Eddie Hobbs has direct relationships with some financial companies while at the same time presenting himself as an advocate of consumers' interest.

To say that a media organisation that accepts advertising is on a par with a guy who projects himself as a consumer advocate, while being a financial industry player himself, is not reasonable.

When Hobbs criticises some finance companies and not others, is it because he has intermediary relationships with the others? Should it matter?

I don't project myself as a "consumer advocate" as Hobbs does. Shouldn't he be at least oblidged to disclose to the public the extent of his financial service business. Then people could have some sense of a potential conflict of interest.

Of course, when it comes to public ethics, we in this country have still a far way to go.

rondjon

finfacts wrote:

If your case is that every media organisation that accepts advertising cannot be independent, then we plead guilty as charged. That would apply to the Irish Times, Vincent Browne's Village or whatever. I in fact had never heard of mortgageplus.ie until your post.

We don't have any relationship with a financial institution - either a business relationship with individuals or corporate. Google ads are placed via search technology while ads such as Rabobank come via independent agencies who make assessments on where to place them in terms of audience etc.

Eddie Hobbs has direct relationships with some financial companies while at the same time presenting himself as an advocate of consumers' interest.

To say that a media organisation that accepts advertising is on a par with a guy who projects himself as a consumer advocate, while being a financial industry player himself, is not reasonable.

When Hobbs criticises some finance companies and not others, is it because he has intermediary relationships with the others? Should it matter?

I don't project myself as a "consumer advocate" as Hobbs does. Shouldn't he be at least oblidged to disclose to the public the extent of his financial service business. Then people could have some sense of a potential conflict of interest.

Of course, when it comes to public ethics, we in this country have still a far way to go.

I think what you'll find in the whole of Eddie Hobbs' programme is a massive amount of pandering to the larger interests.

Despite proof of massive ripoffs and outright theft by the banks, plus their alleged conspiracy on the level of bank charges, the banks (any of them!!) don't come in for a mention in his programme. Nothing at all.

Neither do any of the telecoms companies which have been proven to be overcharging, and which have been accused of ripping customers in Ireland off through higher prices, and have been damned as controlling the market by Comreg. Yet strangely, none of these companies are mentioned at all in the programme either.

And why is this? How much advertising revenue would RTE lose if it were to facilitate the slagging off of any of these companies???

Any media outlet that accepts advertising from a company is a hostage to the wishes of that company - whether it be the IT, the Indo, RTE, or FinFacts, despite what anyone else may say to the contrary. No one is going to risk their streams of revenue by pissing off those that provide it - a perfectly obvious conflict of interest.

With regards to potential conflicts of interest on the part of Eddie Hobbs, I for one am aware of where he's earning his money, as I think most people are. It's a typical Irish thing to bring people down once they've brought their heads above the parapet for any reason, as Eddie has done now with the "Ripoff Republic" programme.

And why now? Why did people not castigate him for conflicts of interest when he presented the "Show Me the Money" programme over the past couple of years?

Was it because he was making the consumers themselves look like idiots in that programme by running up debt and carrying on outrageous spending patterns?

Are people only now having a go at Eddie Hobbs because he's having a go at the actual people and organisations who are essentially behind the "Ripoff Republic"?

rondjon

finfacts wrote:

We don't have any relationship with a financial institution - either a business relationship with individuals or corporate.

Two questions for you Mr.Hennigan.

Firstly, when you claim on your site that "Recent campaigns run on Finfacts have included:"

European Central Bank
Revenue Online
AIB Bank
Bank of Ireland
Tesco Finance Ireland

How can you then say you don't have any relationships with financial institutions? You give them advertising space, they give you money. A nice relationship to have.

Secondly.

Who are you? And what background/knowledge/experience/skills do you have to claim the right to publish articles on the web slagging off others as you have done, for example to Eddie Hobbs?

finfacts

rondjon wrote:

Two questions for you Mr.Hennigan.

Firstly, when you claim on your site that "Recent campaigns run on Finfacts have included:"

European Central Bank
Revenue Online
AIB Bank
Bank of Ireland
Tesco Finance Ireland

How can you then say you don't have any relationships with financial institutions? You give them advertising space, they give you money. A nice relationship to have.

Secondly.

Who are you? And what background/knowledge/experience/skills do you have to claim the right to publish articles on the web slagging off others as you have done, for example to Eddie Hobbs?

Well who are you Mr. or Ms rondjon?? Should I question your right to make the points you have made? D'you want my CV???

There are potential conflicts of interest in every sector including in media organisations that do not accept paid advertisements. You obviously equate accepting advertising with a situation where an individual both sells finance company products and sells software products to the industry while promoting himself as a consumer advocate - so be it.

Read John McManus' June article in the Irish Times: Taylor legacy stalks champion of consumers and you may have a bigger beef with him than me.

Finally, as to my right to comment and 'slagging' off Hobbs, it reminds me of the time when critics of Charles Huaghey were dismissed in similar vein - ignore the kernel of the issue and question the right/motives of the other parties.

rondjon

finfacts wrote:

D'you want my CV???

Go on then!

As for me, I'm Joe Blow consumer logging onto a discussion board.

I'm not publishing articles and earning money from them, and purporting to be "Ireland's Top Business Website".

You don't even provide any information about yourself in your "About Us" section.

Strikes me your hiding your true colours there.

Show yourself. Allow us the opportunity to have a balanced view of your opinions and see from what perspective you're coming from.

The fact that you don't makes a total mockery of your piece slagging off Irish journalism as well - http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002526.shtml.

finfacts

rondjon wrote:

Go on then!

As for me, I'm Joe Blow consumer logging onto a discussion board.

I'm not publishing articles and earning money from them, and purporting to be "Ireland's Top Business Website".

You don't even provide any information about yourself in your "About Us" section.

Strikes me your hiding your true colours there.

Show yourself. Allow us the opportunity to have a balanced view of your opinions and see from what perspective you're coming from.

The fact that you don't makes a total mockery of your piece slagging off Irish journalism as well - http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002526.shtml.

Mr/Ms rondjon - The link below is from the homepage

http://www.finfacts.ie/people.htm

- there is nothing to hide; so much for the blather above.

So much also for this ping-pong. Find some other target for your "forensic" skills!!

rondjon

Fair enough, thanks for that.

Which just brings me back to one of your original comments.

"Eddie Hobbs has direct relationships with some financial companies while at the same time presenting himself as an advocate of consumers' interest. "

Do you not accept that you also fit into this category as well? You and your website has direct relationships with some financial companies, yet your portray yourself as a financial commentator or managing editor, whatever.

Hardly coming from an objective position.

DublinWriter

transylman wrote:

A political apointee (formerly of the PDs) to the RTE Authority has written a complaint to RTE about the programme. A lot of politicians are also said to be outraged by the programme.

Yup, read the earlier posts in the thread (mine included) mentioning that this programme must have slipped 'through the net' while a few high-ups at RTE were away sunning themselves.

To me, it's just another reason why we shouldn't be handing over €127 a year to this corporate and governmental shil of an orgasnisation so it can play 'state-broadcaster'.

RTE clearly doesn't have the balls to criticise the reigning regime of the day and should be sold off post-haste along with all the other semi-state dinasours.

gurramok

finfacts wrote:

The lamentable state of Irish consumer policy:


Consumers' "champion" Eddie Hobbs leads the charge as Irish consumer policy remains hostage of vested interests
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002903.shtml


Michael Hennigan

Your site seems to crash Firefox all the time, your not protecting M$ interests by any chance ?

finfacts

gurramok wrote:

Your site seems to crash Firefox all the time, your not protecting M$ interests by any chance ?

We're working on a big revamp- should be ready at the end of September.

MH

RainyDay

finfacts wrote:

We don't have any relationship with a financial institution - either a business relationship with individuals or corporate. Google ads are placed via search technology while ads such as Rabobank come via independent agencies who make assessments on where to place them in terms of audience etc.

Oh come on now, Michael - Don't try the old 'blame the computer' arguement. You don't show these ad's on your website for the good of you health. You show the ad's to earn revenue, regardless of how many agencies or intermediaries are sitting between you and the advertiser. The central fact remains valid - you have set yourself up as judge & jury, but you too are guilty of the same sin of which you accuse Eddie. The irony of your final line in the article 'Should we wonder if he was talking about himself??' isn't lost on me.

finfacts wrote:

I don't project myself as a "consumer advocate" as Hobbs does. Shouldn't he be at least oblidged to disclose to the public the extent of his financial service business. Then people could have some sense of a potential conflict of interest.
.

But you do set yourself as a 'commentator', as evident from your long, rambling ranting editorial style article. Shouldn't YOU be obliged to disclose to the public the extent of YOUR advertising income from financial services. Just as you question Eddie's motivation, aren't we entitled to question YOUR motivation. Perhaps you're just knocking him because he was getting at some of your advertisers?

finfacts wrote:

Of course, when it comes to public ethics, we in this country have still a far way to go.

How many extra click-thru's did you generate by posting a link to your commerial site on this forum? Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone....