Cowengate Roundup Day One
Posted by Maman Poulet on 25 Mar 2009 at 09:14 pm | Tagged as: Irish Media, Irish Politics
The apology is now in text form on the RTE website (screen cap here) – still no sign of the film package going back up. RTE think it’s all over.
But there is art, countless photoshops, poems, t-shirts to purchase (Proceeds to Rape Crisis Network), international reactions, analysis of online coverage, complaint letters, and so many blogposts on the matter from all across the Blogosphere. (Many of whom say they don’t usually blog about politics or news but had to – which is a message in itself!)
Conor Casby has been interviewed by Gardai seemingly according to Ray Darcy and Today FM in relation to possible crimes of incitement to hatred, indecency and criminal damage (to the gallery wall!)
So is it all over?
FOI’s, complaints and what else to come? Itemisation of all future RTE editorial decisions and Government Press Office interference or obstruction?
As always comments and links are welcome and thanks for all the comments and visits to the site today.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=aabac13f-b042-4869-8b32-b7bd5a87ce34)
Well now is the time to stop being outraged and start putting names and faces on the people in the Government and in RTE who were responsible for this.
It seems unlikely that either the NG or the RHA filed complaints for indecency or incitement to hatred. So where did those charges come from?
Who are “the powers that be” that demanded action on this after the Trib broke the story (although the galleries made their complaints weeks ago and got diddly squat out of the Gardai)?
Who leant on RTE and what did they say?
Why didn’t they go through the proper channels to make the complaint? Why did they lean on RTE directly (it’s not like you or I could phone up RTE and get them to pull a story and make an on-air apology)?
And who in RTE decided to pull the report and issue the apology?
Names and faces – that’s how to keep this story alive.
[...] almighty, so far Google News has over 80 sources covering the picturegate saga. The whole thing is an abject lesson in taking a position of international derision (for a budget that looks [...]
Thanks for the fantastic coverage of Portrait-Gate today Susy. This story is an almost perfect parable of the life of this government and these governing parties/party.
With our economy in tatters, our education and health care systems decimated, more people unemployed than ever before, and cronyism and corruption rife in Irish politics, it takes two satirical portraits of Brian Cowen in the nip, and the ridiculous attempts to censor the coverage of them, for people to realise that ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes.’
Sad to say, we are living in a banana republic without the bi-annual interest of a change of government or the good weather.
Woesinger makes an excellent point, wasn’t the cover-up that sank Nixon rather than the spying at the Watergate building? Perhaps Cowengate might be indicative of something bigger other than the surgical removal of someone’s understanding of satire and media savvy understanding of political humour? It smacks of Paragraph 175 to me.
(Omaniblog was being sarcastic, so was I… um, doesn’t anyone follow Irish Times letter columns and see such patterns? D’oh! will stick to political diatribe in future… goes to gaze lovingly at collection of y-fronts… )
It’s rather the interesting contrast to the blather being spouted by a certain RTE radio morning talk show host about how bloggers are just not all that when compared to the verified, trained, fearless traditional media, isn’t it?
Jaysus Mark, I’ve been too busy working the story, checking my sources, fielding messages and directing info to other people and watching the very very talented ‘blogopolis’ (spit) at work to even think about himself. But Nail on head!!
[...] | Little Beloved | Lucy Takes Off | Lucy’s drowning | Maman Poulet here, here, here and here | Media Lens Message Board here and here | New York Times | Niall O’Loughlin | Nick Fegan | [...]
One small point of clarification if I may. In my mind I was not being purely sarcastic. I was offering a pastiche (of voices I’ve picked up since returning to Ireland from UK). Although I did stray into mocking, contemptuous and ironic language intended to convey scorn and insult on the head of our extraordinary figure of a leader.
But to our host, Maman Poulet there was not a shred of sarcasm intended: I was just joking. Perhaps I need to become a better joker.
[...] Mail Online | Maman Poulet here, here, here, here, here and here | McGarr Solicitors | Media Lens Message Board here and here | MetaFilter | [...]