Head over to our T
Becoming an International Laughing Stock over #Picturegate
Read more about: Features, Fianna Fail 
God 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 more like a lump of swiss cheese) and cementing that ‘laughing stock’ status with a rumpus about nude pictures of your Taoiseach getting bogged down (and not in any French artsy way either). The Chinese would approve. Er….they do.
We mightn’t be able to come to grips with our bugetary math, sure only today the man himself said he isn’t really that hung up about keeping to a 9.5% GDP deficit, but we can sure crack down on those nasty teachers. Of course the second day story is the GIS interference with RTE who, it is suggested, needed no pressure to proffer a full apology, take down the offending piece from the website and remove the online text report.
Nope, when you make a point of information to the good folk at RTE they are double quick to come out and back the government over their editors and reporters, so viewers can be sure of the veracity of their news. Straight from government. Of course when normal Joes like you, me or Fergal write in you get a stock reply with a sweet PFO attached, see we still have to pay our licence fee – government get to set it.
Press coverage will be intersting tomorrow, as will the kind of second day support Cowen gets from his backbenches. A few today were off radar while others bided time before wading in. Kennedy was the sole voice in the wildnerness today, do we get more tomorrow? It is not like there is a shortage of Fianna Fail TDs who want to dig RTE, where will they be tomorrow? What play will the papers give it? Will Conor Casby raise his head? What can we expect from tomorrow’s D’Arcy show?
RTE has dented confidence in media generally – trust is a vital element of selling your product and people are right to suspect political pressure on the people who write.
I’ve written a stinker of an email to RTE regarding the whole situation. I wonder will they actually bother replying.
As time goes on, my anger at the incident and reaction from Cowen/RTE hasn’t simmered down. Quite the reverse actually. Gobshites
Three centuries of political lampooning later, Mr. Casby’s efforts, however funny, are hardly original. Back in the eighteenth century it was commonplace for political cartoons to focus on genitalia and defecation as representative of the weaknesses of contemporary political figures. Apparently, the Vitctorians, with their ‘refined’ moral sensibilities , were less crude though no less effective and it all became much more sophisticated in the twentieth century.
But back when it all started Casby, and anyone caught distributing his works of art, might have looked forward to a few days in prison, if they lived in England, or having their heads chopped off, if they were unfortunate enough to live in France. What might be even more fun right now is to see what he has made of Eamon and Enda, or even the hapless Jack O’Connor or other ‘leaders’ of social partnership?
As the curator of the Museum of Cartoons in the UK put in in a recent article:
“Prime ministers and politicians can be hurt by cartoons, but they should remember the cartoonist’s role is not to couch favour or approval. They should ignore the cartoons that flatter and resist wincing at the ones that ridicule. If, at times, the attack does strike home, they should never let it show. The reputations of the real political giants have not been impaired by the images created by the cartoonists. Great politicians rise above the invective, no doubt sufficiently confident of their own reputation to allow their achievements to be judged by history, rather than by cartoons.”
Meanwhile, eight separate posts on this site on this issue over the past two days? Is it worth all this much attention?
Not really Veronica worth the attention but it has given us our biggest hits in over a year. Look at the amount of comments it has generated and compare to more serious posts.
Simon,
Fair enough. Might be good for flogging a few tee-shirts as well but there comes a point where you risk becoming over exposed…
“What might be even more fun right now is to see what he has made of Eamon and Enda, or even the hapless Jack O’Connor or other ‘leaders’ of social partnership?”
You won’t have the opportunity. According to the Indo, five paintings of other politicians are now in the possession of the Gardai.
Right. That’s it! We should all march on the Garda Station and demand the release of the Casby Five.
How does the report in the chinadaily.com approve of the censorship? To me, it looks like they covered the facts with no judgement.
FF Eire Nua Announcement To All Artists:
Yiz can paint anything yiz want to except politicians in their emperor’s new/NO clothes. That’s far too close to the bone representing that we have NO policies, NO clue as what to do and NO clue of what is even going on. That would provoke the general public to thought, and possibly social unrest, with the exception of the dimwits who keep voting us back in no matter how much we dump on the people
How many college’s of “ART” do you have? How many Art student’s? When RTE ran the first news at 9p.m. with the art expert on. He should have said the “Painting” was “Priceless” instead of nothing