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RVJ Callanan's avatar

I recall that John Ioannidis horror show with Claire Byrne and Sam McConkey very clearly. The dissembling response to the complaint was breathtaking in its utter disregard for the bleeding’ obvious. It is akin to dismissing any knowledge of Albert Einstein when discussing the Theory of Relativity. But the truth tsunami about these jabs cannot be held back forever and the Tubridy payments controversy will pale in comparison. These criminals seem so damned sure that they will never be held to account. Yet history shows that this is always the way...until it isn’t!

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Nice analogy there RVJ Einstein!

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Michael freepress.ie's avatar

Love this. They ignored so many facts.

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Humbug's avatar

This is a brilliant article. The arrogance of Catherine Martin's statement that the journalism of RTE should "never be questioned" reminds me of Jacinda Adern's proclamation that the NZ government were the sole source of truth.

Joe Duffy might learn something from watching this: https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/was-it-30-placebo

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Remember how Joe Duffy dealt with Dr Pat Morrissey

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The Phantom Honker's avatar

Since the TubridyGate scandal broke, it's amusing to see RTE being thrown under the bus by the same political establishment that RTE have been shilling for, especially obvious since 2020. The Irony.

Has anyone else noticed the demeanour/body language of ALL politicians and media addressing Joe Public over the last few years?

They seem to be MK-Ultra'd. Do they not realise they are nothing more than useful idiots? Or minions of the devil?

Are they stupid? Or do they think all of us are?

Answers on a postcard please.

Thanks Louise

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Andee's avatar

"Excellent factual information" is a lot like "safe and effective". It implies "because we say so". 🙄

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Emily's avatar

There is always a price to be paid for selling your soul. One hateful puppet down. For the rest of his life T will be person non grata which is exactly what he wanted us to be.

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

So much is circular...

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J. P. Bruce's avatar

The government and its ministers continue to 'double down' in the face of growing opposition to the whole covid debacle. Presumably this minister realises her dilemma but hopes that somehow the government line will hold.

I am speculating here. I have no idea what is going on inside her head. But she must know it's only a matter of time now.

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Daithi's avatar

Did we expect anything else? Now look at all the countries that went full on pro mandates - Canada, Australia, GB, USA and ask yourself why each one is in the process of passing some variation of a censorship act masquerading as "keeping us all safe from hate speech".

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Yes. I've wondered for a long time how those involved might walk the streets safely once it becomes clear how this happened.

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Joan Corr Hayes's avatar

Under Complaints Rejected:

Wrote to RTE morniningireland@rte.ie on 20th April 22 about a broadcast on 7th April 22 that was pushing the 4th Covid shot with no balanced reporting on potential serious adverse events.

Got no response.

Sent emails to other RTE email addresses, nothing.

On 17th June sent the email to complaints@rte.ie and received the following email stating, at the end of the email that -

' In decision C5564, issued in November 2021, the Executive Complaints Forum of the BAI stated:

“The Forum noted the Code does not require broadcasters to cover alternative viewpoints to the consensus opinion of public health experts on Covid-19 vaccines to meet the requirements of fairness, objectivity and impartiality and, in fact, there may be times when such coverage is contrary to those requirements.”

Equally, the Forum and the Compliance Committee of the BAI have issued decisions stating that people who do not accept the scientific evidence of public health experts on vaccines are not a group offered specific protection under the equality provisions of the BAI Code of Programme Standards.

So, while not accepting this complaint because it falls well outside the statutory period, I am satisfied based on the programme interview and the consistent rulings of the BAI, there is no basis for your complaint in any event.

Yours Sincerely

BRIAN DOWLING '

So nothing to see here, according to BAI rulings RTE do not have to report in a balanced way when discussing Covid-19 vaccines !!.

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

How very revealing:

"people who do not accept the scientific evidence of public health experts on vaccines are not a group offered specific protection under the equality provisions of the BAI Code of Programme Standards."

Equality out the window.

Thank you Joan

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Richard Kelly's avatar

She seamed to shoot her eye's to her right looking for rescue lol, is Blinky Martin any relation to M Martin or is the resemblance just my imagination .

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Noticed that too Richard!

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Complaint re Pat Kenny on Newstalk supplied by reader Marion Gordon:

Re: Complaint against Pat Kenny

I wish to lodge a complaint against Newstalk on the grounds that the broadcasts with Pat Kenny on 28th and 29th October 2021 contravene Principle 5 of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Code of Practice (‘BAI’) and s 42 (b) of the Broadcasting Act, 2009.

Specifically, I wish to draw your attention to the following statements made by Pat:

“All these people that are unvaccinated are vulnerable and should stay at home… to protect the vaccinated from the people that are going to get sick…”

“….tell the unvaccinated to stay at home….”

“….and children aged 5 to 12 are not even told to wear a face mask as they are in France….”

“Too easy on the unvaccinated cohort……those who willfully say no….who say there is a chip in the vaccine that will affect my brain….”

“…. Employers need to be able to know if staff are vaccinated……I see no reason why an employer can’t say you can work at home and you can only come in if you are vaccinated….”

Section 42(2)(b)of the Broadcasting Act of 2009 (‘the Act’) states:

‘that the broadcast treatment of current affairs, including matters which are either of public controversy or the subject of current public debate, is fair to all interests concerned and that the broadcast matter is presented in an objective and impartial

manner and without any expression of the broadcaster‘s own views…..’

OBJECTICTIVE AND IMPARTIAL MANNER

Pat’s broadcasts fall within the ambit of Section 42(2)(b) of the Act. It is extremely troubling that his prejudice towards people that are unvaccinated prevented any presentation of the subject matter in an objective and impartial manner, particularly in view of the fact that this is an area of current public debate and controversy.

It is clear that Pat’s statement that the unvaccinated should stay at home, because they place the vaccinated at risk, was based on his own personal bias. Indeed, it is somewhat surprising that Newstalk would permit the broadcast of such a view that is not grounded in objective scientific evidence, is highly divisive and discriminatory.

Perhaps Pat is unware that all Covid-19 vaccinations approved by the European Medical Agency (‘EMA’) were granted conditional marketing authorisation due to a defined ‘unmet need’. Indeed, it is not until 2023 that the efficacy and safety of Covid 19 vaccines can be accurately determined by the EMA.

Under Article 5(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 507/2006 of 29 March 2006 on the conditional marketing authorisation for medicinal products for human use falling within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament the holder of a conditional marketing authorisation:

‘….shall be required to complete ongoing studies, or to conduct new studies, with a view to confirming that the risk-benefit balance is positive and providing the additional data referred to in Article 4(1)’

What we do know is that a recent report published in the European Journal of Epidemiology on 9 September 2021 by Subramanian, S.V and Kumar, A entitled ‘Increases in Covid-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States’ found that there was no discernible relationship between vaccination rates and new COVID-19 cases. At Page 1 it is stated:

'In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people. Notably, Israel with over 60% of their population fully vaccinated had the highest COVID-19 cases per 1 million people in the last 7 days. The lack of a meaningful association between percentage population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases is further exemplified, for instance, by comparison of Iceland and Portugal. Both countries have over 75% of their population fully vaccinated and have more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than countries such as Vietnam and South Africa that have around 10% of their population fully vaccinated'

The researchers concluded that the sole reliance on vaccinations as a primary strategy needs to be re-examined especially considering the Dela variant and likelihood of future variants and that any strategy to encourage populations to get vaccinated should be done with humility and respect as stigmatisation can do more harm than good.

Pat could also consider Cillian De Gascun’s statement of 17 October that ‘fully vaccinated individuals have viral loads similar to unvaccinated and can effectively transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts (Singanyagm et al, medRXiv, October 2021)’.

His suggestion that the unvaccinated are ‘vulnerable’ also warrants further analysis.

The HSPC Report on ‘Vaccination status of Covid 19 cases admitted to ICU in Ireland between 1st April and 16th October 2021’ does not make clear whether patients were admitted to hospital for other health related issues and subsequently tested positive for Covid 19 as inpatients. Newstalk may be aware that this very issue was raised by Michael McNamara of the Special Covid 19 Committee in relation to a hospital’s categorisation of Covid 19 deaths. Another issue that could be addressed is the HSPC Report entitled ‘Vaccination Status of Covid 19 Deaths’ during the same corresponding period. This report indicated that of the 402 laboratory confirmed Covid 19 deaths notified to the HSPC, 178 (44.3%) were not vaccinated and 224 (55.7%) were vaccinated.

Complaint edited in comments (by Louise)

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Reply from station Managing Editor via complaints@newstalk.com:

Dear Marion,

Thank you for your email of 03/11/2021.

We appreciate all listener feedback and take it all on board as we continue to work to improve our output.

We have now reviewed the programme to which your complaint pertains and are happy to respond in full.

We note that you specifically refer to four separate instances to ground your complaint against Newstalk “that the broadcasts with Pat Kenny on 28th and 29th October 2021 contravene Principle 5 of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Code of Practice (‘BAI’) and s 42 (b) of the Broadcasting Act, 2009.” We set them out below: -

· “…tell the unvaccinated to stay at home…”

· “…and the children aged 5 to 12 are not even told to wear a facemask as they are in France…”.

· “Too easy on the unvaccinated cohort…those who wilfully say no… who say there is a chip in the vaccine that will effect my brain…”

· “…employers need to be able to know if staff are vaccinated… I see no reason why an employer can’t say you can work at home and you can only come in if you are vaccinated…”

Having now reviewed and carefully considered the Pat Kenny Show broadcast on 28 and 29 October 202,1 for the reasons set out below, we reject that the Pat Kenny Show is in breach of the Broadcasting Act 2009 or the BAI Code of Programme Standards.

The Pat Kenny Show broadcast on 28 October included fair, balanced and impartial interviews with Professor Christine Loscher of DCU School of Biotechnology and Professor Brendan Kelly from Trinity School of Medicine and Consultant Psychologist at Tallaght University as part of the “Covid Roundup”. On 29 October 2021, Pat Kenny interviewed Professor Luke O ‘Neill. In these interviews Pat Kenny questions the interviewees on the question “are vaccines beginning to wane or are we simply throwing caution to the wind”.

We note that all of the comments you refer to occurred during the course of an interview with the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on 28 October. During this interview a number of matters relating to the pandemic were discussed and debated, with Pat Kenny directly questioning the Minister on issues such as vaccination, restrictions, rapid antigen testing, contact tracing and GDPR and Covid in the workplace. All of the statements identified in your email and set out above must be viewed firmly in the context of the interview.

As a presenter of a current affairs programme, part of Pat Kenny’s role is to ensure that the audience is exposed to a wide variety of views on the subject of the programme. His role includes facilitating the views of the interviewee and reflecting the views of others who are not contributing. Sometimes this requires a presenter to robustly question an interviewee and to convey a critical view. The presenter also has the editorial freedom to discuss and challenge the approach of the Government. It is in this context that the comments you refer to were made, and they are not as you suggest an expression of Pat Kenny’s personal view.

By way of example, you refer to the statement “…tell the unvaccinated to stay at home…” and “… the children aged 5 to 12 are not even told to wear a facemask as they are in France…” . It is clear Pat Kenny is drawing a parallel between the vulnerable members of society before and after vaccinations were introduced, and that these statements were made in the context of questioning the Minister in relation to the disproportionate numbers of unvaccinated people in hospital and the burden on the health services in general because of the high numbers of Covid patients.

A further example is the comment “…employers need to be able to know if staff are vaccinated…”. It is clear that Pat Kenny is conveying the views of a listener in a manner which robustly questions the Minister in relation to GDPR and Covid in the workplace, whilst drawing a comparison to other countries in the EU, in particular France.

At no stage in any of the broadcasts over the course of 28 and 29 October did Pat Kenny single out or discriminate against any person or group in society either directly or indirectly. In fact, representations were made by both the Minister and Pat Kenny in respect of a number of vulnerable groups including pregnant women and those from other nationalities who have been mistreated by their own government and so have a mistrust of the information being disseminated by the HSE.

We reject your complaint that The Pat Kenny Show is in breach of the Broadcasting Act of 2009 or Principle 5 of the Code of Programme Standards and that we have discriminated against any person or group in society. Throughout the pandemic there has been robust debate and discussion the Pat Kenny show about all aspects of Covid 19. We stand over our coverage and believe that we have been fair, objective and impartial throughout.

We appreciate all listener feedback and thank you for taking time to email us.

Kind Regards,

Patricia Monahan,

Managing Editor

Newstalk

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Louise Roseingrave's avatar

Well gosh that's explosive.

A former Louise would suggest you approach a newspaper with that story!

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RVJ Callanan's avatar

Beggars Belief!

But it's true!

Media silent!

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Raymond ________'s avatar

Square compass, compass square, numerology numerology numerology, wash your hands, stay in your bedroom, square compass square compass square compass 34 41 nonagon octagon hexagon heptagram , A1Z26 ciphers across the board, brainwashing the people with lies lies and more lies, spelling for spells, numbers for ciphers, 4 for square 3 for compass, stay at home, useless eaters!...1-308...

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