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THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland (BAI) has today published the results of four decisions it has made on foot of complaints made by members of the public.
Three of the four complaints relate to RTÉ broadcasts which referenced former US President Donald Trump. The other relates to a jingle on Today FM which the complainant claimed had contained sexist remarks.
All four were rejected.
Trump
One of the complaints was made in regard to the RTÉ Six One News on 9 November 2020.
The complainant took exception to the description of Joe Biden as President Elect. This broadcast was made after Joe Biden’s victory speech and after major outlets had declared him the winner of the electoral college. This victory was later certified by US Congress.
The BAI said: “The complainant maintains that when an election outcome is unclear or disputed nobody should refer to any of the candidates as the ‘President Elect’. The complainant maintains that, at the time of broadcast, the incumbent president, Donald Trump, had not conceded the election. Further, the complainant maintains that there are on-going reports of voter irregularities.”
The complainant also said that bias was shown during reporting regarding alleged voting irregularities.
In response, RTÉ said that the description of Biden as President Elect was appropriate and valid. Furthermore, it said its reporting was factually accurate, fair and impartial.
The BAI rejected this complaint.
Another complainant took exception to a segment on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne which featured commentary on a report that Trump had made disparaging remarks about the US military during a visit to France in 2018.
The BAI rejected the claim that the topic was presented in a one-sided manner, and that facts were omitted or presented in a manner which would mislead.
A third Trump-related complaint centred on a segment on Liveline with featured an interview with former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power. The complainant said the 45-minute segment amounted to a party-political broadcast for the Democratic party.
RTÉ said that the programme featured callers and contributors both in support and against Donald Trump.
The BAI said it “did not find evidence in the broadcast to support the view of the complainant that the presenter displayed bias or that the programme was unfair, unobjective or partial”.
On-air jingle
A fourth complaint related to an on-air jingle played on Today FM’s Dermot and Dave show.
The BAI said: “The complainant states that there is a weekly segment in which one of the show’s female producers provides an overview of upcoming shows on TV. A jingle is played before and after this segment which, in the view of the complainant, contains offensive, discriminatory and sexist remarks.
“The complainant particularly takes issue with the lyrics ‘you are fired’ and ‘put on the kettle’. The complainant found both remarks derogatory and offensive and is of the view that the jingle sends the wrong message to female listeners. The complainant further notes that the show does not include similar references aimed towards men.”
The producer in question provided a response, as she co-wrote the jingle. She stated that the jingle is not designed to cause offence and was a play on the producer-presenter relationship.
The BAI added: “The jingle is a joke which plays on the fact that the producer is the presenters’ manager and, as such, could not be fired by the presenters. In addition, the kettle reference is a cheeky play on the presenters asking their boss to make them a cup of tea. The broadcaster states that gender has no relevance to the content of the jingle.”
In its decision, the BAI said it listened to the jingle and considered it was light-hearted and would be understood by listeners as a joke.
It said: “The Forum noted that listeners would be familiar with the style of the programme and the content of the jingle was likely to align with audience expectations. Further, the Forum did not consider that the content emphasised gender or discriminated against women. In this regard, the Forum did not consider that the jingle was likely to cause undue offence.”
The BAI also rejected this complaint.
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Like MD or not he is 100% correct on this call and the onus is on him and other world leaders to speak out regardless of the consequences
@sand: isn’t this the same MD who thought hugo Chavez was a hero for pumping billions of barrels of oil so he could fritter it away on regional vanity projects?
@sand: No doubt your intentions are good, but Higgins’s criticism of USA on this is just meaningless and cuddly virtue signalling.
The real problems do not stem from fossil fuels or anything like that, those are just symptoms of the fatal disease that is gross over-population of the planet.
There were about 3 billion people living when I was born only 60 years ago, there are now about 7.5 billions. Apart from taking serious steps to drastically reduce the population, there are no changes in human behaviour or consumption that can make human existence both sustainable and bearable. Culling the herd in a humane way, in time, seems almost impossible – unless mother nature somehow intervenes and does it for us..
@Kieran Magennis: Thanos…?
@Kieran Magennis: Read ‘The Population Bomb’ by Paul Ehrlich from 1968. We’ve all starved to death by now! The great famines of the 80′s finished us off. I remember being quite worried when it was published. I was 15 at the time and had started to develop an interest in the environment. He’s still pushing the same message of we’re doomed by overpopulation and telling people to trust him because he was really right but got his dates mixed up. Quite surprised the overpopulation myth is still believed by some people. Humans and human behaviour are part of mother nature. We’re not separate from it. It’s a human construct anyway. Humans will do what they’ve always done when seeking resources to consume they’ll adapt using whatever technology there is to hand. Give us some credit at least…
@William Tallon: Scavanging for resources is going to be a lot of fun when there’s 15 billion people trying to do it….
@William Tallon: absolute poppycock
Supply and demand
Food Supply will decrease and demand increase to a point where no interventions will work
@sand: this same little clown flys all over the world and for what he has no real powers what’s so ever , the Irish presidents job is a token mascot ffs
@Kieran Magennis: You truly are a believer! I don’t think anyone will convince you otherwise but have a read of this anyway…
@Means of escape: That sounds more like science fiction than science…
@Kieran Magennis: Or read this for a slightly more to the right viewpoint than the Irish Times. But to a believer they must both be wrong…
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/how-big-problem-overpopulation
@William Tallon: It might be helpful to know the maximum Earth population you believe would be sustainable (and lives worth living)…10 billions? 25 billions? 50 billions?
@Kieran Magennis: Why would you find it helpful for me to give you such a figure? It’s quite obvious you know that I don’t have this information nor do I think anybody else has. I can only go by projections made by those who study demographics which I have to assume are scientifically based. It’s a bit of a ‘strawman’ strategy really that you’ve employed and is also clearly designed to make what I’ve previously said seem invalid in some way because I can’t give you a figure. ‘Look, look he can’t answer my question. He must be wrong…’ As I’ve said already you’re a true believer in the we’re doomed narrative. I’m not. I prefer to base my expectations on fact and scientifically based projection. And now if you’ll forgive me I must get back to this delicious Soylent Green casserole…
@sand: but His n Her’s BMW740′s / multiple homes / multiple pensions / liberal use of government jet and a college gap year type tour of South America are probably ok for the little man himself
@Kieran Magennis: don’t worry MD and others have recently supported and promoted a way to cull the population here. Won’t be long till they introduce another method as well.
Michael D Higgins support of the Venezuelan regime was Regressive and Pernicious
@Derek Goulding: whataboutery into a subject totally irrelevant to the point being made is regressive and pernicious
@Rochelle: actually it’s very relevant.
@Rochelle: based on Higgins’s support for Chavez despite causing lots of carbon emissions and attacking trump for not doing enough on carbon emissions one might think that it isn’t carbon emissions that Michael D really cares about.
@TheTrustedChalice: Assassinating the character because you’re afraid to dispute the point or dislike the target of criticism is never relevant.
@Rochelle: dismissing Derek’s valid point as “whataboutery” is a perfect example of you being afraid to dispute his point.
Fine bunch of our gombeen politicians lining up to criticise trump but its a pity none of them can do deals like trump.
@Adrian: Ha ha
Five pensions property speculator phony leftie Higgins spots media opportunity. Bash Trump. He is as much a chancer as Trump. Call out Maduro and his kleptocrat oligarchs in Venuzuela.Tell Cuba to introduce real democracy.
But government jets are ok, yeah Micky?
Cop on you hypocrite.
No fan of Trump but lead by example.
@Matrix1: Take it easy. Wasn’t poor Alice Mary trying to say she would cycle to Strasbourg if she got elected as an MEP. Thankfully the Dublin electorate didn’t fall for it.
Carbon just another way for fGFF to screw paddy
From the man who used the government jet to fly to Belfast v
@Marg FitzGerald: Infairness he did think it could fly on the hot air coming out of his orifices .
Mr private jet
All about laying the foundations for further regressive taxes here using scam save the plant crap. Not as if the former Liebour TD hasn’t form..
How’s the jet going for you Michael.
I wish that President Higgins would just retire. I wish that Higgins would have stuck to his original pledge that he would serve a single term as President of Ireland, instead of engaging in childish, left-wing insults against the head of state of Ireland’s most important friend and ally in the world (the United States). It is inappropriate for Higgins to make such student union-style comments on the eve of the visit, to our country, by the President of the United States.
Higgins never makes similar comments about the government of China, which also does not subscribe to the Paris Agreement. Higgins’ motivations are purely anti-American, and the Irish Government should have reigned Higgins in. The Irish President is only supposed to act upon the advice of the Government. Hence, Higgins’ statement today in the RDS, attacking the democratically-elected leader of the United States, should have been vetted in advance by the government of Leo Varadkar.
Dear Michael D …. you should buy a car maintenance manual and stop changing those Aras cars every … keep them for 12 years as they are more ECO friendly than Electric cars changed every 3 yrs … and give up your ol’ Jet!
The Daft Greens have No Carbon Tax or VAT on Jet Fuel but tax people trying to get to work. They shot our petrol cars which have less carbon emissions if owned for 12 years than electric cars if changed every 3 years and forced us into dirty noxious diesels. Now they want to shoot the cows in the fields!
(5.6 tonnes CO2 to make a petrol car: 8.8 tonnes of CO2 to make an Electric car, mainly mining for and manufacture of the batteries … that’s why keeping a petrol car for 12 yrs is more ECO friendly v new Electric cars changed every 3 yrs! … people will change Electric cars often, because of “Battery Fade Fear”)
Is MD UPSET HE IS NOT FLYING TO DUNBEG
Well when Ireland as a country with 4Million people goes green, the countries with a combined population of 5Billion, China, India,Indonesia, Russia & the United States are all bound to follow.
2050 is decades too late – In India this week over 200 million are trying to survive in temperatures over 50Ccelsius https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/india-weather-temperature-passes-50c-celsius-in-northern-india/news-story/0985e58e9ded4524fe586312b5154aef#.z30un
The oceans are suffocating too, being depleted of oxygen and dead zones with zero oxygen and zero life now size of EU and growing https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved
@GO GREEN: And the Paris Accord gives India more or less a free pass for the foreseeable future. It’s too late to be letting heavily polluting countries like China and India to continue polluting on the same scale as they are now. It needs to be renegotiated, but that will never happen.
@GO GREEN: Its too late . Have a good time and go out with a bang .
Reality = the same fookers will be whinging the End of the World is Nigh again and again over the next 10 then 20 then 30 years .
@Shane Dignam: There are plenty solutions but these are being blocked – turn Sahara Desert into a solar farm could power Europe 7 times over
@Shane Dignam: The US is up there as one of the top three and per capita is by far the worst offender. In fact Ireland’s emissions are almost 6x that of India…
@Shane Dignam: so maybe some leaders should be bold enough to pull out of the agreement so we can all take a hard look at what needs to be done… if only someone were to get the ball rolling …
@Mushy Peas: Indeed. I’m with you on that. But our western leaders would rather bend over for China. As if they haven’t been given enough advantages already by our globalist friends/fiends. Democracies sucking up to communists to please their corporate buddies with large profits based on cheap labour. And say nothing about locking up 1 million Muslims in China, might hurt the progressives feelings.
@GO GREEN: And the Earth is flat
Good on you Michael D.
Mickey Mouse
Irelands track record on climate change is one of the worst in would. We like to talk a out good intentions but no action.
But the house of representatives passed a climate bill the first in decades that will force Trump to put the states back in the paris agreement
For some reason higgins reminds me of the older guy in the childrens programme wnaderly wagon
Bit pointless using words Trump doesn’t know the meaning of
says the man who flew to Belfast from Dublin on the government jet.Hypocrite.
MD respect everyone,s office regardless.
Hope your only heating the rooms you need in that house in the park your rattling around in micky d. It would make a great spot for a bit of co-living.
How carbonophobic of him. Gases have feeling too you know.
have your say