It shouldn’t all be about you know who
RTE Radio One’s Today With Sean O’Rourke did a remarkable thing on Monday. Then it did it again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday too. Strictly speaking, it was something that the show didn’t do which was noteworthy, and that was to not talk about Donald Trump.
With the rest of the media obsessing over the new tell-all book on life inside the current White House, Sean O’Rourke opted instead to talk about the Disclosures Tribunal, and the property tax, and the beds crisis in hospitals, and the gender pay gap — all actual stories, rather than some tittletattle about Trump eating cheeseburgers in bed, or his daughter making fun of his hair. This relentless fixation on how dysfunctionally awful the US president is, far from undermining him, repeats the mistake made by the media in the run up to the 2016 election, when it gave Trump an unprecedented platform by making him the centre of every story.
Even RTE’s arts show Arena got in on the act by asking: “Could Oprah Winfrey be a presidential candidate" Ostensibly the item was a profile of the tv presenter in light of her empowering Golden Globes speech but really it was just another aspect of the journalistic “idee fixe” with Trump. O’Rourke should be commended for resisting it, however temporarily.
US pundit Cal Thomas, a regular on Today FM’s Last Word, saw the emergence out of nowhere of the “Oprah for President” movement as a sign of how American politics is now dominated by celebrity.
Trump’s critics, he said, are waiting for “some kind of messianic saviour to come in and fix everything… I think that’s the wrong approach to politics, I think it demeans the profession”. Fellow regular Marion McKeone wasn’t sold on the idea of an Oprah candidacy either; she just didn’t think Winfrey could be any worse.
Thomas was more positive about the current incumbent, pointing out that growth, investment and business confidence are all up in America under Trump, with black unemployment at its lowest level ever. “I don’t like the personality,” he said, “but I like the results.”
US talk show host Michael Graham greed as he teamed up again with George ook for the first edition of the Newstalk ntsenter's new Saturday Sit-In show. "Who had better results in 2017?" he ked. "Trump the dummy, or the super :eniuses of Europe?" It's an uncomfortable uestion, but one that needs to be asked if Frump's critics are ever going to get over heir hissy fit that he won and start figuring ut a serious strategy to beat him Hook's show was an odd concoction. He egan with an almost overly-compensatory auntiness, and the items, mainly centred n health and travel, seemed a little mdemanding at first. In the second hour, le got more into his stride with meatier olitical subjects. Then he was back to 'As old self, but why was he not talking lirectly to Michael Graham, as of old? nstead Graham simply delivered a monologue. George Hook is all about he interaction, the battle. That's what isteners want to hear, and what Newstalk has been missing LISTEN BACK Visit the RTE Player at rte.ie/player and newstalk.com/listenback