Posted on 07/29/2005 11:51:17 AM PDT by Stoat
| How CNN brought the message to States By Sean O'Driscoll 29 July 2005 When the CNN anchorwoman announced that they were now going "live to Northern Ireland, specifically Dublin" you knew it wasn't going to go well. Having rearranged the geography of Ireland, CNN was ready to bring Sinn Fein to America. Hours after the IRA had released their statement to the world's media, CNN announced to America that "according to sources" the IRA had made a major breakthrough and were ready to give up their weapons. Bringing you the world for 25 years, this is CNN. And so it was on to Gerry Adams in Dublin, Northern Ireland. With 'Spin' Fein's typical eye for the appealing media opportunity, Gerry was introduced not by Mitchel McLaughlin or Pat Doherty or some other old fogey, but by Mary Lou McDonald, who was a little toddler in middle class Dublin during the worst horrors of the Troubles. And so, after Mary Lou told the media to switch off their mobile phones, America's eyes were trained on Gerry Adams. The CNN zoomed in, cutting Catriona Ruane out of the picture and keeping focused on Gerry with Mary Lou and Gerry Kelly, Sinn Fein's pretty girl and boy, located conveniently to either side. "Well ar thus, ba mhaith liom failte a chur riomh . ." began Gerry and CNN's control room began to panic. This was dead TV. They hung on for a while, just to make sure that Gerry wasn't speaking English in a thick accent, then they cut back in a hurry to the anchorwoman. "You are listening to Gerry Adams speaking Gaelic, of course, as he makes that formal announcement," said the anchorwoman, looking flustered. "In a moment he will be speaking English," she said, while CNN rushed to find a documentary about the Northern Ireland Troubles. In the background, Gerry's voice continued about "daoine bocht a fuair bas" (poor people who died) He never speaks the Irish of Connemara or Donegal, or course. He speaks politician Irish ? you'll never hear a direct translation phrase like ""process suiochain" (peace process) in a Gaeltacht bar. Meanwhile in Washington, Gaelic was also causing confusion. At a predictable press conference, an American journalist told Martin McGuinness that he always wanted to know what Sinn Fein stood for. Martin said that many people had wondered what Sinn Fein stood for, but today, it stood for peace. Back on CNN, they were skimming for time, while Gerry's Irish continued. "Alright, well in a moment when he does begin to speak English, making that historic announcement there, Gerry Adams with Sinn Fein, we'll be bringing that to you," said CNN anchorwoman said, before she went to some file footage of the early days of the Troubles and Bloody Sunday. We had about 30 seconds of that documentary footage when it was cut off mid-sentence and we were back in the studio. "Alright, we're going to try to get back to Matthew's report in the moment because Gerry Adams is now speaking English. We want to bring that to you right now," she said. Gerry was indeed now speaking English. That special type of English reserved for Sinn Fein press conferences: "lasting peace and justice", "in the island of Ireland", "new dispensation", "unparalleled challenge and opportunity" - they were all there. With Northern Ireland now overtaking Iraq and London as the main story, the next show Your World Today, announced that they had reporters on "many fronts" covering this story. "We want to go first to Belfast" they said, and went straight to a reporter standing on Downing Street. When reports show American kids suffering declining geography skills, can anyone be that surprised? At least there was a report on the victims of the Troubles. One man who lost relatives in the Claudy bomb spoke more eloquently than CNN and Sinn Fein combined. "Their war is over," he said simply. "Our pain goes on." |
ROTFLMAO!!!
Wow!! No wonder they can't keep the foam on the fuel tanks.
Maybe the line of the day !
Warp 18 Scotty??
Make it so
Typical SF/IRA PR - it's a wonder they didn't mention 'Hungry Bob'!!
Why would anybody, let alone a Freeper, watch CNN?
No, Cap'n, the engines can'na take it. (But give me five minutes and it'll be just fine.)
Adams (and the rest of Sinn Fein) are good at the staying on message: everything they say is scripted and they rarely give a straight, honest answer to a tough question. Some people in the US gave out stink about Carole Coleman's interview with GW Bush a couple of years ago, but at least, using that confrontational interview style, some of the RTE journos do try to get a bit of honest information out of Sinn Fein instead of letting them drone on and on with their pre-prepared answers.
Give Ireland back to Ireland!!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
