FF lashes out at RTE over news report on Cowen painting prank

[Quiet Man]

as a fg member, i feel that it was totally wrong of rte to do what they did. the man has two young daughters, who have to go to school everyday etc.
bad form in my opinion!

Agree it is bad form, most people in the public eye take satire and abuse as it comes. But I think you hit the nail on the head here, this man has two very young daughters who have been extremely upset this time. They have dealt with things fairly well upto now but I think this is just a bit too much.

The Taoiseach has a fairly decent sense of humour and I cant see the images bothering him so much. But I think when the images are gratuitously scathing to the point where family are affected I think we should think more about the effect on them.

And I know people are going to throw the state of the country , cervical screening and more back in response to this, but my point is that we all have a level of decency with regards to family that we are brought up with and maybe we should think a bit more about that

[Victor Meldrew]

So, they're using the Gardaí as their goons ??!!??

I keep getting flashbacks to the tapping of Geraldine Kennedy's phone....

Gardai should be ashamed and I hope Today FM go to town on FF now. I'd love to know who requested the visit... if Biffo knew he should resign if he really is a republican.

Disgusting.......

[cHeal]

Agree it is bad form, most people in the public eye take satire and abuse as it comes. But I think you hit the nail on the head here, this man has two very young daughters who have been extremely upset this time. They have dealt with things fairly well upto now but I think this is just a bit too much.

Well then he should resign to save his daughters the embarrassment of being the offspring of one of the most hated men in Ireland right now. There is no responsibility for the media to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of politicians family!

[slx]

Don't the gardai need a compliant before investigating something ?
Thats the reason give when they don't go after a case reported in newspapers.
So who complained ? The gallery director ? This should be on record someplace.

The Ray darcy thing is really terrible if true.

The reputational damage to the country if the story is run that our govt has guards investigating pranks & radio stations will be as bad/worse as the bank scandel !

Hi digout - we were really thinking the same thing there

Whatever about Fianna Fail, we know what they're like. This is nothing new, but how the hell are the Greens standing by while this kind of nonsense is going on. It's far more disgusting than the sight of Cowen in the nip.

As for Mammy O'Rourke, at least she has a bit of a sense of humor.

[Digout]

I think we need to look at the copper part of this story. Let the FFers moan and complain all they want, we all know they are fools. Some sargent had to sanction the trip to Today FM, I want to know where the order came from, how high up in the Guards did the order come from?

[adamirer]

A researcher on the show has been in phone and email contact with the artist since the middle of January when he sent an image of one of his paintings. Earlier this week, the artist confirmed to the show that the paintings were his but he denied hanging them in the galleries himself.


... perfect.

[The Dude]

picturegate is now the most talked about subject on twitter.

Well done Fianna Fail.

[oscartango]

There are 2 issues here.

The first is RTE's news coverage and that has been dealt with following the station's public apology. That ought to have been the end of the affair.

However, the second issue is now the use of the gardai to threaten TodayFM and go after the artist concerned.

FF will do themselves a lot of damage with this - which is nice.

[slx]

picturegate is now the most talked about subject on twitter.

Well done Fianna Fail.

It's really time for a general election, even if the other lot are clueless, ANYONE would be better than this lot!

[Digout]

Where did the Garda order come from? We need the commissioner to make a statement on this.