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About LinkBacksThe Indo says that FG held a crises meeting during the 2nd week of the election on how to address media queries on 'rumours' about Enda Kenny. The Indo does not elaborate upon what the 'rumours' were.
The Indo says that FG held a crises meeting during the 2nd week of the election on how to address media queries on 'rumours' about Enda Kenny. The Indo does not elaborate upon what the 'rumours' were.
From the Irish Independent, 06/08/2007:
Top strategists held a conference on how to confront the spate of untrue stories.
They began in the second week of the campaign.
Several newspapers, hearing of the allegations, sought comment from the party.
All were provided with emphatic denials and none of them printed the false stories.
Fine Gael held an internal consultation on how to respond to a problem that threatened to erode party support, it was learned last week.
Party managers concluded that a formal public denial of the allegations would not end them, but only boost them through "the oxygen of publicity".
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There were allegations flying around on this site that Mr Kenny would be arrested the week before the GE. The poster who made those claims had very interesting links.
On unrelated topic: Where did Dick Roche go to? and why?
I thought they were to do with a plannned change of hairstyle !
Well let's face it that haircut....ah never mind.
Rumours? I hear Enda Kenny is planning to steal Christmas. You heard it here first.
No story guys. I was in the press team at the time. If there were media rumours they would have come through me and my colleagues. I spoke daily to various journalists from the national and regional media, both broadcast and print.
There were no rumours. Nor were there secret meetings. I was in the office until sometimes at late as 11pm. The people who supposedly held this secret meeting were in the next office with the door open. I was in and out all the time. There were no crisis meetings whatsoever.
Everyone knows that during elections rumours fly. The tactic for how to deal with them was decided on day 1 of the campaign. It did not vary. It sounds like a typical silly season story from the O'Reilly stable. They love stories of crisis meetings. Journalists love stories of plots and secret meetings. Unfortunately, as people in all parties know, most of these media reports are bunkum and this is yet another one.
Methinks thou dost protest too much
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen” - Albert Einstein
Did Frankie Flannery know what crap you were posting as 'The Analyser'?Originally Posted by Insider2007
"Be advised, my passport's green / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast the Queen." Seamus Heaney 1982
"I'm a bit of a green myself" Charles Haughey 1989
As David has confirmed repeatedly I am not, and was not, the Analyser.Did Frankie Flannery know what crap you were posting as 'The Analyser'?
Nope, Baldur. Just as Dunny knows the media operations in FF, I know the media operation in FG. I remember on one occasion a tabloid reporting how on a particular Tuesday night an emergency meeting was held involving Richard, Enda, the Dir of Communications and a set of named individuals. Enda was actually down the country. Richard was in RTÉ and the others were all off having a few pints in a city centre pub. The reason I know they were in that pub was because I was there.Methinks thou dost protest too much
On the third Saturday of the campaign I heard from a journalist of major crisis meetings in all three main parties: FF, FG and Labour, all held at around 9pm the previous night. I nearly wet myself laughing. I had to explain to an incredulous tabloid journalist that at 9pm on that Friday the Labour press team were in Doheny and Nesbitts. The reason I knew what that I had passed them en route to O'Donoghue's to meet the Fine Gael press team. It was a gloriously sunny night and the guys from Labour were standing outside chatting away, not holding crises meetings in their HQ nearby. And when I entered O'Donoghue's I spotted three of the FF press team - I teased one about a mistake there had been in a press release they had issued in Conor Lenihan's name about ODA. So how exactly could there be crisis meetings when the communications bosses for all the teams were at the time of the meeting in pubs on Baggot Street, and each saw the other and shouted jokes across?
As Dunny can confirm from the FF perspective in the campaign, and others on this site can confirm from other press teams, we all heard rumours of secret meetings and all knew they were fantasy.
One running joke I had with a FF press officer concerned computer keyboards in government buildings. When Bill Clinton's guys left the White House they famously removed the W from keyboards so people the Bush people couldn't type Bush's middle initial. The FFer was joking that if FF lost the election he'd remove the letters E and N so I couldn't type ENda KENNy if I got his office!
BTW one FFer and one FGer got off together during the campaign! Takes 'sleeping on the job' to a new level I suppose.
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