Corinne Robins

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STEPHEN OBYRNES

OPINION:A kind of victimhood or entitlement culture has gone unchallenged by too many media outlets

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by RT director general Noel Curran that he has instituted a full editorial review of some programme-making practices is welcome. It would appear from media reports that the focus of the review will be the production of live, audience-based programmes and how such audiences are assembled and prepped for their Andy Warhol-prescribed 15 minutes of fame.

However, this review should also be the opportunity to take a more comprehensive look at other aspects of the stations news-gathering and broadcasting policies. Certainly Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has posed a timely question about the texting and tweeting tyranny that seems to be overtaking more and more radio broadcast output (and not just from RT). Offering engagement and accessibility to Sen and Mary Citizen is all well and good (do keep your texts and tweets rolling in), but too often this is becoming a platform for political soreheads of every hue.

And surely there should be a requirement to establish the provenance of this babel of contributors, information that is more authoritative than Joe from Ballinasloe or Mary from Finglas. The benchmark should be fewer, authenticated contributors who make better comments than the mad as hell variety.

This should also extend beyond the texters and tweeters when it comes to news-gathering and public affairs commentary. Over the past year or so, one stand-out feature of the reporting of the so-called wave of protest sweeping the land, whether to do with water tax, septic tanks or bin charges, is the uncontested platform offered to these same protesters by many radio and TV programmers.

So why are you here protesting outside the gates of Leinster House? has become the standard opening salvo. This is followed by a fulminating tirade about the oppression of rural dwellers, the entitlement of people to various services, the unfairness of double-taxation (whatever that is), and the need to get the rich to pay their fair share of taxation. Forget about the inherent contradictions and faultlines. And now its back to the studio.

The septic-tank protest movement is the classic of the species. Spurious claims of rural dwellers being oppressed and put-upon, as opposed to their city-slicker cousins, predominate, while the vital importance of ensuring ground water supplies are not contaminated by leaking tanks is glossed over. Most rural householders see the maintenance of their septic tank in the same bracket as dealing with a leaky roof, repairing the washing machine, and servicing the family car, and accept they are liable for the consequential cost. They dont go looking for a State handout, end of story. As someone born and reared in rural Ireland, I know this to be the case.

Yet, much of the media has allowed a kind of victimhood/entitlement culture to be peddled by the septic tank protesters. They need to be taken on. Do they accept that if their septic tank is leaking, it could be a public health hazard? Do they accept that checking whether the tank is okay is a prudent thing to do? Do they accept they are responsible for the proper maintenance of the tank?

If they protest that city and town-dwellers enjoy mains sewerage services, then what about the higher cost of delivering virtually all public services to rural dwellers post, telephone, public transport, etc?

Water tax objectors and opponents of refuse charges need to be challenged similarly. We need to put a price on clean water. It is extremely expensive to produce, and allowing people unlimited, free consumption is pure madness. It is a further truism that our overall taxation system is seriously lopsided, and we need a progressive property tax to help achieve a more balanced, sustainable tax system.

Besides the matter of how protest groups are engaged by the media, another factor is worthy of consideration. Over the past year and more I have been struck by the number of people who declare they have given up listening to such-and-such a current affairs programme. Too much moaning, people constantly giving out, putting me in a bad mood, hearing the same old voices banging on and on. There are lots of people who dont want to be fed a constant diet of negativity.

This is not a plea for a fantasy Alice-in-Wonderland approach to news and current affairs. Our systemic economic crisis is awful and the pain and suffering of many people is real and palpable. But most people want to do their best, no matter how daunting the odds. They want to believe things can be better, and they would like the media to give them some reason to believe it.

In his brilliant biography of the late Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson relates a showdown the Apple founder had with Rupert Murdoch over Fox News. Jobs regarded the stations output as destructive and harmful to America. Youre blowing it with Fox News. The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you have cast your lot in with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society, he said.

It would be interesting to apply this paradigm shift to Ireland. Against a backdrop of the International Monetary Fund-EU bailout, with Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fil sharing the same broad policy agenda, and our left-wing politicians also scrabbling for the centre ground, would this offer a more meaningful approach than left- and right-wing analysis?

Using this concept of the constructive-destructive axis could be a much more meaningful way of analysing our politics and public polity generally, including news and current affairs programme-making. Then we might get to see who is being constructive, and who are quoting Jobs again the puller-downers.

Stephen OByrnes is a communications consultant with MKC Communications

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COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Urges Ohio Congressional Delegation to Consider 3 Year Phase-in of New Federal Regulation to Protect Ohio Seniors’ Care, Preserve Ohio Caregiver Jobs

Reacting to new news reports today from Gannett News Service that 2800 jobs have been lost in 333 nursing homes throughout Ohio due to a growing Medicaid and Medicare funding squeeze, a key national long term and post acute care advocacy group said additional job losses and a growing threat to seniors’ care can be significantly alleviated if a damaging 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction that went into effect on October 1, 2011 is, instead, phased-in over a three year period. The reporting is based on a survey of facilities by the Ohio Health Care Association (OHCA) and the Academy of Senior Health Sciences.

The new federal regulation reduced Ohio Medicare funding by $275.1 million for FY 2012, according to a recent Avalere Health analysis – the sixth highest reduction on a national basis.

“Combined with state Medicaid funding reductions in Columbus, recent reductions from Washington in federal Medicare payments for nursing homes took too much out of the funding system too fast,” stated Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, a coalition of 12 leading post-acute and long term care organizations providing SNF care in approximately 1,400 facilities in 44 states nationwide, including Ohio. “States such as Ohio and Florida – where state Medicaid funding for nursing homes has already been reduced – are clearly experiencing significant facility instability to the detriment of patient care and local jobs. We are especially alarmed by the fact approximately 80 percent of the dismissed workers provided direct care to residents’ according to the news reports.”

Continued Rosenbloom: “A gradual phase-in of the federal regulation – which has been done in the past for other provider sectors – can help alleviate what clearly appears to be a worsening problem. We respectfully urge the Ohio congressional delegation to pursue this phase-in of the 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction, and would be pleased to work with lawmakers to help achieve this logical, fair and responsible policy recourse before Congress adjourns for the year.”

A separate large-scale Avalere Health national survey of facilities finds the federal regulation — to ostensibly correct a Medicare payment error — actually went above and beyond the correction. The result of the 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction was new Medicare cuts at a time patients, staff and facilities in Ohio and others states are already battling a wide array of federal and state funding pressures, and this is the rationale for a phase-in.

SOURCE Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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(RTTNews) – Thousands took to the streets in Moscow on Monday to protest against the conduct of the parliamentary elections, which international observers found flawed in favor of the ruling United Russia party.

Chanting slogans against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party, the protesters staged a demonstration in central Moscow, leading to clashes with riot police. Reports say at least 300 people were arrested in the Russian capital city alone.

Similar demonstration protesting the disputed poll was also staged in St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city. Media reports quoting officials and protesters said at least 100 people were detained there.

Earlier on Monday, international observers had concluded that Russian voters had taken advantage of their right to express their choice despite the lack of a level playing field during Sunday’s elections to the State Duma (Lower House of Parliament).

In a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions issued on Monday, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said preparations for the elections were technically well-administered across a vast territory, but were marked by a convergence of the State and the governing party which effectively limited political competition and a lack of fairness.

“The contest was also slanted in favor of the ruling party, the election administration lacked independence, most media were partial and State authorities interfered unduly at different levels,” according to Petros Efthymiou, the head of the observer mission.

Earlier, all of Russia’s major political parties, barring the ruling United Russia, had complained of serious violations of electoral laws during the polling process. Also, Golos, Russia’s only monitoring group funded mainly by the U.S. and the EU, confirmed that it has received nearly 5,300 complaints alleging violations of electoral laws.

Despite President Dmitry Medvedev claiming that the elections were fair and democratic, the United States has expressed “serious concerns” over conduct of the polls. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in the German city of Bonn on Monday that Russian voters “deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and ma­nipu­la­tion.”

According to the results announced by Electoral Commission chief Vladimir Churov after the ballot counting was almost completed, United Russia appeared to be heading for a slim majority in the Duma.

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The RCMP and Sureté du Québec have launched separate investigations into allegations of influence peddling at the Port of Montreal, according to media reports.

The allegations made a splash during last spring’s federal election campaign after telephone recordings of an alleged backroom conversation about the choice of a new port president showed up on YouTube.

The conversation was alleged to have taken place in 2007 between businessmen Tony Accurso and Bernard Poulin.

The RCMP is probing allegations that the businessmen used contacts all the way up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office to try to place Robert Abdallah, a former director of the city of Montreal, in the key job, Radio-Canada and the Globe and Mail reported.

The Sureté du Québec is investigating allegations that phone calls were intercepted illegally, the reports said. According to anonymous sources, Accurso, Poulin and Conservative Senator Leo Housakos filed police complaints alleging that recordings of their conversations were uploaded on the Internet.

In the taped conversation, two men identified as Accurso, a controversial construction magnate, and Poulin, president of the engineering firm S.M. Group International, appear to discuss how to use Housakos and Dimitri Soudas, Harper’s then spokesperson, to influence the selection committee to choose Abdallah as the port’s new CEO.

The two men referred to Soudas as the Tory “boss of Quebec” and appeared to discuss giving him a “reward” if he got Abdallah appointed.

Soudas has denied ever speaking to Poulin or Accurso and said he never received any compensation for promoting Abdallah.

Soudas is a former chief media official at Montreal city hall and Housakos was once an adviser to Mayor Gérald Tremblay.

Harper has admitted he wanted Abdallah in the job, but denied using undue influence.

Federal opposition politicians have claimed Soudas lied to a parliamentary committee meeting in 2008 when he denied trying to influence board members on the selction process.

Abadallah, an engineer, never got the job. He left city hall and went to work for one of Accurso’s companies.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette   

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By Matt Swartz

While Arizona State is thought to be no longer pursuing sought-after Houston
coach Kevin Sumlin, it appears that another Conference USA coach in Texas has
moved to the top of the Sun Devils’ list.

Multiple media reports Sunday indicated that the new favorite is SMU’s June
Jones, who met with ASU officials on Saturday. KTAR’s Paul Calvisi reported
that Jones is the “definite front-runner,” while CBSSports.com’s Bruce Feldman
tweeted that Jones has “emerged as a leader” for the job that has been vacant
since Dennis Erickson was fired last Monday.

ASU officials reportedly were set to fly to Houston over the weekend,
presumably with the intent of visiting Sumlin and/or Southern Mississippi coach
Larry Fedora since the two were facing each other in the C-USA title game on Saturday
afternoon. But several media outlets indicated that a contingent that included
school president Michael Crow met Saturday with Jones. It’s unclear if there
was any contact with Fedora.

Jones, 58, just completed his fourth season at SMU — where he is making
approximately $2 million annually — after spending the previous nine years at
Hawaii. He has a career record of 99-69 and is known for an extremely
pass-heavy offense that was originally developed during his time in the NFL. He
was an offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and then a head coach for the
Falcons and San Diego Chargers.

At Hawaii, which was his first college head coaching job, Jones took over a
team that had lost 18 consecutive games. He went 9-4 in his first year, had
just two losing seasons and took the program to six bowl games, including the
2007 Sugar Bowl in his final year. He left with a 76-41 record overall.

At SMU, Jones has a record of 23-28. He went 1-11 in his first year — the same
record SMU had the previous season — and since then has led a program that
hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1984 (prior to getting hit with the NCAA death
penalty) to records of 8-5, 7-7 and 7-5.

Following Erickson’s firing last week, reports indicated that ASU was willing
to pay upwards of $2.5 million a year for his replacement, and that might be
required for Jones given his current salary, which is the highest in C-USA.

Arizona State’s shift toward Jones as the front-runner followed a sudden
de-emphasis on Sumlin. The Houston coach originally was the leading candidate
and was said to be “almost a done deal” on Thursday, prior to Texas AM’s
firing of coach Mike Sherman. Sumlin, a former assistant at AM, is now
believed to be the front-runner for that job.

UCLA was also pursuing Sumlin but, according to ESPN Los
Angeles, ended that pursuit Sunday.

While Calvisi reported that a Jones deal was close and that he could be
introduced as coach as early as Sunday night, that seems unlikely barring a
very quick decision from ASU and an even quicker negotiation process.

Scout affiliate DevilsDigest.com also reported Sunday that,
according to school sources, Fedora, Sumlin and Baylor coach Art Briles will
“garner a closer look” before any final decision is made on Jones.

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Virgin Media has confirmed to eWEEK Europe that media reports of it imminently rolling out mini mobile base stations, are not accurate.

At the weekend, a number of national publications such as the Guardian reported that Virgin Media has plans underway to offer its customers their own personalised mini mobile phone base station (effectively a femtocell), which would mean that Virgin Media has to acquire 4G spectrum in the upcoming Ofcom spectrum auction.

It was taking this action, according to media reports, because of the data strain on mobile networks caused by the increasing use of mobile data by smartphones and even computers via 3G dongles.

Not Accurate

However Virgin Media confirmed to eWEEK Europe, that the reports of an imment femtocell rollout were not accurate and the reports were acting on ‘Chinese whispers.’

It insisted that in actual fact, a Virgin Media executive had been just theorising about the future opportunities and challenges in managing mobile data.

eWEEK Europe understands that there is recognition within Virgin Media that mobile data is growing exponentially (both in volume and device terms) and there is no sign of slowdown. The company also recognises the UK is on the tipping point of 4G, thanks to the upcoming spectrum auction and the rise of LTE.

Virgin Media had apparently mentioned one idea of having LTE compatible femtocells, which could theoretically offload mobile traffic onto its fibre-based core network for delivery. It theorised that mobile data is no longer only the domain for mobile operators, but that network operators such as Virgin Media could be in a great position to exploit emergent technologies to provide a greater range of services for customers.

Virgin Statement

“People are increasingly connecting more devices wirelessly to the internet so it is important this doesn’t become a capacity bottleneck in future,” a Virgin Media spokesman told eWEEK Europe in an emailed statement.

“In order to maximise the value of what is limited spectrum, short range low powered frequencies could be used to ensure localised areas of high demand are satisfied,” the spokesman added. “These frequencies could be shared by companies beyond just the mobile network operators so that consumers will benefit most from greater innovation and a better quality wireless internet experience.”

Virgin Media insisted that while there was space in the market for a operator such as this, with the ability to offload mobile data onto a fixed-line back haul, it is not at this point yet.

However, eWEEK Europe understands that Virgin Media is looking at a number of options and what role it could take in this.

Virgin Media does offer a mobile service, operating as a virtual network operator or VNO (ie Virgin Media rents mobile network capacity from another operator for its Virgin Media mobile service).

Virgin Media is known to currently rent mobile network capacity from T-Mobile and Orange.

Femtocell Uptake

At the moment Vodafone is leading the way in the UK with femtocells.

Its femtocell was launched back in June 2009, but in January 2010 Vodafone renamed the femtocell as Sure Signal, and also cut the price of the device dramatically to just £50, from £160.

And it seems that more and more femtocells are being deployed nowadays as well, after Informa Telecoms amp; Media reported in early 2010 that tier-one operator commitment to femtocells had increased.

However Vodafone’s femtocell did suffer a slight security scare this summer, when a researcher claimed that calls made using Sure Signal could be hacked and recorded.

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Herman Cain told supporters that he would not be endorsing another GOP candidate Monday, despite media reports that the former candidate would throw his weight behind newly minted Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich.

I am not endorsing anybody today or in the very immediate future, Cain said, according to NBC News. I cant say I wont endorse, but not in the immediate timeframe.

Cain announced Saturday that he would be suspending his campaign after
allegations of sexual harassment and an extramarital affair had badly
damaged his campaign. He maintained that the charges were untrue while
speaking with reporters, and reiterated that the process had caused his
family substantial pain.

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Multiple media reports are saying that LSU and Alabama will meet in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in New Orleans.

Jerry Palm of cbssports.com is quoting sources as saying the Crimson Tide has edged out Oklahoma State for a spot in the game opposite LSU. The BCS national title game will be Jan. 9 in New Orleans.

ESPN will broadcast the official selection today at 8 pm

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TAIPEI: Hong Kong singer Eason Chan denied recent media reports that claim his marriage to former-actress Hilary Tsui is on the rocks, during a media event on Monday, said Taiwan media.

Chan had recently appeared on a Taiwan talk show and said that he no longer speaks much to his wife but communicate with one another mostly by texting.

This soon gave rise to reports that his marriage was in trouble, with some tabloids even claiming that Chan and Tsui would soon divorce.

However, Chan described these reports as completely untrue before going on to stress that there is nothing wrong with his marriage.

We are really fine, our marriage has been very happy and smooth, said the singer.

He went on to reveal that he even secretly flew to France in March to be with Tsui, who was there for work, to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary together.

Chan also declared that he would be taking a break during Christmas next year to spend more time with his wife and daughter.

Now that I have told the media, my manager cant say anything about that, said Chan with a wry smile.

Act first, report it later.

-CNA/ha

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The news about the Penn State scandal in all media reports has
really been discouraging. Ours was the first class (1955) to
graduate from Penn State University. I was always proud of
everything affiliated with the school, including professors and the
athletic department personnel. My wife, Dolores, shares all of my
feelings.

We have established two scholarships and have had season tickets
for football home games since 1960. Our greatest admiration has
been for Joe Paterno.

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