Between TV3's Paul Williams Hatchet job, and the spin doctors we heard on Pat Kenny's show, one would be forgiven for thinking that the Shell to Sea campaign was made up of a mixture of Nazis, Stalinists, and luddites who parachuted into the area.
We've seen the interviewers let biased spin doctors set the frame for the argument with unfounded and unchecked claims.
What they all want to dance around is the fact that in a little known deal, the government of the day simply signed away all claims to the Corrib Gas field.
Previously, the State automatically got 50% of any oil or gas found in our territorial waters.
They then lowered the tax rate and gave generous tax breaks.
Added to that, the group extracting the gas are under no obligation to supply any of it to Bord Gais. They can export all of it to the highest bidder if they like.
These points were not raised in Paul Williams' programme. In fact the Pro-Shell talking heads suggested the exact opposite to be true - that this arrangement gave us a secure cheap source of gas.
Despite the amount of freely available photos and videos of Garda brutality against the locals, Mr. Williams, dismissed claims of Garda brutality, by referring to the Garda's own internal investigations which cleared their colleagues of any wrongdoing.
But would we expect any better from a 'crime reporter' who made a career of being spoon fed from the Garda Press Office?
We've seen the interviewers let biased spin doctors set the frame for the argument with unfounded and unchecked claims.
What they all want to dance around is the fact that in a little known deal, the government of the day simply signed away all claims to the Corrib Gas field.
Previously, the State automatically got 50% of any oil or gas found in our territorial waters.
They then lowered the tax rate and gave generous tax breaks.
Added to that, the group extracting the gas are under no obligation to supply any of it to Bord Gais. They can export all of it to the highest bidder if they like.
These points were not raised in Paul Williams' programme. In fact the Pro-Shell talking heads suggested the exact opposite to be true - that this arrangement gave us a secure cheap source of gas.
Despite the amount of freely available photos and videos of Garda brutality against the locals, Mr. Williams, dismissed claims of Garda brutality, by referring to the Garda's own internal investigations which cleared their colleagues of any wrongdoing.
But would we expect any better from a 'crime reporter' who made a career of being spoon fed from the Garda Press Office?
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