Posted on 06/25/2004 6:49:45 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat

President Bush is interviewed by Carole Coleman of RTE.
If you see this interview, you'll likely notice a hostility and rudeness toward the President. He apparently was interrupted a number of times. Reporters or interviewers who want answers, especially from heads of state, do not interrupt. Reporters who are smug, self-important and without class generally do interrupt.
The Embassy of Ireland is not to blame for this person's rudeness...I merely used the embassy as the resource to find her attention. Irish FREEPers (or anyone else), if you're offended by this attitude, feel free to contact Ms. Coleman. Here is the information. She is a correspondent in Washington (apparently following the President back to Ireland) for RTE.
Carole Coleman
2000 M Street NW
Suite 315
Washington DC 20036
Tel: (202) 467-5933
Fax: (202) 467-5937
C-Span ran it eariler, don't know if/when they will again. She was so rude and you could just feel her hatred of the President. Practically calling him stupid in that every one in the world knew Bush made a mistake, why couldn't he see it????
I spend a good deal of time in Limerick on company business. I have not run into anyone who is openly critical of the war in Iraq. Most honestly appreciate that Saddam is gone and that they did not have to do it themselves.
A ping for my favorite Irish lady.
Very thoughtful of you to post this information.
Considering RTE plays in many Irish neighborhood bars in NYC, we can start there.
The little bitch didn't realize the ethnic group with the greatest loss of life were the Irish. Fireman, cops, insurance brokers and traders.
Meant "on 9|11" regarding lose of life.
For those who can't wait to contact her, a more direct number is 202-288-6138.
"Osama bin Laden. You can kiss my royal Irish *ss."
BTTT
Eh, she's sounds like the crapload of liberal rude reporterettes we have here in the states.
The Irish I know support the President, but then all the good Irish I know became Americans.
The Helen Thomas of Ireland?
I just watched this entire interview. The President's answers were thoughtful, precise, and honest. He is a better public speaker than he was 4 years ago, and I look forward to the debates.
Unlike Gore, he has improved with time.
BTW, I was working with another RTE corr. today, and we spoke about Ms. Coleman.
Suffice it to say, that the colleague (relying on my help today, incidentally), was of the same opinion as me, re:Carol Coleman.
When I said to my RTE friend: 'I must be the only journalist in the country who likes President Bush, and is prepared to give him a fair go'
She said: 'You like him? Why?'
I said: 'He says what he means, and he means what he says. We're too indoctrinated in this country with wishy-washy bullshit, political innuendo. We criticise someone who doesn't give us the perfect Oxford dictionary soundbite, but can tolerate double standards in political life. Yeah! I like him!'
She said: 'Ok, but what about Carol?'
I said: 'Don't like her. I thought Mark Little (previous RTE Washington corr) was commie-biased, but Carol Coleman wears her hatred of America on her face'
She said: 'I have to agree with you. I don't think she likes the job'
I said: 'No shit, Sherlock'
(and from there, I went on to help her out in getting her news broadcast ready for 6 pm., because, I felt sorry for her. ....which indicates, that RTE need to employ women who know how to do the job! eh? *S*)
Let us know if you need references.
Hopefully George will teach Bertie how to talk, as well as run a country, as for that c*** Carole Coleman, perhaps the Yanks could lend us Ann Coulter (she could find out whether she's related to singer Phil Coulter), and tear Coleman asunder, the big dirty Trot.
RTE = Radicals, Terrorists & Eurocrats
The President tells Coleman "Let me finish..." at least five or six times. That is as close to confrontation as he gets.
Here, in a nutshell, is the entire ideological confrontation between the USA and the liberal-socialist axis. Socialists articulate their pathological reactions to momentary impressions using loaded language calculated infer the worst possible image of the USA, and instead of unambiguous disdain, confronting the premises and refuting the conclusions as any good teacher would with a disruptive student radical, Bush tries to picture us as the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
This affability presumes several premises, the most obvious being, "Hey, why are you upset at us for? We agree on basically the same things. We're here to help the least fortunate. We are the most altruistic nation on Earth, we're spending 15 billion dollars on AIDS..." etcetera, ad nauseum.
Bush and the GOP don't get it. When two groups who share the same basic premise compete, the most zealous always wins. By assenting to the same basic premises of liberal-socialism, Bush loses even before the contest begins.
One cannot make friends with these people. The Euro-scum despise the basic ideology of this country, they despise the Declaration, and Bush is unable to articulate what the principles of this country are, much less confront and refute their enemies.
Instead, he tries to lay a burden on their hearts through affability, in the hopes, I guess, that they finally make their way to the altar in contrite humility while the choir plays "Just As I Am."
Would Reagan have stood for this Euro-scum crap?
Do you know of any other copy of the interview, my computer can't download the recorded interview
Strange. Coleman is not noted here for being a heavyweight reporter - middleweight at best. And yet, Bush becomes flustered and arrogant with even the simplest of questions, he never answers questions put to him, and basicly falls apart. Had it been David Hanly or some of the UK heavyweights like Jeremy Paxman or Tim Sebastian, I shudder to think how foolish he would have looked.
And yet, all that is being argued about is whether or not Coleman was rude - which she simply wasn't, quite frankly. In several cases, Bush paused and Coleman took that as the end of a sentence - and then acted like a petulent child when she called him on not having answered her questions.
Apparently, you don't take into account regional and cultural differences in speech here.
A Texan doesn't speak like a Virginian nor does a New Yorker have the same linguistic style as a Minnasotan.
I think the Europeans know a heck of a lot less about America than they think.
Irish chick is a visiting a head of state in his own land.
Irish chick therefore is morally bound to follow US protocols.
Irish chick makes Irish look bad. But fortunately most Americans know that not all Irish are as rude and self-important as this stuffed irish pig Coleman is.
Irish chick is visiting a head of state in his own land.
Irish chick therefore is morally bound to follow US protocols.
Irish chick makes Irish look bad.
But fortunately most Americans know that not all Irish are as rude and self-important as this stuffed irish pig Coleman is.
Which she in fact does, past even the point of politeness - for example, for us the correct address for talking to George Bush is "Mr. Bush" or "President Bush", unless you're a US citizen (in which case it's "Mr. President"). However, she uses the more formal "Mr. President", simply to be polite. (It's not "Mr.President" for us, btw, because our President is Mrs.McAleese, and she'd be rather annoyed at being called Mr.Bush, to put it mildly).
There are a dozen other such small points that you may have missed because you were upset at the content of her interview - but that does not mean that the interview was impolite.
On the contrary, by refusing to answer questions he was asked and by interrupting her deliberately, Bush was quite impolite himself.
I don't know how you're used to these things running, but over here, the Taoiseach does not have any more or any less civility due to him than any other citizen in conversation...
You like kitties?
Excuse me! BUT,if anybody has a right to interrupt,it's the President and not some Irish reporterette! Who is she? As far as I can tell, it was this reporter who was interrupting the President and not visa versa.
BTW, are you from Ireland?
Bush wasn't arrogant, he was just trying to lay a burden on the reporter's heart. Bush is unable to articulate and expand upon the basic premises of the Declaration, so why should we expect him to seriously confront the liberal-socialist axis with nothing more than platitudes?
Regional speech patterns doesn't enter into it.
What irks me to distraction is that Bush is unwilling or unable to confront these twerps and stick up for us in the combat ring of ideological confrontation.
Really? There's a lot of Celtic blood running through my veins but frankly I was embarrassed at how rude and illmannered she was. She appears to have been raised by wolves and brought shame to her country.
If this is considered acceptable in Ireland today then the country has really fallen. In that case, I won't bother to go back on any more visits.
The silly rude twit doesn't understand that the President of the United States represents the people of the United States and she just insulted ALL of us.
The fact is, Ireland as a nation really has fallen.
The Constitution is very Catholic and until recently so was the moral culture.
Sadly, Ireland has exchanged the best traits of their culture for the worst of ours - and they now have a serious epidemic of affluenza. In other words, materialism has displaced the Irish culture that was.
Hi, I agree. What are they whinging about. Irish people are very aware of current affairs, and hold politicians accountable for what they do. A political figure at any level is fully accountable, and wrong doings are prosecuted in public tribunals. If you can't answer a few questions about your policies without the White House Communications Office getting upset, then maybe you're in the wrong business. Either you know what you're talking about or you don't.
Getting upset with a complete lightweight reporter like Carole Coleman is laughable. Frankly, she does not register on the live interview richter scale. If that is the extent of GW's communications skills, then it isn't difficult to understand why it is strongly rumoured in Ireland and the UK that the White House will never expose GWB to Jeremy Paxman (BBC), or David Hanly(RTE), or David McWilliams(TV3 Ireland), or Peter Allan (BBC).
In Ireland and the UK, you answer for the policies that you put forward. We as the voting public are entitled to ask and probe your motivations. Sometimes the exchanges between interviewers and politicians at all levels are raw, spontaneous and prone to the occasional colourful language that we might associate with the 'heat of the moment'. But what you get in those moments is the spark, the energy and conviction with which the public figure is willing to lead politically.
You can have your stage managed politics with spin doctors writing the text of every word that you hear from your politicians. The problem with that is that you NEVER truelly hear from the actual politician, only the communications and political advisors that keep the politician safe.
GW lost a lot of credibility in Europe audiences because he completely failed to manage Coleman. He blundered and attempted to fill the interview with the top points of his achievements, his campaign to re-elect - all he needed to do was answer the questions.
And before anyone calles me an Irish this or that, I'm generally conservative, served in the Irish army for 23 years. Worked with US troops in Beruit, Somalia, was a liaison officer with the US Defence Attache in Dublin for 3 years, and I have personal and family links with the US.
Regards
You signed up today just to defend an obnoxious reporter and run down the President?
Nope. I'm not against the Iraq war. I am against the over protection of politicians though. GW is a smart guy. You don't get to be president of the US if your not a smart guy. However, on this side of the pond, and particularly from the respected elements of the UK media, there is much unease that a layer of advisors and powerful commercial interests are having undue influence on the thinking of the president. And when he is interviewed in that manner, and appears to dither, and get aggressive, and put forward an election manifesto instead of answering the questions, it seems to us that Ms Rice, or Mr Rumsfelt, or other members of the neo-conservative group from which they hail have a worrying hold of power.
Don't get defensive all the time. You should listen when your friends are trying to tell you that something is not right. I'm not an enemy of America, or necessarily Mr Bush for that matter. Don't direct your anger at me. Instead ensure that Mr Bush knows what he is talking about. I was looking at a program last night of Mr Gingritch (hope I spelled it right) under real pressure in an interview regarding Iraq. He was strong, informed, deliberate, didn't get angry or defensive.
That's the message folks. Coleman wasn't strong. Mr Bush appeared weak. That's a message from a friend.
A word of caution. I understand that the worlds media has reported the interview all over the Globe. In this election year, it is only a matter of time before someone in the States takes a similar pop at him.
Bye.
Pat
Congratulations on making it to your third day.
Let me welcome you on your very first day on Free Republic, masterk.
(Are you IE Sparks in drag?)
IE Sparks member since 6/26/04
Needless to say, I won't be going back to Ireland any time soon.
It was merely a welcome coupled with a parenthetical question. (Your ramblings seemed along the lines of an earlier troll.)
From the few remarks of yours that I've read it appears that you fancy yourself a spokesman for the Irish.
Mostly, however, it appears you just fancy yourself.
Possibly there is a difference in standards of courtesy here; in general, Americans are less prone to interrupt others; they certainly don't interrupt POTUS.
And lest you challenge my cred.; I grew up in Dublin and most of my family still live there.
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.