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WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT
'MAVERICK'
"Mr. Quinn's book deals at length
with the author's long battle with RTE over the
commercialisation of 'the company', as it now tends to be
called. He quotes the current Chairman: "RTE must become
more commercial". This ignoble statement points to the
imminent demise of the company.
Parents may read Mr. Quinn's book for its close study of the
high commercial content of children's programming, which not
only prompts children to make greedier demands, especially
after the outrageous Toy Show but delivers them up as adults
already carrying the bacillus of consumerism.
Mr Quinn's detailed acoount of RTE's pursuit of Anthony
Coughlan into the Supreme Court is something every citizen
should read. The author was in the boardroom and has the
documentation; so his word on the matter can presumably be
taken. If his account of a public service broadcaster
bending before political pressure be true, it can not be
called less than a scandal"
Tom O'Dea, Irish Independent
"One of his central arguments
is that RTE was politicised from its inception. 'RTEis at
the behest of government in political matters. It has been
true since the foundation of 2RN in 1926. Sean Lemass said
in 1966 that RTE was an instrument of public policy. The Ray
Burke era went way beyond previous interference. But he
was'nt the only one. In 1995/96 Jim Mitchell commissioned a
study from DKC which tore strips off RTE and changed the way
it operated……Two words sum up what Quinn believes resulted
from that: 'dumb' and 'down'"
Harry McGee, Sunday
Tribune
"Its that rare and welcome thing, a
lifting of the veil that covers the decision-making process
in institutions of State"
Hugh Linehan, The Irish
Times
"A Maverick, for those who have not
at some stage included Westerns in their literary diet, is
an unbranded calf and by derivation refers to someone who is
non-conformist. Many of those at the receiving end of Bob
Quinn's judgements of them may feel that the word is
inadequate to describe someone who shook the dovecotes and
ruffled feathers as vigorously as he did…….
The maverick in pursuit of his or her beliefs is vital to
the process and this book is a valuable element therein….the
existence of mavericks implies that many members of the herd
are branded".
Pascal McDaid, Connaught
Tribune
"Éacht atá déanta aige sa mhéid is
go bhfuil sé taréis cultúr na rúndachta a bhaineann leis an
eagraíocht sin a bhriseadh ina smidiríní"
Uinsionn Mac Dubhghaill,
Foinse
"One of the anonymous readers
that publishers send their books out to, left a note: 'I
wish I had this book when I studied communication". Praise
indeed for a book that joins the ranks of McQuail and
McLuhan"
Michele Viney Galway
Advertiser
"- a commendable attempt to curtail
advertising during children's television
programmes - "
William Fey, Sunday Times
"RTE largely comes across as Big
Brother in this worrisome tome, with Quinn as a
reconstructed Orwell trying to batter down its doors with
the voice of reason. Gaybo (Gay Byrne) is its user-friendly
ubermeister, his right-wing orientations tolerated, nay
endorsed by the powers-that-were because of his huge pulling
power vis-à-vis advertising revenue: the life-blood of the
station. Which left Quinn's repeated bleatings about more
humanitarian concerns fall on rather stony ground"
Aubrey Malone, The Irish
Catholic
'"We are not so much homo sapiens as
Homer Simpsons. We arean American underclass'. We take our
brief from their soaperatic inanities, model our chat shows
on their philistine rhetoric, and dance to the beat of their
dysfunctional drum".
Books Ireland
"That too many children are turning
into couch potatoes fixated on brand names is indisputable,
so his concern cannot be dismissed"
Patricia Deevy, Sunday
Independent
Bob Quinn's portrait is an energetic
and amusing one of the chaos prevailing in broadcasting.
Coming, as it does, after forty years of television, one
might politely ask: 'Why no debate?'
Bruce Arnold, Irish
Independent
Related
Articles by Bob Quinn on the State of Irish National
Television and the Irish Film Industry:
If Pigs Could Fly (pdf) - July 2003
Degeneration Gap (pdf) - July 2004 |
