Pitying the poor capitalists

AFTER a week when you could hardly spin the dial without encountering credulous reports of a poltergeist redecorating a Galway home, it is worth reminding ourselves that free speech is, in itself, a precious commodity - however we might feel about its content.

In fact, ghost stories notwithstanding, it's a commodity that trades only intermittently here. Regulations about "balance in broadcasting are strictly interpreted; Dermot Hanrahan of Dublin's FM104 recently lamented that opinionated, US style talk radio hosts were impossible under the present regulatory regime.

No one told Eamon Dunphy. After a cautious start, The Last Word (Radio Ireland, Monday to Friday) has become, increasingly, a fascinating forum for his particular views and concerns. Lest there be any confusion, that's cool by me: balance, if it should be imposed at all, should be imposed across a whole schedule, rather than by censoring anyone.

While Emily O'Reilly, Mark Costigan, John Kelly, etc, may hold views radically different from Dunphy's, we don't hear them trumpeted on their programmes. And Dunphy's partner, Ann Marie Hourihane, is positively shy.

If Dunphy's views really marked a radical challenge to "Official Ireland", as he implies, their elucidation could be a worthwhile alternative; 0.1., after all, has its outlets too. But in his parallel universe, it is Irish capitalists and the free market itself that are under siege by 0.1. ideologues - pity the poor entrepreneur, Radio Ireland included. Thus, familiar right wing views are trotted out as if they were heralds of revolution.

And they are generally presented without challenge or debate. For example, last Tuesday's programme - once it got past Ken Doherty - was an extraordinary succession of one sided segments, each providing Dunphy a stick to beat a favourite bete noire.

The story of Ryanair's stock exchange flotation, for example, was a weapon aimed straight at Aer Lingus, in particular, and state ownership of enterprises, in general. With Sean Barrett, the conservative economist from Trinity College (that well known free market business), Dunphy spoke of SIPTU as if it were some ideological cult rather than a union with members to protect. SIPTU's side was nowhere to be heard.

The hepatitis C story has been a favourite of Dunphy's, and also got its chance on Tuesday. To his credit, he has given unprecedented time for victims to tell their stories; but his efforts to get them to condemn particular politicians have been heavy handed, at best. And how, Eamon, has Brendan Howlin refused to come on the programme? "Repeatedly and peremptorily," Dunphy snarled.

Then came a bizarre telephone interview with Oliver North, apparently a stick with which to beat the liberal media. North called Dunphy his friend, and they reminisced about Ronald Reagan's great warmth, so misunderstood by Official America. Dunphy elicited unspeakable rubbish from North about Vietnam and challenged none of it; he didn't even mention North's little run in with the US Constitution. What was the point?

The point of this programme's other main interview was obviously ideological: a little known academic, Gareth Davis, had written somewhere that the Famine has been distorted in the hands of statist ideologues to turn Ireland against - guess what - the free market. This time it was Hourihane leading Davis through his argument, with nothing more challenging than a quizzical tone of voice.

Davis's targets were less betes noires than straw men. He boldly asserted that preFamine Ireland suffered from too little capitalism, not too much; no one replied that this is a thoroughly orthodox, uncontroversial position. Updating his argument, he said if we really want to help Third World countries, we should get them to adopt capitalism; no one mentioned this is exactly what the World Bank and IMF do, often with disastrous consequences.

Dunphy, taken with this portrait of his parallel universe - where capitalists don't get a look in - forgot he was out of his depth. "I agree with almost everything you're saying," he volunteered, but shouldn't Africans be allowed to keep their "tribal, bartering" arrangements? Davis reassured him that "capitalism allows them to choose that lifestyle". Lovely.