Sir, - Vincent Browne is fast becoming the bully boy of the airwaves. I have listened fairly regularly to his night-time shows on RTE Radio 1. Sometimes I find him quite entertaining . At other times he can be insulting, arrogant and overbearing. Last Thursday he tried to do a hatchet job on Dana and it frustrated him when the Derry lady succeeded superbly in rebuffing most of his pre-set agenda. Earlier that evening on Radio Ireland, Eamon Dunphy and Shane Ross were far more balanced in their attitude to Dana and were highly complimentary of her splendid achievement in securing a nomination in the first place.
May I ask what position Mr Browne is in to conduct a fairminded interview with Mary McAleese after the the "tearing" he gave her in a recent column in The Irish Times? Isn't it time we had some real exchanges between interviewers and interviewees? Isn't it time that the interviewees stopped answering all the "agenda" questions and threw them back on the interviewer?
What is Mr Browne's agenda? How does he feel on such-and-such a matter? Now that would make good radio, because I believe it is only fair that the listening public should know where a person who insists on such bootboy tactics as Mr Browne employs on his shows is really coming from and to what tune he is singing along. - Yours, etc.,
Claremorris, Co Mayo.