Sling Your Hook

at

Broadcaster George Hook

“We the undersigned wish to express our utter repudiation of the views expressed by George Hook on High Noon last Friday.

We also wish to express our profound disappointment with management in Communicorp at their failure to deal with this issue swiftly and decisively.

The longer George Hook remains on air, the more reputational damage this station will suffer: damage that will unfairly reflect on the hardworking and professional staff at Newstalk.

Misogyny should never be normalised, and we call upon management at Communicorp to defend the reputation of the station and the reputation of the staff at Newstalk by removing Mr Hook.”

The text of a letter signed by ‘up to 20 members of staff’ at Newstalk

Update:

Sharon O’Halloran, CEO of Safe Ireland, which works with women and children affected by domestic violence,  told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland:

“George Hook doesn’t stand alone in his opinions and what we have in this country is about 10% of women who experience sexual violence are reporting it so they’re afraid to come forward because they feel that they won’t be believed or that their needs won’t be met when they do that so we have a problem and, you know, George Hook doesn’t stand alone in this and we have to work much harder to change culture in this country to address this issue.

I think you can hear over the comment the last week, since this story broke in the first place, there’s a lot of people, you know, agreeing with George Hook, but I think what I want to say is, there’s an awful lot of people that don’t agree with George Hook. And what I can see is change has already happened in this country.

Ten years ago, if George Hook made these comments, there probably wouldn’t be any reaction at all. Today there’s huge reaction.

“There’s a huge mass of people saying ‘this is unacceptable, we don’t want this on our watch’. We want to ensure that there is not victim blaming in this country and that we take the issues of rape and sexual assault seriously.

So this is hopeful, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t got an awful lot more to do. We do and we need leadership around this.

And I do commend the Dalata Hotel Group for actually taking that leadership.

“It’s leadership like that that enables the rest of us to have the courage to stay with saying ‘this is unacceptable and not on our watch’.

“And there are other sponsors as well, on Newstalk, that really need to reflect on where they’re at in this position and it would do them no harm to act with the Dalata Group and stand for what they want to see in society which is a society that is safe for women and children.

His apology is welcome but, you know, you could ask if it’s too late. I mean I do think that it’s coming to a point where I think his position is untenable within Newstalk.

But that’s, also, within Newstalk, in terms of their own leadership around this issue, have a lot to answer for.

They’re a news station that from 7am to 7pm in the day have no female voices on the radio. So in terms of leadership and in terms around equality and human rights, I think they have a few questions to answer themselves.

So I do welcome his apology but, you know, there’s been damage done as a result of a key leader on a national broadcast saying what he did say last Friday.”

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96 thoughts on “Sling Your Hook

    1. ahjayzis

      hashtag libtard hashtag cuck hun xxxx

      Scarlet for the irony that you can’t even troll in your own country’s fascist vernacular.

  1. Henry Woods

    If you listen to talk radio on a regular basis, you must be a really boring person or a schizophrenic.
    Or both.

    1. ivan

      I’m inclined to agree. Music, podcasts, audiobooks…there are loads of alternatives.

      if it’s a workplace with a shared radio, i feel the pain but talk radio *tends* to be the kind of thing listen to by choice.

      1. Donal

        Try telling that to a 75 year old.
        Radio still has a lot of listeners who rely on it for a lot of different things

    2. MoyestWithExcitement

      “If you listen to talk radio on a regular basis, you must be a really boring person or someone suffering from a bipolar disorder.”

      It cannot be a coincidence that nearly all (and chances are it’s actually all, I’m just covering my bottom) political talk radio in the states is right wing/conservative.

    1. ReproBertie

      The outcome of the case is irrelevant to Hook apportioning blame to rape victims.

      He also said “Then is surprised when somebody else comes into the room and rapes her.” as if to suggest that having consensual sex with one person is reason enough to be raped by another.

        1. j9

          Whether she “knew” the guy or not, she CHOSE to go back and have sex with him. She did not choose to have sex with his friend … – the clue is in the phrase “consensual sex”

        2. ReproBertie

          It was her surprise that this happened that Hook mentioned. So according to Hook, if I meet someone I don’t know and go back to their hotel room for consensual sex I should not be surprised to be raped by a third person. In fact not only should I not be surprised but I’m partly to blame for being raped.

        1. martco

          what do ya reckon, pitchforks or petrol? see on the one hand the pitchforks are nearly getting as dear as the oul petrol nowadays but we could get gouged on price with everyone piling in……and like what if it’s a stoning…and you’ve already bought a fork!? jase dunno atall

          1. martco

            could it be a combo event? multidisciplinary like in round #1 everyone gets a go with a stone, top 10 go forward to the next round for a go with the fork then head to head in the final petrol round marked on both technique and style

            what’s the prize tho?

          2. Boj

            Sounds good, It could be an X-Factor format, auditions are always the best. Get the dumb ones out in front first and we can all laugh. Lads dropping stones on their own heads, ladies impaling their friends on the pitchforks, mid sob-story. But the true participants would need to be oh so pure to be throwing stones. Sounds like there are plenty out there. The prize could be a ticket to the late late toy show. Make it an annual event, imagine the tourism and the return for the exchequer. Win-win eh?

          3. martco

            sounds good to me

            now then what about the important bit…merchandising like? I was thinking of some sort of burned at the stake toy for the xmas market but you’d never get it past the regs I fear…maybe think smaller like tshirts? could sell the merch at the gig make a fortune cos there’d be just tons of customers!

        2. Brother Barnabas

          George has never had a problem with stirring mobs into a frenzy before. No doubt he’s enjoying this one, too.

      1. postmanpat

        He was on trial. In the Court of public opinion. Where he already admitted he is guilty. Sentence: Forced retirement a the young age of 80. He can now express his opinions exclusively to his wife and daughters.

  2. Eamonn Clancy

    We either have free speech or we don’t. Let’s be very clear about this. Hook is obnoxious at times, if you don’t like what he has to say don’t tune it, simple. That some of his colleagues seek to knife him in the back and silence him is as shocking as his rape comments, but they are free to do it.

    1. A snowflake's chance in hell

      Saying a colleague who effectively exonerated an alleged rapist from blame should be sacked is “as shocking” as claiming the victim is personally responsible. Yeah I see where you’re going there.

    2. ReproBertie

      “We either have free speech or we don’t.”

      We don’t according to the Constitution as section 40.6.1.i specifically lists utterance of blasphemous, seditious and indecent matter as an offence.

      Similarly, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, section 2.1.b states that it is an offence to use words in any place other than a private residence, and even then only if they cannot be heard outside the residence, which are threatening, abusive or insulting and are intended to or likely to stir up hatred.

      Finally, the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 section 20.1.b.i says that a person shall be treated as using force in relation to another person if he or she threatens that person with its use.

      None of these relate to what Hook said but they are illustrative of the legal limits we place on free speech in Ireland.

      On top of this there are societal limits to free speech as there are certain opinions that we have rejected as a society. We no longer refer to children of unmarried parents as illegitimate, for example. Anyone doing so on a nationwide radio station would be rightly criticised and expected to apologise for doing so.

    3. ahjayzis

      A commercial radio station sacking you isn’t someone denying you a right.

      No one has a right to broadcast anything to the country.

      His right to stand on a box on Grafton Street pontificating is sacrosanct.

  3. Catherinecostelloe

    I taught my son to respect women . If he had consensual sex with a lady I told him to ensure she got home safely. That fella that let his mate in to the girls room is a bloody hollow chancer. And there’s plenty of his ilk around and worse.

  4. Andrew

    I wonder will there be a march organised to arrive at Newstalk offices? Mary Coughlan could lead it and sign some merch. afterwards.
    They could drag George and now Pat out and hang them there and then. Just be done with it. Then at least we can all move on knowing we are safe.

    1. martco

      Andrew, sorry me and Boj are already on the case there (see above confab)

      Having said that we hadn’t actually thought of hanging for our event so happy to collaborate…have a couple of ideas around the merch but what about the tickets?? Either of ye know how to list event tickets on Ticketmaster?

      Would they pay €50 a head? In fairness it’s great value like….I think there’d be queues wha?

      Other thing is you brought a great idea to the table there apart from the hanging -Pat would mean we could maybe go for a slightly different format using 2 teams rather than knockout comp…that might get TV people interested

      1. Boj

        Hang on a sec there now, we had a good thing going, now you go and muddy the waters with a 3rd partner. And for that reason martco…I’m out! ;-P

      2. Andrew

        Maybe a public stoning would be more appropriate now that I think of it? It would definitely be a seller.
        It would just be like old times.

  5. Clampers Outside!

    SAFEIreland had a domestic violence conference last year where guest speakers included misandrist Karen Ingala Smith who considers male victims of domestic abuse a problem to her, and SAFEIreland’s cause.

    Half of ALL domestic abuse victims are male.
    And between 1 in 5 and 1 in 4 deaths from dometic violence are male.

    But this is seen as a “problematic” to the like of SAFEIreland.

    As a DV survivor of 7yrs of abuse, with 2 of those being violent, I have little time for ideologically informed feminist agencies who push the Duluth Model of DV intervention which purports that only women can be victims of DV, and only men can be perps.

    Sad… but, thankfully, the research in DV is being done outside of these ideological agencies control, and all will benefit in the future.

    1. Clampers Outside!

      ‘…the research today’

      that should’ve read.

      This not a defence of any violent persons or anything like that.
      Just pointing out that SAFEIreland has some issues of its own to sort out.

    2. LW

      Half? citation needed

      I don’t know why you don’t start some kind of support service for male domestic violence victims instead of complaining about the work done by organisations providing that support to women

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Citation from the largest DV study ever worked on.

        Plse note the author of this study had bomb threats called in by feminists at his daughters wedding in effort to prevent this research from being completed, as well as a number of other intimidation tactics…

        Info presented by Dr Tonia Nichols

        https://youtu.be/RtOsEkY_UHc

        1. Cian

          interesting video Clampers. Thanks.
          Do you know if her slides are available? They would be quicker to read than then to watch 45 minutes of video.

          1. Clampers Outside!

            I haven’t yet sat down to that, I do look into individual studies mentioned, it takes a lot of time and can be exhausting for a variety of reasons, it’s not a topic one wants their head in all day and requires stepping back from.
            There’s an awful lot of literature, but there does appear to be a small consensus that a new view must be taken of DV. This idea is only, to my understanding, breaking out of the hardcore research areas and into more mainstream thinking with development of shared research and the use of large scale meta-research involving combining research data from many countries.

            As a result of that, you do end up down a lot of dead ends. I’ve spent hours reading up on stuff only to lift my head up and realise I’m in a related field but not specific enough to DV…. and then I shut the lap top and say that’s enough :)

            I’ll likely post on here when I can find or put together something like what you are looking for.

            Glad u got something out of it

      2. Clampers Outside!

        Again to LW.

        I am not complaining about the services provided to women.

        I am complaining about the warped ideology of The Duluth Model of DV interventiin informing DV services provided by SAFEIreland.

        Plse get your complaints correct, and actually complain about something I said, rather than what you wished I had said.

        1. LW

          I know this is gonna come as a surprise to you Clampers, but studies are traditionally published in text format, not YouTube, so if you could just link the relevant one that would be handy.

          You’d do well to get my complaints correct yourself. I said you’re complaining about an organisation providing support to female victims of domestic violence. You said SafeIreland see the fact that there are male victims of domestic abuse as problematic, which you seem to think is a quote. I’d be interested to know what you’re basing that on.
          Limit your response to text, I’m not going to watch your videos

          1. Clampers Outside!

            You asked, I provided. Now you say you don’t like the heavily detailed format (video presentation by experts in the field) that I have provided.

            Sorry, but if you are too lazy to put in the effort to understand the truth, I cannot do anything for you.

            You can sit with your self imposed ignorance, it’s not my job to hand hold.

            Again, thank you for your input

          2. LW

            No, I said, as many times before, YouTube links are not an acceptable way of linking to studies, which are published in text format.
            The most recent study I can find is one by Parity, a men’s rights organisation, which suggests around 40% is the figure for men

            Have you anything to back that up about Ingala Smith? On googling it, all I can find is a comment from you on the journal. A video would actually be an appropriate medium for this purpose. As to whether SafeIreland fully endorse everything she has ever said, it’s interesting that you say this on a thread about George Hook, where there’s some debate regarding whether Newstalk support his views by continuing to pay him

          3. Clampers Outside!

            Regarding the use of video. I believe this is, in this instance, good to use a video presentation of an expert interpret without bias the research, to prevent any bias that you, I or anyone else may have in so doing.
            That’s something I’ve only thought of now, but I think is reasonable.

            if I do come across them, in my next five in, I’ll post a link

          4. Clampers Outside!

            The “problematic” is based on the fact that SAFEIrelabd supports Karen Ingala Smith who herself said that at the Nov 2016 SAFEIreland conference.

            They support her views, why else would they pay the speaker if they did not support those views.

            Plse make a better effort to inform yourself, thanks.

          5. LW

            You’re misrepresenting her Clampers, she speaks out against anyone pushing a gender neutral approach to domestic or sexual violence, while acknowledging that men are also victims.
            Interesting to see you endorsing a gender neutral approach to something

          6. Nigel

            First of all: feck off, Brain Warp, you can take many, many issues with Clampers without that kind of distorted attack on his experiences.

            Second of all, without wanting to get dragged into this any further, I did get curious, and in case people are reluctant to click through and see what it is she seems to be saying, this is a big chunk from the link. She’s responding here to a report that a third of all victims of domestic abuse are men. Decide for yourselves if Clamper’s characterisations are accurate:

            The main problems with the statistic that a third of reports are by men are

            It is about domestic abuse and/or conflict, not domestic violence
            The data does not differentiate between cases where there is one incident of physical conflict/abuse/violence or those where violence is repeated. If we look at the data for where there have been four or more incidents, then approximately 80% of victims are women
            The data does not differentiate between incidents where violence and abuse are used as systematic means of control and coercion and where they are not
            The data does not include sexual assault and sexual violence
            The data does not take account of the different levels of severity of abuse/violence, ‘gender symmetry’ is clustered at lower levels of violence
            The data does not take account of the impact of violence, whether the level of injury arising from the violence or the level of fear. Women are six times more likely to need medical attention for injuries resulting from violence and are much more likely to be afraid
            The data does not differentiate between acts of primary aggression and self-defence, approximately three quarters of violence committed by women is done in self-defence or is retaliatory.

            In fact, if these issues are taken into account, research consistently finds that violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women and levels are consistent with data of reports from the police. This is supported by data from the Crown Prosecution Service that shows that across the five years between 2007/8 and 2011/12, 93.4% of those convicted for crimes relating to domestic violence were men.’

          7. Nigel

            Clamps, no matter how much we argue, I will always respect your courage and honesty about your experiences, and they should not be used as cheap shots against you. FECK that guy.

          8. Clampers Outside

            @LW Having spoke with some DV agencies in the UK, not driven by ideology, on the clarification of language used, i more specifically push for ‘gender inclusive’ approach to DV, not ‘gender neutral’.

            In my research, the ‘gender inclusive’ approach is to cover all relationships and couplings regardless of gender. This was to ensure that trans persons, gay, bi, etc. would be included. This was partly from a group in the UK called GenderFreeDV.

            In addition to that the Dr Tonia Nichols expands on this at 7m30secs to 8m06secs

            The reason for this is to move away from the ‘traditional’ feminist “patriarchal” approach to DV which SAFEIreland and Womens Aid use, as it only covers a small percent of all DV.

          9. LW

            Well then you should have no issue with her tweet, which is specifically aimed at gender neutral.
            The organisations you mention provide support to female victims. I don’t understand why you think an organisation that provides support to female victims focusing on female victims is an issue.
            You’ve yet to support your claim that Ingala Smith finds male victims of domestic abuse problematic, instead you seem to have either misunderstood or misrepresented her comments on a study, which you helpfully linked to.
            Absolutely none of what you’ve brought up discredits SafeIreland, or what Sharon O Halloran said about women who experience sexual violence. In fact, we could go so far as to say that it’s not relevant to the issue at hand.

          10. Clampers Outside!

            It’s because the research often produced to fund ideological organisations is biased; and only records half a picture between the genders; and ignores a lot of the other issues pointed out by the Dr in the video at 8mins+. This allows ideological organisations to push a particular approach, that being the patriarchal theory approach, and applying it to all cases.

            And when such ideological research leads the direction of DV prevention, and the heaviest weight of information is ideologically informed, then we will never be able to answer the whys? and how fixes? without doing further damage, because you’ll be incapable of seeing the full picture.
            An example of this,wouldd be when The Duluth Model was studied in Canada. In these studies, The Duluth Model was shown to do more harm than good. – A Dr Donald Dutton with decades of experience in this area has a piece I can cite on that. I may be able to get to it later.
            Anyway, unfortunately there are few studies into questioning the methods of the Duluth Model and the resulting application of the ‘patriarchy’ theory to DV prevention….

            why one may ask?

            … bomb threats at a top researchers daughtersdaughters’ wedding.

            Intimidation.

            That’s why.

            Apparently, I am a misogynist for even raising these points of discussion.

            The abuse I got on here myself would be an example.

            Many reasons…

          11. Clampers Outside

            Hi Nigel, at 23m19secs Dr Nichols talks on the 40% o men suffering from IPV (38% to be exact =/- the std dev). And she is discussing ‘violence’, as opposed to ‘abuse’.

            Abuse is discussed at another point, and I may have time to find the time stamp later. I believe that is where the 50% abuse will be found.

            Cheers again, it’s nice been civil with ya haha :) That’s a go at myself too ;)

  6. Milo

    I see now that Jennifer O Connell and Kitty Holland agree with me. Some of the BS Knights will be let down by their understanding and empathy. Kitty even compares it to Catholic Church in 1950’s… Oh dear Moyest… not nice to be called a priest is it?

    1. Pat Kenny's wife

      Pat if I told you once I told you a million times to take down those mirrors when the builders are in!

      1. Milo

        Sorry the girls turned their back on you Squire. They dont need your help apparently!
        They’ve got this :-).

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          I know, I was devastated. They’ve realised master debaters like you are the real alpha males.

          1. Milo

            Totes devo I imagine. You’re like all bish bosh Batman going to save the oppressed, and the oppressed be like “back of Lancelot, we don’t be needing the patriarchy. Go find some other biatch to save”. Scarleh for yer ma!

  7. Frilly Keane

    I’m not weighing inta this at this hour
    but let me do this

    here ‘Warp, you’ll soon feature in those statistics if I ever get my hands on you

    and it’ll be the kinda tackle that would make Paul Galvin wince

    1. A snowflake's chance in hell

      You’re part of the Pat-riarchy Frilly!

      More seriously interesting discussion there, I I learned a lot, thanks Clampers for posting those links and I second what other posters said about brain warp’s comments.

      Who’s going to win on Sunday Frilzer?

  8. commentating guy

    we the undersigned .. are fully aware of what hook is like, and of similar comments he’s made before, but wish to all of a sudden only condemn it now
    …………
    …………

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