“Shocked And Disappointed’

at

Dil Wickremasinghe

Last night.

A statement from broadcaster Dil Wickremasinghe following her removal after 10 years at Newstalk.

Dil presented the Saturday night show, The Global Village.

She had criticised the station over its handling of the recent George Hook controversy.

 Dil Wickremasinghe

Previously: ‘I Have Been Deeply Unsatisfied With The Management Of Newstalk’

Meanwhile…

Um.

Sponsored Link

192 thoughts on ““Shocked And Disappointed’

  1. Laura

    The only thing Dil cares about is Dil. She had Conor Lenihan on her show once. Instead of grilling him on his ‘stick to the kebabs’ remarks, she spent the whole show licking up to him.

    1. cluster

      Think you could be missing the point even slightly?

      Does anyone here think that Dil’s show was brought to an end because her presenting style was too self-interested?

  2. MoyestWithExcitement

    Looking forward to all the insecure little boys logging on to share their knowledge about radio production and say how poo her show was because they feel threatened by non straight white males having opinions.

    1. TheRichList

      I didn’t feel threatened at all. Her show was rubbish, nothing to do with gender or skin colour.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        Whatever you need to tell yourself little buddy. I’m sure you know all about what’s needed to produce quality content. What station is your show on?

        1. Pat Kenny's wife

          I like it when they don’t answer you back. That must feel incredibly satisfying for you

        2. Milo

          Tell us Moyest, why was it a good show?

          Ill tell you why it was bull poo. The editorial line was one dimensional and predictable. the guests worthy but very dull. No conflict or curiosity, just homogenous perspectives with simplistic, idealistic and unrealistic proposals. So every show sounded the same. You are a minority, tell me your pain, Ireland is awful, someone else should do something, we are superior and just trying our best to bring the world to our level. She also had a voice that needed a lot of work, a production team who could obviously not challenge the presenter, and a presenter who by her subsequent actions has shown herself to be insular, self aggrandising and egoistic beyond her talent.

          Now could you tell me why it was a good programme. (and not the guff of giving the voiceless a grunt etc). Why was it a well produced show Einstein?

        3. Anomanomanom

          What a ridiculous attitude. So your basically saying if I don’t like the show it’s A: Because it’s a women and not a white man, B: My opinion is wrong, its an opinion it can’t be wrong, Because I wouldn’t be able to describe in detail how to put a show together.

        4. Dough Berman

          Don’t listen to the radio myself, but I’ve never made a TV show and I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to say one of them is poo poo if I feel like it.

    2. Pat Kenny's wife

      Totally

      A bit like the last race on the card in Naas- also tans and tired old ginnets

    3. Fed this now

      I have no knowledge of film production but I know The Godfather II is a better film than Exit Wounds. You don’t need to understand the means of production to have a valid opinion on quality.

    1. Robert

      Would you stop using this term like it’s a bad thing. Of course insincere virtue is awful but that doesn’t mean that all signalled virtue is.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        That’s the first time I’ve ever used that term. Didn’t enjoy it so won’t be doing it again.

        It is a bad thing, though.

        1. ahjayzis

          What the hell is it?

          It’s just a way of saying a person is a liar.

          When I say something like “we’re too rich a nation to have this bad a homeless crisis without it being an actual policy” I’m saying what I believe – my opinion.

          If someone says I’m “just virtue signalling”, they’re effectively calling me a liar, that it’s not my opinion, I just want to sound good.

          It’s a childish insult created by the far-right who believe everyone secretly is racist/misogynistic, but the ones who oppose them are just lying to look good/get laid/get promoted. Best steer clear or you’ll be mistaken for one of em.

          1. Casey_online

            +1000

            It is the replacement term for champagne socialist, social justice warrior and all the phrases which have passed from functional to an over used and ineffective insult.

          2. Milo

            Oooooh, do you want to ban the term?? Would that make everything better. That’s s but language policey isn’t it?

  3. Christopher

    I’m sorry but despite agreeing with Dil on almost every issue I found her insufferable to listen to either on radio or on TV. Some shows come to an end eventually- and if she had to find sponsors personally for the show to continue in the past it’s very easy to see this as a commercial decision.

      1. Anomanomanom

        First off hook is an ass, I think we agree on that. But when was he ever an apologist for a rapist. I know what he said, but you seem think he stood up and said “its grand your rapist, sure the women are at fault”

      1. TheRealJane

        Of course not. I don’t have to agree with her to think that it’s surprising that she can’t get sponsorship but others can, despite their views. Both are anti vaxxers, let’s not forget, do I don’t think it’s that that’s chasing her off the radio.

  4. Harry Molloy

    Was it because she refused to go on air in protest over Hook or was it because her show is awful?

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      Lol Expert radio producer, Harold, lafies and gents. I’m sure its a coincidence that a man who thinks white Irish people should civilise Arabs, also thinks a show hosted by a non white gay woman who talks about the interests of marginalised peoples is “awful”. It is still hilarious to watch these mongoloids confuse their feelings about something for reasoned analysis.

        1. b

          Moyest has almost virtue signalled too well there

          disgusting comment, and he has the neck to moan about trolls elsewhere

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          Remember this next time you’re whining about people taking offence too easily, my hilariously bigoted little friend. You idiots are so easy to catch out I almost feel sorry for you. :D

      1. edalicious

        Would you ever reign it in a bit, Moyest? I stand on the same side as you on most issues but you’ve got a great knack for turning any discussion into a poop-flinging contest.

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          Sorry, you’re right, we should treat these dimwitted misogynists as intellectuals with legitimate opinions. Clown.

          1. Pat Kenny's wife

            Well said Moyest. It’s other people’s obnoxious opinions that are not the real problem but your reaction against them. Well spotted eveyone, give yourself a good forelock tug

        2. rotide

          He doesn’t actually have a side. He says something to get a reaction and fans the flames. It’s how trolls work.

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          I’m keeping them. Anyway, you think human beings get too a point where they’re too old for the state (ie *us*) to take care of, that we should let old people die for the sake of profit, so you don’t get to be offended by anything. :)

          1. Rob_G

            Moyest, suggest you log off the internet for a while, head out for a bit, go and meet some parents whose kids are living with living with Down Syndrome, and see how you feel about your use of the term ‘mongoloid’ then.

          2. MoyestWithExcitement

            Mate, nobody needs lessons in civility from psychos like you who think old people should die to save money.

          3. Anomanomanom

            wtf is wrong with you today. Most people are normally amused by you, Because simply its normally cohesive and has a point. But your basically on the, Fupp everyone because im right, So nobody else can have an opinion, level today. What’s that about?. I never listened to her show because I don’t like her, its not personal a dislike I just never found her entertaining when I’ve seen her on tv.

          4. MoyestWithExcitement

            I’m only fupping the insecure little boys who need to belittle and demean people who have arguments and opinions they don’t like and cannot counter with rationale. *I* am amused by it and that’s all that matters :)

          5. rotide

            Actually everyone has been discussing this rationally.

            You’re the one screaming hysterically about racist downes syndrome boys and replying with ‘lol’ to posts you don’t like.

          6. MoyestWithExcitement

            I thought you weren’t engaging with me. Poisonous trolls like you just can’t help yourselves.

          1. Pat Kenny's wife

            Who cares about how another poster chooses to express himself? Are certain words upsetting for you you delicate little boy?

      2. rotide

        Lads, Moyest is touching himself furiously with this amount of attention.

        “You idiots are so easy to catch out I almost feel sorry for you. :D”

        When someone openly admits they’re trolling, don’t even try to engage.

      3. snowey

        mongoloids ??? nice,

        Moyest is the same type of poster who would drag anybody else over the coals for non-PC 1950s terminology.

        have a word with yourself , moyest

        1. Pat Kenny's wife

          It’s quite clear to anyone over 6 years old that Moyest is not referring to some specific mentally impaired children but rather using a descriptive term to highlight the obvious intellectual limitations of most of you who are critical of him.

          1. Harry Molloy

            wow, you can apply that logic to any number of slurs to justify the actions of those in your “team”

            words have baggage

    2. edalicious

      Even if it was because her show was terrible, the timing of it doesn’t look great, does it?

      I’m sure we’ll see all those that were supporting Hook’s “right free speech” being equally vocal in supporting Dil’s right to protest… Any second now…

          1. edalicious

            Stop being so obtuse, Clampers, it’s extremely childish. You know very well that the timing of this is makes it look like NT only started paying attention to her because she stuck her head above the parapet on the Hook debacle, which would be an implicit threat to any other employees who were thinking about publicly taking issue with how NT runs their station.

          2. Anomanomanom

            That seems true at first and I’d actually believe it, but she did state she has had numerous disruptions before, time slots changed and basically no backing because she also had to find her own sponsor. So what seems true at first looks a little different when you look again, the timing is awful though.

          3. Clampers Outside!

            I’m not being obtuse. She lost a job, possibly, and we’re in agreement on this possibility, for going up against her employer.
            Yes, I see that to be likely too.

            She still has her right to protest whatever she wants.

          4. edalicious

            So she was potentially fired for exercising her right, like the people I mentioned above were saying that Hook was fired for exercising his right of free speech so, like I said, I’m sure they’ll be along shortly to weigh in behind her. Right? Except Hook wasn’t fired, was he?

  5. Jim Bob Julius

    Lots of white Irish males saying they don’t like her show like that is why the show was cancelled.

    I doubt she likes watching football.

    The main thing about this is that Hook, a rape apologist (and read his attempts at fiction where his views of intoxicated woman and sex are giving a good airing) gets a new show and a rape victim, Dil, gets sacked.

    To be honest, I don’t listen to Newstalk anyway, I’d rather shove knitting needles in my ears than listen to the likes of Hook, Shane ‘Mother Superior’ Coleman’ or Paul ‘manipulating alleged abuse victims’ Williams.

  6. Gorev Mahagut

    She took issue with her bosses over a matter of principle and got fired.
    Hook aimed a punch at rape victims and kept his job.
    In this context, whether or not you liked her show is irrelevant.

    1. Jim Bob Julius

      @gorev Mahagut That’s the crux of it.

      But we are regaled with halfwits complaining they don’t like her show when it clearly was not something aimed at them.

      I don’t like the X Factor, but then, its not aimed at me.

      Hook is a pathetic little cry baby, end of story. Click bait journalism at its worst. Since when did old men who shout at clouds become worth listening to?

      1. Charlie

        Old men who shout at clouds can be very entertaining and make many people feel uncomfortable because of their honesty. They may not be very PC but dang they’re honest.

          1. Pat Kenny's wife

            Honesty isn’t always a virtue, I’m a bit surprised to see you state that as a precept, there are other virtues, knowing when to shut up one you’ve not had much luck with we all note.

      2. Fed this now

        The irony!!

        Show A is not aimed at the ‘halfwits complaining’ so they shouldn’t comment.

        Show B is ‘pathetic’ etc. Clearly it’s not aimed at you, so why comment.

        The regressive left: a logic free zone.

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          Show A; talks about the issues facing vulnerable human beings

          Show B; talks about how rape victims should be shamed and take responsiblity.

          The dim-witted right. An actual logic free zone.

        2. Milo

          Show A- an egoistic pain in the hoop.

          Show B- an egoistic pain in the hoop.

          theres equality and diversity!

          One gets an audience, the other doesnt. Thus keep one and dump the other.

          Thats capitalism.

    2. Cian

      It depends.
      I agree that she should not be fired because of her principals – but there is no evidence that she was.
      However, if nobody likes her show then she should be fired. If her listeners drop below a certain threshold, she should be fired. If she breaks the terms of her contract, she should be fired.

      The Right Hook is consistently either 2nd/3rd highest ratings in Newstalk with 50-60k listeners.
      The Global Village doesn’t rate in the top 5 – I can’t find definite figures (but has fewer than the 5th ranking @15k listeners).

      1. Cian

        Oops, She does mention “positive ratings and performance” – so it may not be relate to listener figures.

      2. Pat Kenny's wife

        I can tell that you are really an intellectual Cian when you mix up principles and principals

          1. rotide

            Can confirm, those accounts are replaceable, the reason he wasn’t fired instantly is radio listener magnets like him are much harder to come by.

        1. Clampers Outside!

          Em… No.

          Hook did not lose Newstalk three advertising accounts. The programme lost the main sponsor, a hotel group and Tesco. And two advertisers Snap Printing and a charity said they did not want to advertise in the programme.

          The programme is now gone so, bar the sponsor, I believe the rest will still air on Newstalk….

          So, to clarify, three ad accounts have not been lost, as you put it.

          1. Harry Molloy

            And each of the said advertisers got more publicity than they could have possibly hoped for throughout :-)

  7. Cian

    When the Hook think happened she mentioned something about her four-week-old daughter.

    If she is on maternity leave and got fired then Newstalk are in deep doo-doo.

    1. Jim Bob Julius

      Newstalk are the FG radio station.

      Between Nora Owen and Ivan Yates and all the soft focus stuff its even more establishment than RTE.

      Turn the dial to anything except DinnyTalk.

    2. Daisy Chainsaw

      Dil wasn’t the birth mother this time around, her partner was so it won’t be an issue.

      I don’t know why people are surprised that they’d fire one of the few remaining female voices on SnoozeTalk while protecting and coddling the old guy with dangerous opinions about women.

  8. kellma

    I suppose it would be interesting to see what the ratings for her show were like. It does make you wonder if this was really a commercial decision given the timing. But maybe it was ( i have never heard her show).
    But as a previous poster said; even if it was purely commercial, the timing was not very clever….. It was a badly judged move.

  9. shitferbrains

    RTE took a similar show off th airwaves years ago and nobody noticed or cared. At least this is generating some heat if not light.

  10. Frilly Keane

    heemmmm

    its one thing to say the show was – rhymes with kite
    but it was only an hour out’ve their weekly roster

    they should have just bit their tongues there in NT and lived with it tbh

    1. Jim Bob Julius

      I didn’t like the show, but then I don’t like Countrywide or cooking shows.
      Still find it amusing how many people are saying it was a sh*te show.

  11. dav

    This, allied with the ban on IT journalists, seems to be a concerted attack by newstalk of anyone who doesn’t support their views on rape and rape victims..

    1. Jim Bob Julius

      And they most likely are hoping they will all text into their premium rate number to express their anger!

  12. rotide

    Astonishing that it took about 50 comments before someone ventured the opinion that actually, the ratings might not have been up to scratch.

    I hated her show and switched instantly. I also hate Tom Dunne and switch instantly, however Tom does alright for himself in the ratings and keeps his show. Mind you he was switched to late nights when his morning show took a big hit, Was it racism or just Dil’s inability to do anything else that meant her show was cancelled without her being given another slot? Knowing a bit about Newstalk, I’d guess that it’s more the latter than the former.

    1. Pat Kenny's wife

      Cupping nonsense. Who listens to the radio at 6pm on Sundays? No one, it was a perfect time to put on the Dil show and virtue signal that hey here at Newstalk we might employ some of the most contrarian and inarticulate right wing trolls in the business , but hey it’s not like we don’t have a liberal side. If the show was poorly produced then whose fault is that, hardly the presenters, the woman is a hero to minority groups in this country and when was the last time you heard any of these alternative voices on any other station? You’re a muppet, a contrarian conservative moron and a troll all rolled into one.

      1. rotide

        I listen to the radio at 6pm on a sunday.

        Dil’s show was on a saturday lately, just so you can’t be accused to mouthing off without knowing what you’re talking about. Although contending that although noone actually listened to her show at the weekend, it was bound to be a ratings winner at drivetime is a bit silly.

        Any radio presenter that turns up, reads a script and goes home probably deserves to be fired. It’s doing Dil a disservice to try to imply that the producer compiled the show and she merely presented it.

        1. Pat Kenny's wife

          No it isn’t. It’s a joint effort and if it was as amateurish as people say then the buck stops with the producer for not stepping in. Personally I hated the program but I admired Dil as a presenter and the ethos of the program.

    2. Cian

      This may be related to ratings. But she does mention “despite [her] positive ratings and performance [….] the show is cancelled” in her letter.

      Unless someone can find out what her ratings *are* we’re just guessing.

      1. rotide

        She mentions it but doesn’t provide any evidence whatsoever to show her positive ratings.

        I haven’t a notion of how big her audience is but you’d be hard pressed to find a more ‘progressive left wing’ audience than the broadsheet readership and everyone seems to universally dislike her show. Unscientific alright but telling.

        Having said that, If she was elbowed for politcal reasons , it’s far more likely that she was canned due to her ultimatum than for any imagined racist or homophobic reasons.

  13. Andrew

    Unfortunately for Dil she made an error by giving her employer an ultimatum; refusing to work unless a colleague was dismissed.
    She compounded that error by going public with that ultimatum while the station was trying to handle the whole thing.
    I listened to the show from time to time but found it to be rather a divisive voice more than anything else. More interested in blame than solutions.
    I believe she’s also a comedian which seems to be a thriving business to be in these days so she still has that. Does she have any newspaper columns or anything?

  14. Mourning Ireland

    Too many people moved the dial. Management moved her. That’s business.

    Still it means Ray Darsey and/or Artist Exemption Tubridy have filled one guest slot now. Free this weekend? Don’t be.

  15. Fact Checker

    Barely commented upon is the loss of Sarah Carey’s ‘Talking Point’ which got the axe just before the Hook controversy broke.

    Her style was cheesy, but endearing, and I miss it.

    1. Harry Molloy

      She was excellent! I wouldn’t agree with her on a lot of things but I really enjoyed her show, she’s very articulate and is good at controlling a debate. Would love to see her getting a weekday slot actually.

      Was it the Phoenix a while back that newstalk presenters were being made to sing for their suppers and that if they couldn’t get a sponsor they’d be gone. Also said she had trouble attracting a sponsor.

          1. Harry Molloy

            Never knew any of that. It’s a terrible thing to lie in court and to a tribunal. At least she recognises it now.

            What do you think about the leak though? Sounds like she was a whistle blower doesn’t it?

    2. ahjayzis

      That’s the show [REDACTED] rewarded her with after her newspaper fired her for lying and leaking at the Tribunal on [REDACTED]’s behalf, innit?

      Poor Sarah!

  16. Topsy

    Delighted to see her & that Global Village poo gone. Well done, at last, Newstalk.
    PS. Bring back George to the daytime show.

  17. Frilly Keane

    I hope this isn’t interpreted as unkind but
    Anyone else look at that pic above and think
    Jerry Lewis
    RIP

  18. Emma

    The message being sent out by newstalk / DOB is the next individual to speak out , stand up or complain will be sacked . Obviously the management and owners of newstalk don’t actually see anything wrong with what hook said . DISGRACEFUL !!!

  19. Alatriste Kid Jensen

    I see that parttime newsreader with Communicorp Jessie Magee has quit in protest at Dil’s show being taken off the air.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie