The last time I experienced the negativity and panic of the last year was back in 2001, after 9/11 to be precise. I remember at the time giving away gas masks on the air! I actually had construction supply companies clambering to get on the radio to tell the public why their gas masks would be the best available in the event of a chemical attack on Ireland by Osama Bin Laden and the bold men from Al Qaeda.

The better the air filtration nozzle the longer the wearer would live, by all accounts. It was a reasonable fear at the time, or so we thought. Ireland was the most westerly point in Europe and therefore a strategic invasion point.

I mean the Vikings and the Normans also thought so hundreds of years back, even Hitler was hell bent on the idea of pitching his storm troopers up on Inchydoney strand back in the 1940s. Added to the fact that during 9/11 Ireland was allowing US air force planes to fill up with fuel at Shannon made us sitting ducks.

As it happened, everything blew over, Bush annihilated Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and parts of Pakistan and we all lived happily ever after. All the bold men got locked up in Guantanamo bay and were tortured daily for being naughty.

Doom and gloom

Then last week something similar happened, RTE went on a rampage of doom and gloom, a continual broadcast stream of negativity from seven in the morning till late at night, day after day, every news programme and talk show told us how damned we were.

How the world financial institutions were in a state of irreparable collapse, how whatever few people in Ireland who still had money should get it out of banks fast. It was estimated on one day alone €60 million was withdrawn from Irish banks and lodged in the post office. Economists like George Lee told us things were even going to get worse, (has the guy ever had a positive thought in his life I ask you?). Last week Ireland was being run, not by the Government, but by RTE.

It was another example of how this weak public funded broadcaster decided to do a solo run on whatever tickled its fancy. A bit like their pre-occupation with Israel or the US presidential elections, both of which get more coverage in Ireland then they do in their own native countries. This is a broadcast network that has become so fat and comfortable on tax payers money that it doesn't give a damn what people think, is oblivious to criticism and absolutely beyond censure.

Added to the licence fee it is handed by every household in Ireland (€160 pa) it has an enormous revenue stream from advertising and magazine sales, so much in fact that it has hundreds of millions on deposit and sees nothing wrong with paying its top "star" €1 million a year. This is the man that recently described anywhere outside Dublin as "a Backwater".