Yes, she was on last November.
1 Like
thats pretty much it. I doubt anyone is really surprised that she would think that way or would be happy to like or retweet anti immigration stuff. Also I doubt anyone is surprised that she isnt overly articulate and it needed a written response hours later by her PR team to try smooth it over. I dont know the OTB presenters intention if he knew that this would go like that and intentionally went out to do her, or if he was just generally interested in a national spokesperson for a large brand, who is on national TV and considers herself a role model for younger girls in particular and her views on what is now a hugely topical item. On one hand, you’d have sympathy for her as she probably knows no better, on the other hand, if she is going to put herself out there, she needs to know how to handle sticky situations like this.
But overall, its a mountain out of a molehill, and as I said, once the twitter war ends between the lefty headbangers and the flag bearing racists, they will all move on to someone or something else.
2 Likes
They didn’t have an anti racism class in my course. Maybe I was missing that day though.
Were you missing the day they taught people not to attack their mother for sending their grandchild a birthday card? Kellie’s ignorance is to be punished but yours is 
I wonder did people want the presenter to apologise to Kellie for raising it and move on?
Agreed. It’s the pile on the interviewer is really unseemly and fellas saying he was at her etc… Kellie seems like a nice girl who is gone down a bit of an online rabbit hole
It could happen to anyone
3 Likes
She certainly could have handled it better. But guys want blood from her now … the mob are something to behold. I blame @backinatracksuit
She was promoting some Spar community initiative, which falls into the diversity & inclusion bucket, so I think her deleted tweet was relevant. But, as others have said, anything a public figure says is up for discussion when they put themselves forward for interview so I don’t think the interviewer necessarily needed to have this promo as a backdrop to asking her about it. I don’t think he went out to get her or anything but, as I say, it was relevant. She was effectively given the chance to expand/clarify/withdraw but she didn’t have the savvy to deal with it & got very stroppy. I’d say someone in the Kilkenny hurling camp should be having a quiet word with Peter Shilton too, or there could be a massive splash in The County Wexford Free Press before we play them in a while.
6 Likes
Maybe the OTB interviewer should have directed the question to the PR stooge off camera and asked them about SPAR diversity and inclusion.
I think it’s safe to assume at this stage that OTB sprung it on her unexpectedly. She did an entire book tour over the winter (including on OTB) where it wasn’t brought up once. I imagine her and her handlers presumed that was the end of it. She certainly had no prepared answer anyway apart from saying she didn’t want to talk about it.
I’m not sure anyone wants blood, well I didnt see anyone wanting it. Its a messy situation of her own making sadly. It’ll die down I imagine in time, but it will take time now given how she handled it. Rightly or wrongly.
1 Like
Kellie seems to get on the finest with Zaur anyway
Not sure she actually gave hers. that response put out is likely from the second voice heard on her side of the interview fence.
Is the issue the person she retweeted (a dog whistler).
This is similar to the women’s team singing Up The Ra. In one way it’s about a very prominent sportswoman making an eejit of themselves, but more so it’s about the larger significance of how hateful shite has been allowed to spread unchecked through social media and into society, or in the case of the football team, how a chant which glorifies the murder of civilians has been Disneyfied.
The real point here is how right wing propaganda spreads.
I know who Eva Vlaardingerbroek is, and I know what she is - a Dutch far right propagandist, a peddler of lies and disinformation who is essentially a Nazi - as all these far right propagandists are at heart.
But who in Portland Row knows that? Who in Oughterard knows that? Who on Irish social media knows that?
I know what GB News is. I’ll repeat what it is.
GB News is a lowest common denominator fascist propaganda channel. It exists to provide an endless stream of viral far right content and “talking points” for the internet, to steer public debate in Britain and elsewhere onto terms the far right is comfortable with. It exists to spread hatred against minorities and to rot the brains of white people, or anybody else it can attract with its bullshit.
How many people in Ireland know what GB News is and what its reason for being is?
I’d love it if Marty Morrissey buttered him up with a few compliments on his performance in the League final and then sprung “So, Shilts, tell us about your retweet of neo-Nazi Paul Joseph Watson?”.
You’re right of course… 6 months ago no one cared, but it’s a huge issue now… hopefully she survives
yeah I think that is a fair point, that how easy it is to get people to react like they are to immigration issues. That is not to say that immigration issues shouldnt be questioned or that a full and proper plan and set up be in place, but a lot of those asking questions dont actually understand the question they are asking and seem to latch on to “unvetted males” and other such slogans without fully understanding what they are chanting and arguing against, but the fear is whipped up and it rallies the people. Its why at election times in many countries, the incumbent leader creates a war or some sort of terror threat so that people are afraid and will most likely follow the calls.
Were you not the one who had to head to the local Garda station after some female politician reported online abuse? Seemed a bit out of character for you.
Hopefully Rory O’Connor sticks a few past him into his far right corner.
Wexford! Wexford! Wexford!
4 Likes