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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Irish journalist who heckled President Obama should be fired - Cheap-shot journalism should have no place at the White House

Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 07:01 AM

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The Irish-born journalist Neil Munro who heckled President Obama yesterday in the Rose Garden displayed not only bad manners but also a lack of professionalism that should get him fired.

Munro’s Twitter feed says he was “Born Irish, then became a Cold War bridegroom” – whatever that means.

Journalists have a job to do and the rules are pretty much defined, the White House press corps rules even more so, given the importance of every speech and the need for ground rules.

President Obama was making a major speech on immigration policy. Munro, educated at University College Dublin, was there for the micro-site the Daily Caller run by failed right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson.

The protocol could not be clearer, especially in the Rose Garden. The president speaks, the journalists listen and then there are usually a few questions.

Munro disdained all that protocol to put himself in the upper class twit category (Kings College old chap) by interrupting the president and heckling him on immigration.

Reading his resume with its right wing musings you know it was a very deliberate move by Munro who will enjoy a brief flicker of flame, especially on the far right with this move.

These are the same people who made a brief hero out of an obscure congressman who shouted ‘You lie’ at President Obama during the State of the Union address. The same people who no doubt educate their children to be respectful of adults and always remember to be polite — except when it comes to the president of the United States.

When it all dies away however, Munro will be back to well-deserved obscurity, and hopefully his editors, who are unlikely to fire him, will too.

If it were someone I employed I would certainly let him or her go or deliver a stern warning. There has to be a modicum of decency, a set of social rules that are followed in such circumstances, irrespective of who the president is, Republican or Democrat.

Munro didn’t know about them or decided to ignore them. His pathetic excuse that he was trying to be first to ask a question doesn’t wash – in fact it is an obvious lie.

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joanxis | Jul 04, 2012, 10:19 PM EDT

Of course it's your right not to like the president. That doesn't mean you have to be rude or boorish or decide you don't have to follow protocal when dealing with him. And if you do think you are entitled to be rude, etc. because you don't like him then - shame on you.

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Helen Ferone | Jun 23, 2012, 10:52 AM EDT

Everyone (including journalists) should be able to express their opinions re: the president. After all, not everyone likes him, and that's our right, isn't it?

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BrianO | Jun 22, 2012, 10:05 AM EDT

herban, They made a documentary on how to assassinate George Bush, I don't think it was because he was white, I believe Dan Rather produced a fake story about Mr. Bush accusing him of not serving in the national guard, I think he did this because he thought Bush was not smooth or cool enough. But hey its all good natured fun when coming from the left, either character assassination or real assassination, no mean spirited foulmouthed little jerks involved I'm sure.

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seanomelb | Jun 20, 2012, 08:34 PM EDT

I presume Briano that you believe the rest of the presidents statements are smooth cool and brilliant as you can only nitpick on the mundane.Nice one Herbangoddess you've got Briano on the run.

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maryosullivan | Jun 20, 2012, 02:34 PM EDT

Herbangoddess; your are correct,of course, and BrianO proves it

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BrianO | Jun 20, 2012, 01:01 PM EDT

Herbanoddness, First you have a lovely writing style, though I would agree with few of your conclusions. For someone who is smooth, cool, and brilliant, the president makes a lot of mistakes and mis-statements. Simple mistakes such as 57 states, corpsman,speaking austrian, police acting stupidly. To the larger ones, like spreading the wealth around, using czars to usurp the congress, now executive orders to usurp the congress. But hey dictatorships are cool.

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Herbangoddess | Jun 20, 2012, 12:30 PM EDT

Pickateer, are you that gutsy when you are not hiding behind a computer screen? All presidents are attacked, slandered and maligned. Still, I have not seen in 55 years of watching politics any president spoken of, about or to like this president. I suspect that I have lived more history than you have read. Perhaps it is because Obama he is black -but I think that is just a ruse. Perhaps it is because he is smooth, cool and brilliant after eight years of watching a man who was none of those things. I personally think that we have become a nation of mean spirited, small minded, foul mouthed, greedy little jerks who engage in hate recreationally. We don't seem to have the good judgment to distinguish political opposition from loathing, anymore than we can perceive degrees or shades of hate. Thus we direct a level of a malice at the 44th President that would be more appropriately aimed at a serial killer, a mass murderer or a child molester. That says a hell of a lot more about us than it does about Obama.

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Mousemess | Jun 20, 2012, 11:03 AM EDT

I dtaobh Neil Munro, mo naire air! Concerning Neil Munro, shame on him!

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pickateer | Jun 20, 2012, 10:52 AM EDT

Check your historical facts twit! The Liberal press in America did it time and time again to President Reagan, and predictably there was no outcry in the news about their tacky behavior!

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Herbangoddess | Jun 19, 2012, 07:44 PM EDT

Thank you seanomelb.

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Herbangoddess | Jun 19, 2012, 07:36 PM EDT

Are you conversant with the English language? I didn’t say Obama was disturbed. I said he was pissed off, and I am glad to see it. I am not a reporter. You might refrain from showing your ignorance and cracking wise about people strange to you. I have just been around long enough to see one or two real reporters at work. I remember the media, both sides of the isle, bending over backward to kiss Bush's rosy red when we went looking for the mythological weapons of mass destruction. I remember those same media humps lowering the bar because he was the kind a guy, "they wanted to have a beer with." Really? Spare me your Bush sniveling. The man was a disaster in the White House. He was an embarrassment to his own party. He is conspicuous by his absence from Romney’s campaign. Even Willard isn’t that thick. As to Munro being terminated - who gives a damn. He is just another empty wagon, and on that day he rattled the loudest. The world is full of them, man. We are all in sensory overload.

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seanomelb | Jun 19, 2012, 07:36 PM EDT

Enjoyed your article Herbangoddess pithy an too the point

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boydshield | Jun 19, 2012, 06:02 PM EDT

Align himself with the right? No, Niall, we are not rude, crude, and socially unacceptable as Munro. Quit digging at us, you are sounding too much like the man himself.

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GRIFHEALY | Jun 19, 2012, 04:02 PM EDT

Such nonsense. You think, because Obama the Great might be disturbed, the man's livelihood should be terminated, makes you a biased reporter yourself. What a hypocrite you are. Maybe you remember how the press acted with Bush. No.....

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Herbangoddess | Jun 19, 2012, 01:59 PM EDT

I for one am accustomed to asses masquerading as reporters. We have them in the Rose Garden, the Press Room, on T.V. and on the radio. This guy isn't remarkable or unique. The 1st Amendment gives every mouth speaking from inside a sigmoid colon the right to make of fool of its owner. Obama probably knew what he was in for when he ran for president and anticipated being spoken to by shock jocks in cheap suits as if he were the guy who parks their car. So what? Come November the electorate will go to the polls and give Obama the nod for a second term or they won't. What's-his-name will have nothing to do with it. In fact, his slender few seconds of fame will long be gone and he will have sunk back into the public toilet that was once the free press to become just another infomercial performer in a tank full of them. The only thing that I find offensive here is the idea that this person bares any resemblance to a journalist. It is the function of a journalist to report the news, not make it. We haven’t many journalists in America anymore, half a dozen maybe. There is Brian Williams and Sam Donaldson to name two. These men wouldn’t behave like this not because it is rude or offensive or even breaks protocol – but because it is stupid. In the same way it is stupid to drive drunk or take a swing at a cop. The only important thing that really came out of this is that Obama got pissed off. Good for him. I’ve been waiting three years to see him get passed that fear of the angry black man stereotype. The Oval Office is no place for Gandhi or Cary Grant. Lucky Luciano, now there is a thought.

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