Monday, June 13, 2005

Mary Ellen Synon – back?

I've seen Mary Ellen Synon's by-line in the Sunday Business Post a couple of times in the past few months. I thought she had been banned for life from the Irish media after her remarks about the Paralympics in the Sunday Independent in 2000.

I winced when I read what she wrote about the Paralympics at the time. I thought she was wrong about the Paralympics, but not about the political correctness that led to them being on t.v. Anyone can organize whatever games they want and award medals to people as they choose. Whether the Paralympics should have been on t.v. is impossible to say as the only channels available that showed the Paralympics in Ireland were state-owned and taxpayer-funded (RTE & BBC). I'm skeptical that the market for the Paralympics was that great, but we don't have a free market in television.

I have to admit I was uncomfortable and uninterested whenever the Sydney Paralympics came on the t.v. I switched off every time. I know from asking around I wasn't the only one. So, I thought it was a little harsh the way she was hounded out of the media here for what was an ill-advised rant aimed, inaccurately, at political correctness.

Now that she's back, at least sort of, I'm glad to see that she hasn't lost her bite. She has been living and working in Brussels for the past year and didn't find the male Eurocrats much to her liking:
Here is another thing about the capital of Europe. The female fonctionnaires at the Commission are notably better looking than their male colleagues. I suspect it is because the kind of man who thinks a career in the Commission is a proper job for a man must lack testosterone. It makes for weak jaw-lines and narrow shoulders.
To a large extent, hubris was a big part of her downfall. If she can keep that in check without losing her edge as a journalist/columnist I'll be glad to see her back in print regularly.