Jerome Ousted?

[Etienne Lantier]

People in Armagh pay their TV license? Changed times.

Never! Never! Never! Not paying the licence fee is integral to my identity.

[JohnDenver]

According to the article in the Mirror today it was Thomas Kane who done the original touting against Jerome about posting on the board.  He is said to have pointed Watson in the direction of it.

Don't have access to the article to post it up, but looks like he was worried about verbal or physical attacks from supporters.  More thank likely he was seeing a promotion for himself!!

[Any craic]

BBC chiefs could have punished me without sacking me. But in my opinion they just couldn't wait to pull the trigger; JEROME QUINN EXCLUSIVE BROADCASTER HITS BACK.

FOR nearly two decades he was the BBC's face and voice of gaelic games in Northern Ireland.

So when Jerome Quinn suffered the humiliation of being escorted by security staff from Broadcasting House on February 6 last year it was the end of a career that had made him a household name.

It was also the signal for Quinn to put in motion a campaign to clear his name of what he believes was a calculated initiative by the BBC to dispense with his GAA related profile.

Now for the first time he has decided to speak out exclusively to the Daily Mirror.

He admits he acted inappropriately in sending out anonymous website posts criticising the broadcasting priorities of the BBC in relation to coverage of gaelic games.

But he added: "Those postings were never as bad as the way in which the BBC portrayed them. They were never malicious."

It was the tracing of those postings back to his work computer that eventually led to the collapse of his BBC career.

But while Quinn accepts he was naive in using a public forum to spell out his frustration with the BBC, he argues the punishment he suffered was unjustified.

He said: "They could have sanctioned me in a number of ways without sacking me. But in my opinion the BBC couldn't wait to pull the trigger.

"I don't regret challenging the BBC by asking awkward questions.

Those questions were posed in a polite and professional fashion.

"They were based on sound journalistic principles.

In my opinion they reflected the widely held view across the GAA in Ulster that when it comes to being treated fairly the sport continues to be the poor relation.

"There was a mindset in parts of the BBC that was unable to grasp the importance of the GAA.

"Of course I could have accepted the regime. The internal editorial analysis that consistently placed Irish League soccer and Ulster Rugby on a ratings graph way ahead of Gaelic games was one I felt was unfair.

"I could have worked in that environment for another 20 years in a comfort zone. It would have been easy to pocket all the benefits and continue enjoying the associated profile.

"However, I would have felt that my career had meant nothing. I would have sold my soul to suit an image of total conformity."

The Tyrone man says that while he does not regret challenging the impartiality of the BBC's sport coverage the reality of the impact on his life is another matter.

He added: "There has been a huge price.

I now accept that I had started the process of writing my own dismissal letter by questioning the motives of the BBC hierarchy.

"Ever since I was frogmarched out of Broadcasting House there has been a cloud of suspicion surrounding me.

"Friends and former colleagues both within the BBC and in the world of sports journalism have been left unsure what to believe.

"Those doubts were fuelled by the slick presentational skills of the BBC's legal team when I took the corporation to an industrial tribunal. I want those individuals that are still unsure about the motives of Jerome Quinn to know what drove me to put my professional, and ultimately my personal, life on the line.

"That is why I have decided to speak out."

He says he is determined to rebuild his career by focusing on developing the GAA at grassroots through social media outlets.

But he admits his battle with the BBC and the ordeal of taking on a major global organisation through a highly publicised industrial tribunal had a crippling emotional and professional effect.

He added: "I honestly regret going down the Tribunal route. The toll it took on me was enormous. I am only now getting my life back on an even keel.

"I am in a much better place now in terms of understanding what matters in a personal and professional sense.

"But it continues to be a process of one day at a time.

"My battle with the BBC was an allconsuming crusade to get at what I sincerely believed to be the truth behind my sacking.

"I still believe that my dismissal after the discovery of what the BBC deemed to be inappropriate posts was more about sending a corporate message rather than disciplining one individual.

"But I also learned a very hard lesson.

"A single person can't take on an organisation with the vast financial resources of the BBC simply in order to make a moral statement.

"To be honest I did not put forward my evidence as well as I could have.

"I was one man against an organisation that was determined to win.

"But I felt that what had happened to me was wrong. It masked a much wider wrong against the GAA.

"I wanted the BBC to answer in a public way for their treatment of me as a professional and as a supporter of the GAA."

The three-week hearing eventually found in favour of the BBC in rejecting Quinn's claims that he had been unfairly dismissed.

Quinn admitted to the Tribunal that he had sent out anonymous postings questioning the BBC's commitment to Gaelic games.

But he continues to deny he had an agenda to deliberately damage the BBC.

"In the end I lost the legal battle. In the court of GAA public opinion however the BBC failed, and still fails to make the case that it treats Gaelic games on its merits.

"It's the biggest sports organisation in Ulster. It has the largest number of clubs and teams. It draws the biggest aggregate crowds.

"At many club championship matches across the province there will be more spectators than at the Irish Cup final.

"That is the reality of sport in Northern Ireland.

"If the price I have had to pay as an individual ultimately forces the BBC to review its GAA coverage policy then something worthwhile will have been achieved.

"But until the corporation recognises that it has a commitment to the entire community of Northern Ireland its editorial motivation will continue to be questioned by thousands of GAA supporters."


'Big matches neglected'
THE night of November 5, 2008, was when Jerome Quinn's professional career as a BBC broadcaster started to turn to ashes.

The day before, three Ulster Championship quarter-final ties received no televised highlight coverage.

Instead the decision taken was to cover an international surfing event at Portrush.

Mr Quinn said: "I was annoyed by what I felt was an appalling decision, one that was seen by the GAA community as a snub.

"It was that decision that led to me joining the online debate.

"The comments were a threat to no one and they certainly were not dangerous.

"They were no different from the posts I had been making as a GAA fan for years to other GAA supporters."

But it was the sighting of those GAA website posts by two fellow BBC journalists that put in motion a train of events that would eventually lead to his sacking.

Stephen Watson and Thomas Kane both raised personal concerns over their critical tone over the BBC's GAA coverage.

Kane felt anonymous comments by Quinn would place him and other BBC journalists under the threat of verbal and even possibly physical assault while working within a GAA environment.

Quinn revealed it was Kane who alerted Watson by directing him to the website posts.



GAA chiefs hit at Beeb
LETTERS of complaint to the BBC over its Gaelic Games coverage were sent to the corporation by GAA leaders.

And Jerome Quinn is convinced if they had been available they could have had a significant bearing on the eventual finding.

He said: "During the Tribunal the line put forward by the BBC was that they had a good relationship with the Ulster Council.

"I specifically asked the BBC to provide correspondence between themselves and the Ulster GAA. However, they said that there was nothing relevant.

"But a couple of weeks after the Tribunal finished I was told by the Ulster Secretary Danny Murphy a number of letters criticising the BBC's coverage had been sent.

"In a letter to Shane Glynn the Ulster Council registered its "annoyance at the treatment of our games by the BBC in terms of television and radio coverage," adding that the "situation was intolerable".

"That letter was sent in January 2009. Danny Murphy assured me there was more of the same type of correspondence stretching over a prolonged period.

"The frustration of the Ulster Council was underlined in Mr Murphy's Annual Report in 2009.

"To say the least it was disappointing the letters of complaint from the GAA were not available to me before the Tribunal."

[haranguerer]

Ach 'Any craic', sure noone gives a f**k about that bollocks any more 

[Any craic]

Fair enough Thomas

[haranguerer]

Thats 'Mr Supergrass' to you 

[lawnseed]

jez if kane thought he was in danger of a slap before he better think twice now. judas

[ck]

I have to say, I am really dissapointed in the BBC's Thomas Kane is all of this sorry episode. Jerome Quinn has proved himself to be a genuine man of principle who is willing to stand up for what he believes in. Kane is just spineless and is probably more interested in his own career development than any bigger picture that may arise. A small man with a narrow selfish agenda.

[armaghniac]

Keith Duggan in the Irish Times on the matter.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0108/1224287044296.html

[Maguire01]

Nothing new there really.

[isourboydownyet]

Nothing new there really.

i found it a interesting story,but then i dont know that much.

[ziggysego]

Nothing new there really.

I found it to be a good piece too. Not only Jerome's part, but Logie's too, as his departure was a lot more low-key.

[Minder]

An important fact missed in that article is that the O'Neill story was broken by none other than our own Ziggy!

It wasnt, a female poster, whose handle escapes me, broke it before Ziggy.

[Hardy]

Produce this female poster, Minder and her post and the timing, or apologise to scoopmeister Ziggy!

[ziggysego]

It was ME! Thank you for rallying around me guys.

Minder, clear off! :p