And this from a guy who’s host of a show about finance. And that was just the start of it.
It can sometimes come as blow to our self-esteem as Irish people that outsiders don’t deem our country as significant as we’d like them to, but the host of a US TV show was guilty of some frankly shocking ignorance of what happens over here when interviewing IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan this morning.
Shanahan was making an appearance on Squawk Box on CNBC, a business breakfast show concerned with the stock market and international financial markets and was discussing the current situation in Ireland when he was hit with a series of baffling questions by host Joe Kernen.
Kernen and his co-hosts showed a complete lack of awareness of Ireland’s economic position in relation to the UK and while that might be understandable if it was your average American on the street, these people really should know better and it made for a couple of minutes of bizarre television.
Shanahan, to his credit, was polite and dignified throughout, even when Kernen tried to engage in some slightly cringe-worthy small-talk about golf at the end of the piece having had his lack of knowledge exposed on live television.
The bizarre exchanges kicked-in around 7:00 into the interview in the video below and while you might think initially that Kernen’s confused reactions were intentional, it quickly becomes clear that they were anything but.
Video via YouTube/John Scally
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