RTÉ execs return for another grilling at the media committee barbecue – but where's the beef?

Irish Times

7 days ago

The members of the freshly formed Oireachtas media committee must have been exhausted after their speed-grilling of RTÉ's 'leadership team' during a frenetic Q & A session in the bowels of Leinster House.
As for their barbecue meat of choice, the witnesses were only slightly seared compared to the long hours of intensive basting they endured from two separate committees two years ago at the glorious height of the Tubsgate and flip-flop fiasco hearings.
New chairman, Labour's Alan Kelly, still sounds traumatised. He was on the Public Accounts Committee at the time.
'I lost days of my life in this room a couple of years ago,' he shuddered on Wednesday, before bravely wading back into the Montrose murk. 'I lost days of my life here.'
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Two more survivors turned up for duty – former senators Malcolm Byrne (FF) and Micheál Carrigy (FG) are back on the media committee, but as TDs this time.
The high attrition rate was not lost on one post-election deputy observing the line-up for
RTÉ
v Leinster House: the rematch. 'More RTÉ executives than politicians survived.'
Committee meetings can very dull, under-attended affairs, particularly when the issue under scrutiny isn't headline-friendly. Members just nip in and ask their question for the TikTok before scuttling out.
This one was very well attended, on all sides.
'There's enough people here to fill a hurling team, in fairness,' remarked Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny Peter 'Chap' Cleere, telling the DG it was good to see such a fine turnout. 'So fair play for that.'
The chair was pleased to note that all of the committee members were present for duty.
In a commendable display of time and people management, Alan and his colleagues managed to get in three rounds of rapid-fire questions in a 2½-hour slot in Committee Room Three.
This gave Senator Rónán Mullen a chance to get all his misgivings about the national broadcaster off his chest with persistent questioning about RTÉ 'groupthink' and the feeling many people have that the national broadcaster does not reflect the perspectives of 'a silenced significant minority in this country'.
Some people believe there is 'a strong systemic bias in favour of so-called progressive points of view'.
Whatever about audience research, do RTÉ ever do any 'staff research' to ascertain if 'too many people think the same way about certain things in your organisation'?
Kevin Bakhurst was rather taken aback by this. 'I think that would be a little bit North Korean.'
But that didn't stop Rónán, who came back later to suggest an 'audit' of staff to find out if there is 'an excessive' sameness of opinion.
'I'm not going to ask people in RTÉ what their religious or political views are,' replied the DG.
'I didn't mention religious,' shot back Rónán. Perish the thought.
'You could do an audit and you could do it confidentially.'
The DG repeated that RTÉ is 'not a North Korean broadcaster'.
Wouldn't that be brilliant, though.
Professional journalists and management heads hauled into a Donnybrook star chamber so an expert in Dublin 4 wokery could hit them with Mattie McGrath's historic demand from 2023. He shouted it at deputy DG Adrian Lynch at the height of the flip-flop/Tubsgate interrogations.
'Who are ya lyal to?'
'Who am I lying to?'
'No. Who are ya lyal to. Lyal.'
'Oh, loyal. Loyal, loyal, loyal.'
Indeed. Now Galwegian Rónán Mullen wants a Spanish Arch Inquisition. Who are those left-wingers in Montrose loyal to?
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RTÉ confirms €3.6m write down on partly abandoned IT project
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Meanwhile, supersleuth Kelly wanted to know if the organisation shared its statements with the Government's Department of Media before appearing. These statements had important detail on who knew what and when about the write-down of more than €3.5 million on an IT system which didn't come up to scratch.
This embarrassing loss was politely referred to as 'the impairment' by the witnesses.
After much muttering and stuttering all round, it seems that they did share statements. But the committee was told this is not uncommon.
Anyway, Alan asked if anybody knew about this huge loss – way more than the Toy Show The Musical flop or a well-known presenter's emoluments set them back – 'when we were sitting here and talking about Ryan Tubridy'.
Well, they were and they weren't.
An unexpected bonus for the committee popped up last week when reports surfaced about newsroom ructions over a short promotional video currently being shot to showcase RTÉ's excellent newsgathering operation.
'I've never had so many phone calls about an issue, to be honest,' said the committee chairman. Most of them, one assumes, from those many staffers in the newsroom who are not apparently 'livid' over this promo, as their observant leadership team continues to insist.
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Dismay among RTÉ staffers as broadcaster hires actors to play journalists in 'make-believe' ad campaign
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Nothing to see here, stressed newsroom boss Deirdre McCarthy, deferring to the Marketing side for further explanation.
Kevin Bakhurst is 'very irritated' by the ongoing coverage.
Lookit. There were 'only two plants' brought in to take the bare look off the newsroom and he would expect 'our highly professional promotions team' to do a great job putting the promo together. He thinks it will cost less than €100,000.
Those hacks in Montrose must be hallucinating when they talk of seeing way more than two plants in their run-down newsroom where normally ne'er a bit of greenery is to be seen.
As for sending a crew to Brussels to film a segment with distinguished Europe reporter Tony Connelly, the two witnesses who might have been expected to say how many went couldn't remember off the top of their heads.
A question from Chap Cleere on the hiring of 'diverse extras' for the advert got a fuzzy response.
It's all a storm in a teacup, insist the Montrose leadership class.
Coming in at under €100k is a good result, apparently. Imagine what the cost could have been if RTÉ didn't have a long-established Promotions Department, staffed by full-time producers and directors who are employed to create these high-profile adverts.
Instead, said the DG and his deputy, the only outside cost incurred was for a camera crew as all their own people were otherwise engaged.
But then, as the session progressed, things began to unravel a little under some gentle questioning from Senator Garret Ahearne and chairman Kelly.
Hirings widened out to cameras, technicians and sound.
People would like to see the organisation invest money 'in the creative sector outside RTÉ rather than bring all resources in-house', said Bakhurst.
Was the production not run in-house? 'Well, the production team running it are in-house and standard practice would be to get expertise whether it be camera crews or sound people or whatever from outside ...'
Clear as mud.