"RTE in Fianna Fáil's pocket"

The Beer Baron

I can't remember who said it, or if it was last night or the previous night but there was a part in Oireachtas Report where this comment was made and in their defence Mary O Rourke laughed it off nervously saying the notion was ridiculous but I'm not so sure. Touching lightly on the smoking ban I felt their "coverage" of it was beyond biased showing an almost pastoral drinking scene in a Dublin pub whilst playing down concerns that other people continue to have about it. I'm not happy with it, all my friends I've talked with (smokers and non-smokers) aren't happy but RTE aren't showing that. At least as far as the smoking ban is concerned, they have RTE in their pocket. But there's more...

I find RTE's coverage to be less and less objective of late, a trend I've noticed in the past few years but growing more and more obvious. Not that I'm a big Fianna Gaél fan either but they do seem to portray them in a light that's beyond incompetant, perhaps this might change if Fianna Fáil find themselves out the door next election but still...more and more I've seen this, I've seen debates where FF are given free reign of the microphone to spout disembodied statistics to defend their incompetance whilst any challenge is cut dead by the presenter or, of course, let's not forget the old, "If I may stop you there minister" whilst they give FF the green light.

I may or may not be imagining this, perhaps I'm biased in hatred for Bertie, Harney et all then again perhaps I'm not the only one to have noticed this. Certainly RTE imo seems to be painting a rosier picture of the country than the one I see. Perhaps I should take the advice someone gave me in another thread and stop watching it altogether as RTE really does "rot your brain."

Zombrex

Originally posted by The Beer Baron
Touching lightly on the smoking ban I felt their "coverage" of it was beyond biased showing an almost pastoral drinking scene in a Dublin pub whilst playing down concerns that other people continue to have about it. I'm not happy with it, all my friends I've talked with (smokers and non-smokers) aren't happy but RTE aren't showing that.

You are kidding right. All RTE ever do is show reports about how the pub owners are up in arms and how it is never going to be implimented properly. I am normally a supporter of RTE, and I think they should cover the objections to the smoking ban, but if this fails it will be because the media (TV3 and UTV as well) have painted a picture that no one wants it and that it will never be implimented, which I don't think is true.

mike65

I'm confused, most ppl are happy enough with the smoking ban as far as I can see. But maybe its all an RTE plot?

Mike.

Zombrex

No I think it is just that the landlords are good at getting media attention. Every pub owner in Ireland seemed to be up in arms over it. I don't blame RTE, if the landlords object it is up to RTE to cover them.

The Beer Baron

I felt the smoking coverage on the night in question with it's, "now we go live to Sharon in a handpicked pub..." lark was a little, well, staged. My opinion, surely not everyones. This smoking lark has divided the country no doubt, but this isn't another smoking thread as I'll just loose my temper and bonkey'll ban me like the last time I broached the subject in here...

Ok- right scrap that- let's close this 20 box of Pandora's Lights before we get sidetracked- my original question remains- does anyone else feel RTE's coverage is (generally speaking) somewhat biased towards the current government?

C'mahn it's not like I'm asking do FF cover up alien abductions- and I'm certainly not the only one who tihnks it...

rde

There are, I think, two points to be made here; first of all, any journalist (or organisation) that's doing its job properly is going to be accused of bias; the trick is to be accused by both sides. It's only a few months (if memory serves) since some were complaining that George Lee had it in for Fianna Fail. To my mind, this is a good thing with regard to RTE.

Second; don't confuse support for the smoking ban with support for the government. To be honest, I've read so many reports from various newspapers around the world I can't tell them apart any more, but it seems to me that the vast majority of them -and I'm including RTE here - made a big deal about the offended parties, how they'd never vote Fianna Fail again, nanny state, etc etc.

To encapsulate: nothing to worry about. Go about your business.

vorbis

I think they're about fair. The smoking ban is arguably supported by a majority. Certainly, it seems to be going ok so far.

mike65

On the broader point, no I dont dedect any particular bias. Sure FF/PD gets lots of coverage but thats cos they're in power. It should be noted that broadly speaking things are not too awful for Rep Of Ireland plc.

If we had mass emmigration, thousands joining the dole queues evry month, etc then there would be more ppl on the telly saying nasty things about FF/PDs. As it is Liveline on Radio 1 has spent weeks being critical about a number of government matters - notably working widows pensions. But I guess radio is'nt as obvious as TV News. That said Mary Harney has said the widows pension issue needs looking at again only this week so it has an effect.

Mike.

Nuttzz

If RTE is in FF's pocket we wouldnt have seen things like the primetime special on the dodgy coppers etc.

star gazer

originally posted by mike65
If we had mass emmigration, thousands joining the dole queues evry month, etc then there would be more ppl on the telly saying nasty things about FF/PDs.

Fair enough people would complain more, but if you are to judge the government i think they have to be judged by their effectiveness with the resources put at their disposal. The government isn't the be all and end all of the irish economy, and social services but it does have some specific inputs. Failure of the effectiveness of this government could be used as a valid argument by the media if they so chose.

Health is the clearest example of poor performance, €10 billion spent, a lot more to spend and we still wait for years a proper health service.
Transport policy hasn't been effective in tackling traffic congestion, maybe the Luas will help, but it ain't no metro.
The widows pension was an example of ideology gone too far, why would mary Coughlan do it since she isn't particularly right wing? It's not as if the money wasn't there for it. It is going to be reversed anyway, just a question of when.

ReefBreak

I would say that, if anything, RTÉ are very much pro-Labour. This from yesterday's Sindo:

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=44&si=1158368&issue_id=10683

There was also the recent thing regarding a senator/TD criticising an RTE reporter - he said her reports on the health service were biased because the reporter's sister was running for local election. I can't remember the exact details at the moment, but I'll try and dig them up.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

star gazer

originally posted by reefbreak
There was also the recent thing regarding a senator/TD criticising an RTE reporter - he said her reports on the health service were biased because the reporter's sister was running for local election. I can't remember the exact details at the moment, but I'll try and dig them up.

It was a Fianna Fáil senator terry leydon giving out about sen Kathleen O Meara's sister Aileen i think. I certainly wasn't convinced by it, Fianna Fail are always crying foul, but at some point i think my sympathy for them went the media treat the government quite well, including rte imho. The use of the licence fee as a source of pressure is a tactic that came up as far back as in 'Yes Minister' when the minister wanted to do an 'entrance' again by driving out and back in again (ie the camera crew do what he wanted). The bbc crew remarked, the licence fee is coming up again isn't it? Before 2002 there was a long period of no increase and suddenly there was a big €35 increase after the election. maybe it was just a coincidence.

In fairness to rte they do have several different current affairs programs, each with their own editorial team and if they are overly critical of any party in one it usually gets balanced up somewhere else.