David Quinn
RTÉ Television Centre Senior representatives from RTÉ appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Communications last week, including the head of news and current affairs, Deirdre McCarthy, and Kevin Bakhurst, the Director General.
Much of the time recently, RTÉ has found itself embroiled in controversies over expenses, or the amount of money paid to presenters, or presenters doing ‘nixers’, so to speak, seeming to exploit the high profile RTÉ gives them in order to boost their earnings more.
But Senator Rónán Mullen, a member of the aforementioned committee, raised what is ultimately a far more important question, namely whether our national broadcaster is guilty of ideological bias, whether that be conscious or unconscious.
Needless to say, neither Kevin Bakhurst, not Deirdre McCarthy would accept this for one moment. McCarthy emphasised that the station is obliged to represent all the viewpoints that exist in the wider society. And that is obviously true, but can it really be said that they are meeting this obligation?
Bakhurst referred to the “cliché of groupthink” and stressed that the various current affairs programmes have editorial independence which helps to guard against the possibility of groupthink. But frankly, it does not, not if most presenters, researchers, producers and journalists share broadly the same view on everything.
Bakhurst told Rónán Mullen he does not seek to find out the political leanings of RTÉ staff, because that would be a bit too North Korean-like. But he does not need to explicitly ask his staff about their politics. That will be clear from news meetings. It will be clear from what interests them, what gets them enthused, what annoys them, what stories they want to follow up, and how, what stories they don’t want to follow up, and crucially, what questions get asked and don’t get asked.
For example, if you were working at the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in Britain, you would expect journalists there to be keen on stories that make Brexit look bad, or the Conservative party look bad. You would expect them to avoid stories that cast high immigration and multi-culturalism in a bad light, or transgender ideology.
At the right-leaning Daily Telegraph, you would expect pretty much the opposite of all this, namely journalists there, or the editors at least, would favour stories that cast Brexit in a good light, that might be critical of high immigration or multi-culturalism, that are more willing to quote critics of transgender ideology. And so on.
RTÉ gives every impression from its news and current affairs output that it much more closely resembles the Guardian than the Daily Telegraph.
Given how this issue could not be more important, this is a very, very strange thing. Why won’t RTÉ give the issue due coverage”
For example, the station gives very little impression that it willing to entertain a proper discussion about Ireland’s very high immigration levels. For example, when have you ever come across a big RTÉ story about the fact that the number of economic migrants entering the country is, relative to our population size, one of the very highest in Europe?
British media, especially the likes of the aforementioned Daily Telegraph, are always running headlines about high immigration levels, but not RTÉ, even though Ireland has much higher per capita immigration than Britain. Given how this issue could not be more important, this is a very, very strange thing. Why won’t RTÉ give the issue due coverage?
Debate
Or what about the way it covers climate policy? We can be sure the station will cover every report that comes out saying we are falling behind our carbon emissions reduction targets, or that the world is warming up even faster than previously thought. But how often will you hear a proper debate about the trade-offs involved in climate policy, for example, that the attempt to reduce emissions means we must all pay more for our heating via higher carbon taxes?
Or why aren’t our electricity bills coming down when more and more of our electricity is being generated by renewable energy, and wind and solar power is said to be ‘free’?
Or has all the investment in bike lanes been worth it when it appears to be having little effect on commuter habits, and the main effect seem to be to make life more difficult for motorists? Instead, bike lanes are presented as an unquestioned good.
Is the EU ever properly debated? Almost everything that comes out of Brussels is treated as another unquestioned good even though there are perfectly valid debates to be had about the degree to which each EU member-state should cede more sovereignty to Brussels and whether Brussels always gets things right.
Kevin Bakhurst dismissed the possibility of groupthink at the station but seems to have forgotten why he was brought into RTÉ”
And can it honestly be said RTÉ has allowed a full and honest debate about transgender ideology? When Liveline did feature such a discussion a few years ago, pro-transgender activists protested loudly and accused the station of ‘hate’. It beat a hasty retreat.
How many RTÉ headlines do you remember reporting that we now have 10,000 abortions taking place annually here?
Kevin Bakhurst dismissed the possibility of groupthink at the station but seems to have forgotten why he was brought into RTÉ for his first period at the station, back in 2012. It was after the Fr Kevin Reynolds debacle, when the station aired a programme called ‘Mission to Prey’ which accused Fr Reynolds of fathering a child while living in Kenya.
It turned out that the child in question was not his. A simple DNA test proved this, but the makers of the programme were convinced they were right. Fr Reynolds sued the station for defamation and won a big sum of money.
Groupthink
A subsequent investigation was conducted into how such a terrible mistake could have been made. The investigation, by Anna Carraher of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, said that a “groupthink” mentality existed on the programme in question. The makers were convinced Fr Reynolds was guilty and an offer made by Fr Reynolds to take a paternity test was dismissed as a tactic to derail the programme.
Bakhurst was also brought into the station after a programme aired a false financial allegation in 2011 against Sean Gallagher, which totally derailed his presidential campaign.
Are we supposed to believe that the kind of thinking which existed at the station when he was brought in the first time is now completely gone, that the station is now free from bias and groupthink? It stretches credulity to say it is.
In fact, dismissing the possibility of bias in the way both Deirdre McCarthy and Kevin Bakhurst did last week may simply be another sign of groupthink, one that dismisses the possibility in advance, because the bias is so deep, it cannot even recognise itself any longer.
The various current programmes have editorial independence which helps to guard against the possibility of groupthink. But frankly, it does not”
Are we supposed to believe that the kind of thinking which existed at the station when he was brought in the first time is now completely gone, that the station is now free from bias and groupthink? It stretches credulity to say it is”