Prime Time Problems. Ministerial Protection?
Posted by Maman Poulet on 06 Mar 2009 at 12:27 am | Tagged as: Irish Media, Irish Politics, MSM
Update - It’s on Youtube. Thanks Duke
At the moment I hope someone somewhere is preparing a Freedom of Information request on Prime Time on RTE1. I hope other people are getting their hard drives out and uploading the video. Will RTE show the programme online as it was transmitted?
Tonight Minister for State with responsibility for Older People, Maire Hoctor, was interviewed from the Limerick studio regarding the rationale for scrapping the publication of the National Carers Strategy.
The interview which followed a feature on carers and their views on the strategy and the situation facing carers at the moment, was pre-recorded but we were not told that. The Minister fluffed her lines to the answer to the first question. She stumbled and stalled. A voice spoke in her ear and Miriam told her not to worry and she ‘did it all the time’. From what we saw (twice!) the Minister did not seem to be having any problems hearing the studio in Dublin or getting delayed sound etc. Arrangements were made to start again. This clip was played twice and then we cut to voice of a continuity announcer apologising in RTE presentation.
About 60 seconds later we returned to studio and a fresh intro and the Minister for State answered the question without fluffing. The piece concluded and we went to Mark Little. He apolgogised for the technical problem and admitted that sometimes the show did to prerecords and sometimes things go wrong.
Tonight viewers realised that if Government Ministers feck it up during a pre-record they get a second or even third chance. Especially when facing the harder questions regarding the thousands of carers and people needing support around the country who were dumped on Monday.
For the FOI preparers and rival news stations and nobody in particular some thoughts -:
- How many times do these prerecords happen and how many times in last 12 months have Government Ministers requested pre-records? Are Ministers aware that they can be stopped and restarted?
- If the interview were versus a member of the opposition would the ministers be able to get a pre-record and a second chance to begin their interview. (Tonight the Minister was debating against Enda Egan, CEO of The Carers Association who didn’t give her a lot of problems.)
The second part of the programme will surely be blogged about elsewhere – it was one long plug for a new website and seemingly government endorsed initiative, Ideascampaign.ie. A live (?) studio interview preceded by a few good news stories or indications where they might be found – this is hardly Current Affairs? Especially when guests and presenters sat at chat show chairs trying to do the afternoon show at 10pm at night.
All of the above is heavily influenced by the continuing stories from Montrose these days that the Government Press Office is leaning heavy on RTE telling programmes what to cover and how to cover it. Unfortunately RTE News and Current Affairs have been messing up a lot recently in terms of presentation problems never mind editorial decisions.
PS: Just got a text to say Aileen O’Toole from Ideas Campaign will probably have me for her whinge jar for all above!
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RTÉ. Pravda. Spot the difference.
And thanks to the government, such an FOI request could cost hundreds of euros.
A broadsheet journalist recently told me that he was at the press conference that Jean Claude Trichet said “the Irish economy is grrrrand” (obviously not quoting directly now… but you get my drift) and he interpreted what Trichet said as (this is a direct quote) “a thinly-veiled criticism of the Irish Government and where the country is going, but that’s not how RTE reported it.”
Interesting.
I’d be surprised if anyone was preparing an FOI, if it’s a common occurrance then it’s probably widely known in the political/media/TV circles.
Yup I’d be very surprised also if FOI requests were being prepared – just wondering who else will be asking the questions – few in Broadsheet land ask any questions of RTE beyond the stars salaries or covering blasphemy on Late Late Show. Papers etc also are not into spending the money.
We have no media analysis programmes on any channel where questions are being asked about production values and editing decisions. One of the things I wanted to write about recently (on that ever growing list!) is the BBC editor blogs and how RTE should follow suit.
[...] RTÉ blatantly going easy on government ministers in [...]
Why would you limit the FOI to Government Ministers?
[...] Poulet quite rightly questions how many goes RTÉ gives Ministers to answer questions after last night’s [...]
Because I doubt RTE would bend over backwards to accommodate Opposition TD’s – they could always find another one!
Almost 50 years ago, an American sociologist Erving Goffman wrote a gem of a book about ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’. In it, Goffman claimed we are -to put it in the vernacular – trying to keep control of communication with others and put out best foot forward. What is alarming is how the media colludes with the govt in letting them keep one step ahead through pre-records, whereas some opposition politicians have to fight hostile journalists on live TV.
Vincent Browne threw a hissy fit on his TV news show the other night as Joan Burton completely stood her ground over ‘what labour would do’ to get us out of the poop… he was nearly crying with frustration (joyous in itself!) I have never seen a Govt minister being grilled in the same way – and one might ask why not? Burton stuck to the line that she wasn’t going to blurt out policies live on air, and intimated that govt ministers (who’d been in govt for 12 years) didn’t have full appreciation of the facts, etc. Browne pooh-poohed this notion, only to have Biffo admit in the Dail that the govt didn’t know how bad things were until the day of the most recent cabinet meeting. This was announced in the Dail where no media could question the known knowns and unknown knowns, etc and no media savaged govt ineptitude (btw: Rumsfeld was actually trying to articulate a philosophical position ya know!)
In short, the mainstream media is still really cowed into submission, and we need more a more critical approach. The media completed failed us when Haughey came to power and nobody raised hard questions about his financial and other affairs, they must not be complicit with FF now.
What are you basing that on? Do you have any evidence of that.?
Are you saying that if Richard Burton came on fluffed his lines RTE would say. Richard get the feck up off the chair we are getting Aengus Ó Snodaigh?
Don’t have empirical evidence – just watched far too much Irish media in last 6 months and I’ve spoken to journalists and researchers about the current behaviour of GPS and ministerial press officers.
And I’m saying an opposition member would not be offered a pre-record for an item in same way a minister would. Different rules in operation as Ministers are golddust…and from last night we see get minded and kidglove treatment.
I doubt there is any point in preparing any FoIs on this. I would think that requests for re-records would not be retained in files in a Department.
[...] tips for the clip go to Maman Poulet, and YouTuber, Duke [...]
[...] tips for the clip go to Maman Poulet, and YouTuber, Duke [...]
From the ideascampaign.ie web site:
“It’s a grassroots, independent campaign for citizens, by citizens.”
Here’s the list of “independent” “citizens” behind it:
American Chamber of Commerce Ireland
Business in the Community companies in Ireland on corporate responsibility
Chambers Ireland
Institute of Directors – representative body for chairpersons, directors and senior executives
Irish Association of Advertising Practitioners
Irish Internet Association
Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association
Irish Security Industry Association
Marketing Institute of Ireland
Mediators Institute of Ireland
“The Ideas Campaign is calling on you, the people of Ireland, to propose solutions that will help rebuild the economy.”
…that we will then make a quick buck from:
“By submitting the idea you are thereby granting The Ideas Campaign the perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, copy, modify, edit, translate, publish, display, post, transmit, distribute, SELL or part company with your submitted idea WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION TO YOU”
P.
An ‘error’ or someone in RTE deciding to get some revenge after the cutbacks were announced?
Aparantly she was in Adare giving out Carers certificates, of all things, at the time prime time was being transmitted, hence the reason the interview was pre-recorded.
It wouldn’t have hurted though if they had said “well earlier I spoke to politician X and Mr Y…” like they do on the news.
Hi guys, don’t worry. We’re looking for big picture ideas for the economy, not business plans or anything confidential. The Ts and Cs were written by lawyers, there’s a surprise, but we’re about to publish a layperson’s interpretation of them on the site. Check back in a few minutes.
Here is the original video posed on you tube By Duke MacGyver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWmnQtZljjw&feature=channel_page
[...] Maman Poulet has the background. [...]
[...] censor RTÉ at all times and this is the second one I know of. The first is Ministers been given a g0-over in interviews. Suzy has of course the full catalogue of pressure RTÉ are under from the [...]
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