As the wheels came off corporate RTÉ in the last few weeks, one of the more interesting narratives to emerge was that of the wounded and betrayed RTÉ journalist.
In the aftermath of the revelations about the true scale of payments to Ryan Tubridy, an impromptu protest meeting was organised by the NUJ outside RTÉ in Montrose. The crowd heard stories of poorly paid researchers and even remote controls without batteries. The implications were clear: RTÉ journalists were also victims of RTÉs rogue management.
First reality check for this narrative might involve considering that such working conditions are by no means confined to RTÉ – in fact, in the modern workplace they are now more like the norm. Second reality check, and more important, how come RTÉs finest journalists hadn’t blown the whistle on the organisation long before this?
The idea that the cream of Ireland’s public service broadcasting investigative journalists could be so totally unaware not just of the financial goings on but the broader corporate culture of RTÉ defies belief. This is especially so as a sizeable section of the Irish population, far from being shocked, have long since come to the conclusion that RTÉ is no longer fit for purpose.
It is worth reflecting briefly on state broadcaster RTÉ’s own sense of itself before its fall from grace. Remember Truth Matters? This is the narrative that RTÉ has relentlessly been pushing about itself in recent times. In brief, it has promoted a view of RTÉ as a bulwark of truth against the evils of misinformation, social media and the mythical far-right.
It’s a narrative that RTÉ journalists and staffers have been quite happy to play along with although it is now clear that, in terms of misinformation, corporate RTÉ is, and has been, in a league of its own.
RTÉ’s self-serving view of itself was by no means confined to RTÉ and its insiders. In 2020, Minister Catherine Martin set up the Future of Media Commission to look at the future of the Irish media industry in the context of a rapidly changing media landscape.
In July 2022 – when RTÉ was busily planning its €2m Toyshow Musical flop – Martin’s Future of Media Commission report was finally published giving RTÉ a glowing endorsement emphasising its crucial role in public service broadcasting in Ireland.
How could the Future of Media Commission get it so wrong about RTÉ? Even the idea that pop station 2FM – subsidised to the tune of about €5m per year by the licence fee – constitutes an essential part of public service broadcasting in today’s media landscape hardly stands up to scrutiny. Neither was the growing public perception that RTÉ’s reliance on public money makes it less inclined to criticise those who control this funding examined in any detail.
Instead, the Commission appears to have swallowed RTÉ’s own narrative about itself hook, line and sinker. In its report, far more time is devoted to considering ways of funding RTÉ than to any serious examination of its structures, functions and corporate culture.
For the record, one of the main recommendations of the Future of Media Commission was that RTÉ would be put directly on the state payroll rather than having to extract money from increasingly disgruntled TV licence payers. It was the one recommendation that was rejected by the Cabinet – perhaps, even then, politicians had a sense that RTÉ’s goose was well and truly cooked.
In many ways, the Future of Media Commission was typical of the ‘inside the tent’ mentality that pervades much of the Irish media scene. The Commission was made up mainly of media practitioners and academics who were already largely onside with the Irish mainstream media’s own narrative about itself. Those not represented included the growing number who increasingly question things like the liberal left bias found in much Irish media output including that of public service broadcaster RTÉ.
As RTÉs financial and corporate dirty laundry has continued to tumble unceremoniously out of the Montrose wardrobe, the emerging narrative seized on by RTÉ staffers has been the one about how they too are victims in all of this. However, this smacks more of formerly loyal insiders frantically trying to distance themselves from a failing media brand.
The abiding sense of what is now unfolding at RTÉ is of an inside the tent organisation that ultimately tripped itself up. The notion that the public service broadcaster’s problems are really all down to some rogue elements at senior management level hardly impresses most Irish people.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen a lot of narratives being spun by the key players in the RTÉ saga. These have included the self-serving narratives of RTÉ’s so-called ‘talent’; its senior management; talent agents and even RTÉ’s own journalists and staff.
The one thing that all of these players have in common is that they have all operated inside the Montrose tent and have been quite happy to do so. Doing so meant gorging themselves on an annual €200m bonanza all the while playing the public service broadcasting card.
It is worth remembering that viewers and listeners who do not go along with RTÉ’s exalted view of itself still face the prospect of being fined or jailed. That is the business end of RTE’s sense of public service broadcasting these days.
The only narrative that counts at this stage is the one regarding the fundamental reform of a media organisation founded in the last century. Propping up a failing broadcaster with more public money or blaming RTÉ senior management will only result in public service broadcasting being brought into further disrepute. Perhaps, it’s time that reform finally replaced RTÉ’s own inhouse drama.