RTÉ’s Another Long Day of Cock-Ups and It’s Only 3rd December.
And in other news, Well done Tommy Meskill on the 6.1 new job!
Only in Ireland could our national broadcaster, RTE with a budget the size of a small nation, confidently announced 6.1 that Simon Harris is the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence only for the Nine O’Clock News to quietly confirm he is in fact the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, the position he was appointed to about a week or so ago.
You genuinely couldn’t make it up but it did make me doubt myself was I watching a recording. Nope it was live tv which i am paying for as a licence payer! As a former RTE newsroom journalist, I could not believe my eyes. And speaking of the Six One, cue drum roll!
RTE HR team recently conducted what can only be described as a Leaving Cert for broadcasters lengthy interviews with frontline presenters and its HR department (I’m told) a request for 1,000 word essays from the broadcasters on why they should co-anchor the much watched 6.1 programme.
After all that head scratching, whispering in Montrose corridors and speculation about who might land the coveted gig beside Sharon Tobin news broke yesterday that the exceptionally talented and much-liked London Editor Tommy Meskill has been appointed as the new Six One co-presenter and will be coming home.
Well done sir!
A neat solution to the Six.1 dilemma especially after David McCullagh from Six.1 moved to morning radio, leaving not one but two holes in RTÉ’s busy and punishing schedule. The London Editor’s seat and the Washington Editor’s Sean Whelan’s seat will now be vacant. A game of musical chairs that would make even Brussels blush.
A very well known senior and former RTE journalist told me “RTÉ’s staffing approach is simple, why fix one hole when you can open two more?”
But here’s the big chunky bit that really matters,
If RTÉ expects the public, your hard earned change and our Government to continue pouring millions into the Montrose money pit, the absolute minimum standard is knowing who the key Ministers are especially the ones who control the chequebook.
When the State broadcaster and its newsroom keeps tripping over its own shoelaces on basic facts, it doesn’t inspire confidence in the value of the RTÉ Fund.
