RTE a.m. news broadcasts

eoineen

Ok, it is time that the quality of RTE's morning news output is questioned. I am specifically interested in hearing what people think of the recent decline in standards in reporting on Morning Ireland.

I'm no defender of "the institution" that is RTE but it appears to me that Morning Ireland has gone down hill in recent weeks. Three things in particular bug me:

1. Paul Reynolds' reports on gang crime consistently getting the basic details of reports incorrect, e.g. calling Jobstown Inn the Johnstown Inn, and being in the pockets of the Garda Press Office more generally. Does the man ever get out of the Courts district in Dublin to report?

2. Toadying features recently on the James Adams sale of independence items. If you called up the general manager of Arnotts' and asked her how much that really expensive couch on the third floor went for yesterday, people would be screaming "stop please stop". Detail here at about 7.20 in the am this morning, Thursday: <www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/rte-morningireland.smil>

3. The banter, oh the banter. Aine Lawlor knowing precious little about football beyond what Des tells her. Oh please.

Where's the news in that?

mike65

Aine Lawlor knows nothing about sport full stop. She also can't read the studio clock and often gets guests names wrong. At times I wonder how she still has the job.

Since David Healy fell ill and 'retired' no-one has really been as good for my money he had gravitas.

More broadly I find the programme rather parochical and starting at 7 am for only 5 days a week is simply unaceptable. If you want to hear a proper first class morning news show then turn the dial to BBC Radio 4 from 6 am.

Mike.

DublinWriter

mike65 wrote:

Since David Healy fell ill and 'retired' no-one has really been as good for my money he had gravitas.

David Hanley you mean? If so, true. He's one of the few people I could do a decent immatation of!

If you want to hear a proper first class morning news show then turn the dial to BBC Radio 4 from 6 am.

True, but John Humphries also screws up reading out the time a lot too!

RTE Radio 1 on the whole is a bit of a basket case. They ocassionally 'tweak' things around a bit and go into full back-slapping mode.

They'll be for stiff competition if Newstalk goes Nationwide.

DMC

This seems to be more of your opinion than really fact... more about what one thinks about personalities, so lets see...

eoineen wrote:

1. Paul Reynolds' reports on gang crime consistently getting the basic details of reports incorrect, e.g. calling Jobstown Inn the Johnstown Inn, and being in the pockets of the Garda Press Office more generally. Does the man ever get out of the Courts district in Dublin to report?

Paul Reynolds is one of the most highly respected journalists on the airwaves, not my opinion, thats known. We can forgive slips of the tongue occasionaly, and what he has to report on is often at the most gruesome end of what our society has. He'd be more in touch with the Guards and special branch officers than just the press office. I'm not sure where it comes from, but people have an awful lot of respect for crime journalists, such as Reynolds, Paul Williams, and the late Veronica Guerin.

eoineen wrote:

2. Toadying features recently on the James Adams sale of independence items. If you called up the general manager of Arnotts' and asked her how much that really expensive couch on the third floor went for yesterday, people would be screaming "stop please stop". Detail here at about 7.20 in the am this morning, Thursday: <www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/rte-morningireland.smil>

All the media is talking about 90th anniversary of 1916, and all media were commentating on this particular auction. I see no issue in the interview either taking place, or interviewing the auctioneer. Hardly toadying and I did listen to that live this morning. Auctioneers are paid to sound slimey

eoineen wrote:

3. The banter, oh the banter. Aine Lawlor knowing precious little about football beyond what Des tells her. Oh please.

Where's the news in that?

People look for sports news at that hour, and even on Today on Radio 4, there is gentle ribbing between Garry Richardson / Steve May and the regular presenters, especially about their racing tips. I personally don't like Des Cahill, I think he's a parody of himself now, and Aine would do better not to converse like she does, tbh.

I agree with Mike, since David Hanly went, MI has lost its Redhead, its Humphries. Very hard to replace. MI is still the best morning show on Irish radio, but a little bit of tweaking would help.

DublinWriter

DMC wrote:

This seems to be more of your opinion than really fact... more about what one thinks about personalities, so lets see...

Personalities aside, basic housekeeping, the amount of mis-cues on RTE Radio 1 on any given day is shocking and amateurish.

DMC wrote:

Paul Reynolds is one of the most highly respected journalists on the airwaves, not my opinion, thats known.

Ummmm dunno about that, the jury will remain out m'lud until some supporting evidance can be produced.

Unlike Veronica Guerin, he doesn't really seem to venture further than the Garda Press Office and seems to a bit of a Paul Williams-lite.

mike65

David Hanley of course, his brother had a rusty old halo I recall!

Mike.

DMC

DublinWriter wrote:

Personalities aside, basic housekeeping, the amount of mis-cues on RTE Radio 1 on any given day is shocking and amateurish.

Also, while I was comparing it to the Today programme, the BBC Radio 4 early morning show has to be the best resourced news programme on radio, anywhere. RTÉ just can't compete on that, but production does sound so 80'ish, its unreal in this day and age. Live links etc. Those are things need tweaking. It doesn't devalue the quality of the interviews or journalism overall, but you can't help wondering when the next cockup will occur.

DublinWriter wrote:

Ummmm dunno about that, the jury will remain out m'lud until some supporting evidance can be produced.

Unlike Veronica Guerin, he doesn't really seem to venture further than the Garda Press Office and seems to a bit of a Paul Williams-lite.

He seems to know the scene as good as the above mentions, unless he only reads the Sunday Tits for all his info. /me shrugs.

murphy54

in my opinion it is going from bad to worse

eoineen

Respected journalists? Who respects him? Saying he's a respected journalist is like saying the Catholic church should not be criticised because some people respect it. I'll respect a journalist when they shout questions in the Monk's letterbox to get answers or when they get off the phone and start to ask fundamental questions about ehy crime is so much higher in working class estates than in middle class estates.

I don't see why RTE feels the need to compete with the Today programme. This is the premier morning news show for the country, not just Dublin and sometimes the traffic on the Rock Road gets more attention than murders in Limerick.

As for Paul Williams and Reynolds, a good comparison: never gets beyond the first page of Garda press releases and seems to need to get everything out in an excited schoolboy kind of way. When he's asked to analyse his usual response is to fluff it and say things like "it's very hard to know what's in the mind of these criminals" - that and he frequently conflates terms like asylum seekers, non-Irish nationals and immigrants. Everything's a crisis with him, no context.

sudzs

Aaaaagh! Paul Williams, Paul Renolds.... can someone enlighten me?? Which is which?

Is one of them the Sunday World crime writer who's always talking to Jowely Gerry Ryan about gruesom stuff..... and the other one's on Morning Ireland?? (Which BTW has never been the same since David Hanly retired)

Am thinking of defecting to the brilliant Radio 4!

BBC World Service is great for news too!

eoineen

sudzs wrote:

Aaaaagh! Paul Williams, Paul Renolds.... can someone enlighten me?? Which is which?

Reynolds is the rodentine crime reporter for RTE TV and radio news, Williams is the over-bloated Mark Cagney-lover appearing all over Prime Time et al whenever there's the nearest sight of a gang member near Montrose.

DublinWriter

DMC wrote:

He seems to know the scene as good as the above mentions, unless he only reads the Sunday Tits for all his info. /me shrugs.

Reyonlds? Williams? No, basically sensationalist re-writters of Garda press office copy who'd never stray beyond the Phoenix Park for a story.

Guerin? As one poster said, she was the one who shouted through people's letterboxes, and got plugged for her efforts.

Least we forget. Some hacks are more style than substance.

sudzs

DublinWriter wrote:

Least we forget. Some hacks are more style than substance.

And some have neither.

FlutterinBantam

Eoineen.... you are a bit harsh on RTE now so you are... they are far from perfect but you sound like a guy who goes through the day without ever making a mistake....do you...are you word perfect in everything????

There... knew you wern't ...so cut a bit of slack for Áine and the lads and don't be getting upset over the toast

DMC

eoineen wrote:

I don't see why RTE feels the need to compete with the Today programme. This is the premier morning news show for the country, not just Dublin and sometimes the traffic on the Rock Road gets more attention than murders in Limerick.

I didn't say they needed to compete, just a few more quid and a better coffee machine for those who need to get up at 4am to edit/produce the programme.

As for Hanly, I don't think he offically "retired". The illness that he got has rendered him off-air, but I don't think we will hear him on MI in a presenters role again, sadly.

DublinWriter

FlutterinBantam wrote:

Eoineen.... you are a bit harsh on RTE now so you are... they are far from perfect but you sound like a guy who goes through the day without ever making a mistake....do you...are you word perfect in everything????

There... knew you wern't ...so cut a bit of slack for Áine and the lads and don't be getting upset over the toast

But then again he isn't getting paid a six-figure sum to broadcast to the nation on our national broadcaster on a daily basis.

Or maybe he is? I dunno!

Seriously, the amount of mis-cues on RTE Radio 1 any given day is appalling. I couldn't blame any of the front of mic people, all the screw ups seem to happen at the desk.

tSubh Dearg

I've been in RTE on a couple of occasions, sitting in on shows and what not. They use a software program called Radioman. I was told by one of the engineers that it is totally unreliable and regularly crashes taking about 5 mins to reboot when that happens.

FlutterinBantam

TBH ..After Áine Lawlor and MacCoille the MI presenters are pretty poor and not well enough informed..... In my opinion they should Never Put Aoife Kavanagh on that programme as she is not suited for that role...maybe a documentary/reporting role ..but not,in my opinion ,suited to a fast moving current affairs show...yet RTE still persist...... Ok!!! go on then alienate listeners...

NUTLEY BOY

Mentioning no names, a major problem with several RTE presenters is their basic inability to frame a question clearly and concisely.

I suspect that many of the long winded questions are self promotional in character to show us just how knowledgeable and clever they really are.

Are we not lucky to have such talent ?

mike65

Another screw-up on this mornings programme, a big build up to a feature on Tom Hyland and his involvment with East Timor led into a clip from the TV show on same which did'nt feature Hyland at all!

Lawlor is still getting names wrong and the time...

Mike.

FlutterinBantam

I think there was another one on 5-7 live yesterday.. Some girl reading the news with no idea that she had gone off the air and Rachel wasnt able to contact her...could hear her ploughing away to no avail.

Not great recently sure enough