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Broadcasting Complaints Commission and Pat Kenny
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06-06-2006 9:40pm#1
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pH wrote:I think you're confusing a number of things here :
Firstly yes - 'reporting' by the state broadcasters (as in news reporting) should be as impartial as possible. Report the facts and try an keep as neutral a point of view as far as possible.
However talk/chat shows are about opinions. It may be commercially sensible (in terms of keeping your audience) to balance the views, but it is by no means a requirement (legally or morally). If Pat interviews a victim of child abuse he isn't required to follow that up with a paedophile (to express a balanced point of view).
Unfortunately, the opinions of the guests are fine, but presenters are not allowed state opinions as fact. Whether you agree with PK or not - and I do - it's against the law. There are probably many sad people - customers - who would swear blind that IPL is a great service and has helped them enormously.This 'psychic stuff' by it's very nature seems to target the vunerable of society, and has been seen with many other examples(ring tones/chat etc) premium rate phone lines are a nasty way of getting much more money from these people than they would normally part with if the service was charged for in a more open and honest way.
Can I just say - I agree 100% with what you've said there. I've posted on this before and I've an ongoing thing with the BCC over IPL.The BCC 'judgement' is the mildest slap on the wrist for PK and RTE, but there's no such thing as bad publicity and I'd bet that calls to IPL will spike again.
sadly, you're probably right.
Here's the judgement in full:Mr. Higgins’ complaint, under Section 24(2)(a)(impartiality) of the Broadcasting Act 2001, refers to an invitation made by Ms. Valerie Cox for Mr. Higgins to guest on the ‘Today with Pat Kenny’ show. Prior to his appearance on the show, Ms. Cox recorded 5 telephone-psychic readings (within the space of one afternoon) with employees of Irish Psychics Live. Mr. Higgins advised Ms. Cox that a handful of readings obtained in this manner over such a short period of time could not be used to definitely represent the quality of readings provided by Irish Physics Live.
In the letter of the law, he's got a point. It would be unfair to judge a company based on 5 complaints, for example, if those complaints represented only .001% of customers.Ms. Cox reported live in studio that she had found ‘nothing of value’ in the readings. Six out-of-context sound bytes were played on air: These had been carefully chosen to underline a trenchant view expounded by Pat Kenny, that all readings offered by Irish Psychics Live are ‘rubbish’ and ‘worthless’. This assessment seems to have been based exclusively on the report and recordings provided by Ms. Cox on Mr. Kenny’s privately held beliefs.
He states RTÉ failed entirely to ensure that it met its obligations to present its programme on this issue in a fair, objective and impartial manner. This was evidenced by the fact that Pat Kenny accused Mr. Higgins’ company of being ‘bogus’ and, therefore, ‘fraudulent’. There was no attempt to present a balanced view of this issue. In particular, RTÉ quoted a document provided by an effectively anonymous source, live on air, and in doing so failed to quote significant parts of the document, which would have entirely negated the unfair spin placed on the document by the source and by RTÉ. The allegations made by RTÉ were grossly defamatory of Mr. Higgins and his company. Some of these allegations were presented in a raised voice that could only be regarded as shouting.
I would be pissed off if IPL had recieved a positive spin in that story, based on the testamonials of three or four anonymous callers who said the service was great. It cuts both ways.Station’s Response:
RTÉ in their response state Mr. Higgins is the Managing Director of a company called Realm Communications Limited. This company operates Irish Psychics Live. Mr. Higgins was invited onto the ‘Today with Pat Kenny’ programme to be interviewed by the programme presenter. The item opened with a report from Valerie Cox who informed listeners that she had spent over €200 talking to five, so-called, psychic readers. Her report included extracts from these readers as they tried to inform Ms. Cox about various aspects of her life. Any reasonable assessment of the report would conclude that the entire psychic-reading exercise is a charade and that the only purpose of Irish Psychics Live is to exploit vulnerable people by prolonging their phone calls and in the process extract the maximum amount of money from the callers.
At the end of the report, Pat Kenny put to Mr. Higgins that his operation was “unadulterated spoof and complete rubbish”. Mr. Kenny based this opinion on Ms. Cox’s report. Mr. Higgins was given the opportunity to defend his company’s performance.
RTÉ further state that the interview was a robust, spirited affair which covered the issue of the regulator for premium calls requiring that customers have to be informed when the cost of a call exceeds thirty euro. In five phone calls to Irish Psychics Live, all of which cost more than thirty euro, Ms. Cox was not informed that she had exceeded this limit. This was put to Mr. Higgins who offered no reasonable defence for this clear breach of regulations. Mr. Higgins’ complaint has no validity whatsoever. His company was caught out deceiving vulnerable people. He was given an opportunity to defend his company. He failed to do so with any credibility.
Decision of the Commission:
The Commission considered the broadcast material, the submissions made by the complainant and the broadcaster. The complaint made by Mr. Thomas Higgins has been upheld with reference to Section 24(2)(a)(impartiality) of the Broadcasting Act, 2001. This interview concerned the service offered by Irish Psychics Live. The Commission would acknowledge that the subject matter was of public interest and, therefore, one would expect the interview to be conducted in a firm and robust manner. However, the Commission noted that the presenter uttered statements throughout the broadcast piece that were an expression of his own opinions. While playing the devil’s advocate is an acceptable interviewing style, the Commission believes that the interviewer in both tone and content persisted with statements and allegations in a partial manner and concludes that the interviewer dealt with the subject matter in an unfair manner. The complaint was upheld.
Unfortunately, the rules are not just there to protect the companies we like. For the record, I think "phone psychics" are manipulative, grasping people who target the lonely and the vunerable, and I think the service they offer should have huge "FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY" banners plastered all over their ads. But then, I think that about the church as well
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