Papal Election How many RTE staff will go.

Park Royal

With the Papal election now in full swing, I was wondering how many RTE

staff will have been involved and gone to Rome before the "event" is finished.....

Sean O'Roarke is apparently there at the moment , then again it could be

a US moon landing bit of hoodwinking.....in a room with a theatre backdrop

of Rome.....as they are strapped for cash in RTE......

Dobby was there already, and Joe Little ......and others.......are they all going to

get dumped over to Rome for two days at a time or what.....

Park Royal

Sean handed over to Fran McNulty ....who was talking to people in the street..

so Fran is there too.....

shockwave

They probably ran a lottery in the newsroom to see who got a free junket.

touts

If it goes on for a few days then the rugby lads will join in.

It should be...... IT MUST Be...... TIMMOOTHY DOOOOOLLLLLAAAAANNN

GSF

No sign of RTEs agnostic correspondent or atheist correspondent at the shindig yet?

BrensBenz

In Journoland, only news delivered with photographic evidence of the location can be considered valid. Information delivered from the studio is suspect and must be confirmed by some plank, holding a green sponge, standing in front of......The Dail, or the White House, or the UN, etc.

It's not summer in Rome yet so some RTE journoes will remain outside the Dail but Journo tradition demands that those journoes with nice Berghaus anoraks or RTE umbrellas will be shipped out to stand in front of priests and nuns in St. Peter's Square. This is to maintain the 1:1 ratio with the "experts" that RTE will wheel into the studio, or, for extra-special verification of the claptrap delivered from the Donnybrook studio, some retired bishop from a non-Donnybrook / diocesan studio.

BBC do this every time there is a royal sneeze. We MUST copy the BBC but we don't have royals! Quandary of quandaries! OK lads, let's substitute the British monarchy with the Church monarchy. Throw in words like Papal See, conclave, pontificat, Habemus Papam and we'll be grand.

You know, I really should have applied for that job as RTE News Editor.

my friend

Sky's 'Enda' was reporting on the Huhne court case from England for Drivetime yesterday evening....

RTE would rather waste your cash on The Voice

Park Royal

Appears Fergal Keane is there also......speaking to Pat Kenny this morning....

Dobby,
Sean O'Rourke,
Fran McNulty,
Joe Little,
Fergal Keane....
Joe Little......

missed a few.....

neris

Id say the plank is fuming he missed out on that trip so far. Im sure he knows loads of good places for them all to head a few meals and drinks (on the rte mastercard of course). Then poor holy joe duffy and his religous clap trap are stuck back in montrose and will have to do talking to some old nun who met the new pope in 1953 when he was a just an ordinary priest on a years study leave up in Maynooth and joe will ask stupid questions like was he a nice man and what did he eat for breakfast

padd b1975

BrensBenz wrote: »

In Journoland, only news delivered with photographic evidence of the location can be considered valid. Information delivered from the studio is suspect and must be confirmed by some plank, holding a green sponge, standing in front of......The Dail, or the White House, or the UN, etc.

It's not summer in Rome yet so some RTE journoes will remain outside the Dail but Journo tradition demands that those journoes with nice Berghaus anoraks or RTE umbrellas will be shipped out to stand in front of priests and nuns in St. Peter's Square. This is to maintain the 1:1 ratio with the "experts" that RTE will wheel into the studio, or, for extra-special verification of the claptrap delivered from the Donnybrook studio, some retired bishop from a non-Donnybrook / diocesan studio.

BBC do this every time there is a royal sneeze. We MUST copy the BBC but we don't have royals! Quandary of quandaries! OK lads, let's substitute the British monarchy with the Church monarchy. Throw in words like Papal See, conclave, pontificat, Habemus Papam and we'll be grand.

You know, I really should have applied for that job as RTE News Editor.

None of this matters on the radio.;-)

padd b1975

Park Royal wrote: »

Appears Fergal Keane is there also......speaking to Pat Kenny this morning....

Dobby,
Sean O'Rourke,
Fran McNulty,
Joe Little,
Fergal Keane....
Joe Little......

missed a few.....

The third Joe Little?

mike65

padd b1975 wrote: »

The third secret of Joe Little?

Park Royal

Joe Little...the then pope had just had a tracheotomy...Joe outside the St Peters

wondering if the Pope would be giving his usual sermon .....Joe hes just had his

throat opened up...give the man a break..... its just a few days since the

operation.....

hotmail.com

Vatican TV from RTE at the moment.

GSF

hotmail.com wrote: »

Vatican TV from RTE at the moment.

Archbishop Dobson

yosser hughes

Park Royal wrote: »

With the Papal election now in full swing, I was wondering how many RTE

staff will have been involved and gone to Rome before the "event" is finished.....

Sean O'Roarke is apparently there at the moment , then again it could be

a US moon landing bit of hoodwinking.....in a room with a theatre backdrop

of Rome.....as they are strapped for cash in RTE......

Dobby was there already, and Joe Little ......and others.......are they all going to

get dumped over to Rome for two days at a time or what.....

They are indeed supposedly strapped for cash, but certainly don't behave like they are. They also fully expect to get an increase in their revenue if a new broadcasting charge is brought in to replace the t.v. licence fee. So even if you never avail of RTE's services you'll pay for them anyway. By extension you'll pay for these ridiculous junkets. I wonder what hotel they're staying in out there? They probably have their own suite.
They are utterly oblivious to the harsh economic times we are living in out in Montrose. I firmly believe that.

Park Royal

Great watching "pass the parcel" on the 6' oclock news from Rome.....

first ...Sharon Ní Bheoláin...now over to Doby in Rome.....

Doby.....yes Sharon.....Fran McNulty was out and about this morning.....

Fran after talking to some nice people.....now back to you Doby.....now some

good sounding info from Samantha Libreri ( location unknown).....

Doby...now for an insight into whats going on .....lets hear from our specialist

Joe Little.....thanks Joe ...

Doby.....now back to you Sharon stuck in Donnybrook.

Doby...breaking news Sharon.....theres been "black smoke" .....

( How many does it take to change a light bulb?)

HeidiHeidi

Wasn't Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan there the other night for Prime Time?

Or did I just dream that

yosser hughes

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Wasn't Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan there the other night for Prime Time?

Or did I just dream that

I genuinely believe you could be right!:)

Park Royal

So runners so far.........in the Rome chase......handyjunket stakes.

Dobby,

Sean O'Rourke,

Fran McNulty,

Joe Little,

Fergal Keane....

Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan.....

Poor Uncle Tom

Park Royal wrote: »

So runners so far.........in the Rome chase......handyjunket stakes.

Dobby,

Sean O'Rourke,

Fran McNulty,

Joe Little,

Fergal Keane....

Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan.....

I don't think any of them stands a chance tbh, I think it will be a South American Pope next.

tv_tech

Firstly, before you start slagging off anyone for being at a particular location to do their job, please remember that they are the same as anyone else - doing as instructed by their bosses - it just happens that their bosses are concerned with providing content that a large proportion of the viewing public are interested in - and as it happens, a lot of irish people are interested in the happenings of the catholic church.
Secondly, I know a few of the people that are out there and it is not what i would call a junket. They are providing radio, tv and online content from 7am to 11pm some days.
Thirdly, people have said this on boards before but from experience i can say that it is much cheaper to put your own people on the ground than to use facilities from third parties that hike up their prices for large events like the papal conclave.

Park Royal

tv_tech wrote: »

Firstly, before you start slagging off anyone for being at a particular location to do their job, please remember that they are the same as anyone else - doing as instructed by their bosses - it just happens that their bosses are concerned with providing content that a large proportion of the viewing public are interested in - and as it happens, a lot of irish people are interested in the happenings of the catholic church.
Secondly, I know a few of the people that are out there and it is not what i would call a junket. They are providing radio, tv and online content from 7am to 11pm some days.
Thirdly, people have said this on boards before but from experience i can say that it is much cheaper to put your own people on the ground than to use facilities from third parties that hike up their prices for large events like the papal conclave.

As RTE has been telling us for several years now ....the country is broke.

Somebody in RTE made a decision to send a clatter of people to Rome....

fair enough .......I suspect for many it looks like an organisation out of control

Joe Little is the religious affairs man.....he would have been more than

enough. For me its obvious the organisation is over staffed and this is a prime

example of the needless waste. This small broke country cant afford this

type of carry on......its a scandal .

yosser hughes

tv_tech wrote: »

Firstly, before you start slagging off anyone for being at a particular location to do their job, please remember that they are the same as anyone else - doing as instructed by their bosses - it just happens that their bosses are concerned with providing content that a large proportion of the viewing public are interested in - and as it happens, a lot of irish people are interested in the happenings of the catholic church.
Secondly, I know a few of the people that are out there and it is not what i would call a junket. They are providing radio, tv and online content from 7am to 11pm some days.
Thirdly, people have said this on boards before but from experience i can say that it is much cheaper to put your own people on the ground than to use facilities from third parties that hike up their prices for large events like the papal conclave.

RTE staff interviewing other RTE staff is daft and unnecessary.RTE is running a deficit and overpays its employees,courtesy of a beleaguered taxpayer. RTE is, and always has been, run primarily for the benefit of its employees. The public comes a distant second. It's a hotbed of nepotism and a home for the terminally untalented.
Spare me your pleas for sympathy, tv_tech

FloatingVoter

Its not a proper conclave until Dunphy and Giles arrive. Bill says okaydokey to that idea.

deekster

Add Roisin Duffy to the list.

She's producing Sean O'Rourke (not literally).

mike65

Drive time just tried to go over to St Peters Square and got discommunicated

DuckStab

Radio staff on the left, TV on the right.

hotmail.com

mike65 wrote: »

Drive time just tried to go over to St Peters Square and got discommunicated

Typical from RTE!

hotmail.com

TV3 have ended their 'pope' coverage to show Emmerdale and moved it onto 3e.

Caledonman

Have people nothing better to moan about than RTE sending people to Rome??
There are far bigger issues in RTE than this... so should they send the sports
people to the Rugby World Cup, what about the races and sport in general??
Where do you stop?? There are far more people interested in the Pope than
any other single event that I can think about (not including me - I have no interest whatsoever
in who gets elected)

Park Royal

Al jazeera had great coverage, so too Sky News....from the studio.....no need

to send staff to Rome......great pictures and vocals with guest people....

RTE cut coverage short.....even CNN had it ad nauseam .....if RTE thought it

was such an important event why cut the coverage before other stations....?

Thanks be to God there is a new Pope and RTE can stop their outrageous

expensive nonsense.......

yosser hughes

Caledonman wrote: »

Have people nothing better to moan about than RTE sending people to Rome??
There are far bigger issues in RTE than this... so should they send the sports
people to the Rugby World Cup, what about the races and sport in general??
Where do you stop?? There are far more people interested in the Pope than
any other single event that I can think about (not including me - I have no interest whatsoever
in who gets elected)

But RTE didn't get the rights for the Rugby world Cup. They prefer to spend their money on salaries for a massive sports dept and English soccer highlights.
Not to mention six figure salaries for their 'stars'.

They get their racing coverage for Cheltenham from Channel 4 and Racing UK.

How do we actually know what level of interest there is? What is the actual mass going population?
Either way, if they are happy to get their coverage from other channels for other events why is this different? Brian Dobson is lightweight and what is the point in one RTE person interviewing another out there? they could do that at home.

The POINT is, all of this is unnecessary and unaffordable for a station that is losing millions a year and gets an imposed wall of cash from the taxpayer every single year.

Park Royal

Did Miriam just have two other interviewers in Rome on the Primetime show?..

this just gets worse....and worse...

jonniebgood1

From the retirement weeks ago till now the rte coverage has been a disgrace. All the reporters and presenters sent on expensive trips yet all they do is give the same mono attitudinal viewpoint that belies the fact that Ireland is no longer enthral led by Catholicism. This is what our taxes are being spent on while ordinary punters or workers are hit with tax rises and reduced wages. Rte should be challenged on this. If they want to cover the story then a good starting point would be to look at other aspects of the church like views on mores controversial issues, not just wall to wall priest interviews.

Fuzzy Clam

They have sent out at least 12 personal to the vatican. This is not enough! Send the entire orginisation FFS and we would be rid of the entire insipid regime once and for all. Just dream of an RTE free Ireland.......la,la,la,la,la,la,la,la
I have spoke....
Where's me pills.......

Fromthetrees

Caledonman wrote: »

Have people nothing better to moan about than RTE sending people to Rome??
There are far bigger issues in RTE than this... so should they send the sports
people to the Rugby World Cup, what about the races and sport in general??
Where do you stop?? There are far more people interested in the Pope than
any other single event that I can think about (not including me - I have no interest whatsoever
in who gets elected)

Let's cut the RTE sports department by 90% and let people who are interested in sports get a Setanta or Sky Sports subscription.

Why should people who have no interest in sport pay the tv license tax?

jonniebgood1

Fromthetrees wrote: »

Let's cut the RTE sports department by 90% and let people who are interested in sports get a Setanta or Sky Sports subscription.

Why should people who have no interest in sport pay the tv license tax?

I suggest you apply some perspective on the sending of do many staff to cover an event that so few people feel is necessary.

Park Royal

So runners so far.........in the Rome chase......handyjunket stakes.

Dobby,

Sean O'Rourke,

Fran McNulty,

Joe Little,

Fergal Keane....

Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan.....( as per primetime Wed night

Miriams.... First Interviewer in Rome

Miriams.... Second Interviewer...in Rome)


I count 8 RTE runners.....now what about the backroom staff any info there?.

real rocker

Park Royal wrote: »

So runners so far.........in the Rome chase......handyjunket stakes.

Dobby,

Sean O'Rourke,

Fran McNulty,

Joe Little,

Fergal Keane....

Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan.....( as per primetime Wed night

Miriams.... First Interviewer in Rome

Miriams.... Second Interviewer...in Rome)


I count 8 RTE runners.....now what about the backroom staff any info there?.

Roisin Duffy edited News at One from Rome plus a sound engineer on site.

DuckStab

Not to forget that they didn't just shoo Dobby et al off on a Ryanair flight, mic in hand. Unlike a (similarly unjustified) junket for one of our elected representatives, there's a fairly substantial associated transit cost for all the broadcast gear required along with the staff to operate it. I'd imagine, given the overall inefficiency of the organisation (was there ever a more ironic term?), for every on-screen presenter there's about 10 off-screen. That said, maybe it's more likely that they just used a cable splitter from Maplin and hijacked another station's coverage!

The most hilarious thing of all was the TV coverage last night. Extended Six One with nothing but panning crowd shots and drab "analysis" for the better part of an hour. Then there's finally movement on the balcony, a cacophony emits from the waiting masses... camera pans back to crowd. Dobby stutters as even his omniscience can't comprehend what's happening. Well done RTE, well done.

Park Royal

So runners so far.........in the Rome chase......handyjunket stakes.

Dobby,

Sean O'Rourke,

Fran McNulty,

Joe Little,

Fergal Keane....

Miriam "geniunely" O'Callaghan.....( as per primetime Wed night

Miriams.... First Interviewer in Rome

Miriams.... Second Interviewer...in Rome)

Roisin Duffy

9 .....Plus extras.........( well on the way for a Rugby team) ....

now who is going to hang around till Tueday 19th March for the crowning of Francis 1......

They might take a lead from Francis 1 as regards his frugality , ie taking the
bus with the rest of the Cardinals after the conclave back to the hotel instead of the limo.....

I like to see the expenses dockets going in for this junket......to RTE bosses.

snubbleste

Three technical staff and Roisin Duffy were thanked at the end of a radio broadcast yesterday

shockwave

Dobby still out there, looks like hes going to get the long weekend out of it.

Park Royal

6 o'clock Thursday 14h news... Tony Connolly does a piece in Rome......


now were at 10 interviewers sent to Rome ... plus.....extras.....

telekon

Latest images from the RTE control room....

Cardinal Richelieu

shockwave wrote: »

Dobby still out there, looks like hes going to get the long weekend out of it.

Pope Francis is due to have a special Papel Audience with the World Media on Saturday so all the journalists aren't going home just yet. Rome isn't a bad location to be stuck in for a week or two especially when someone else is paying the bills.

jonniebgood1

Very right there cardinal. I had cause during college to spend time in Rome 'studying'. Pizza for breakfast, Played chess infront of collosseum each day for a few hours, more Pizza and Rome nightlife- I think I am just jealous of the RTE folk. The problem with this is that RTE are spending taxpayers money doing this, presenters on hundreds of thousands of euro being sent in their 10's to cover the same story. The irony is that throughout the RTE coverage despite the mad number of people they have sent there that they have not properly covered the story. They dont cover the issues behind the Vatican and I had to turn to sky news last night to see any actual questioning of the new pontiff.

Cardinal Richelieu

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Very right there cardinal. I had cause during college to spend time in Rome 'studying'. Pizza for breakfast, Played chess infront of collosseum each day for a few hours, more Pizza and Rome nightlife- I think I am just jealous of the RTE folk. The problem with this is that RTE are spending taxpayers money doing this, presenters on hundreds of thousands of euro being sent in their 10's to cover the same story. The irony is that throughout the RTE coverage despite the mad number of people they have sent there that they have not properly covered the story. They dont cover the issues behind the Vatican and I had to turn to sky news last night to see any actual questioning of the new pontiff.

Very damning remark!

snubbleste

Turns out the RTÉ spent €167k on Papal coverage in 2013.
The cost takes in the resignation of Pope Benedict on 11 February, the Papal Conclave on 12 and 13 March and the election of Pope Francis on 13 March as well as his inauguration six days later and covers extended news programmes on television and radio as well as online coverage.
A third of the figure was used to pay for satellite feeds out of Vatican City and the provision of satellite trucks and engineering.
The remainder of the cost was for freelance crewing in Rome, the rental of broadcasting workspace which included live positions for TV and radio as well as flights, hotels and subsistence for RTÉ staff. http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/rte-cost-election-resignation-pope-rome-vatican-884473-Apr2013/

snubbleste

Yiz were all wrong.
It was 22 staff
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-spent-194000-covering-change-of-pope-in-vatican-29241425.html

Oh and RTÉ spent €194k on the lot.