Newsreader Danny Keown RTE

TheRiverman wrote: »

Is how to pronounce "th" not properly taught in school nowadays ? I was taught in National School back in the 1960's by a great teacher who used to lift our heads up by putting a ruler or her hand under our chins, getting us to put the tip of our tongues slightly between out teeth and make the "th" sound. It worked then, will work now and will always work. All the people that pronounce "th" as "d" are keeping their tongues too flat in their mouth instead of moving out between their teeth. It mightsound funny or ridiculous to people, but it's true.

I don't generally but I do slip up on occasion particular with words like three, thirty and a third, possibly because I am expecting a uh sound.

Many Dubliners also find the wh sound like wheel becomes wale, where becomes were.

But these are small idiosyncracies with Irish speech patterns.

The news reader in this instance may have such idiosyncracies, but he's also not a greater reader. There are plenty of well spoken people that cannot read flowingly and plenty of people with strong accents who can.

SPDUB wrote: »

Who says he wants to ?

It may be he is the only one willing to do that overnight shift or that he was "volunteered" for it . I know both those have happened where I work .

And some people will never be newsreaders so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets off that shift we'll never hear him on air again

Then RTÉ has a problem. There are plenty of people that can read and would only be too willing to take on the nightshift reading the news.

If part of his contract was to read the news then part of the interview process should have been to put forward a show reel/voice recording of him reading and perhaps an audition.

If he does NOT want to BUT RTÉ need him to then RTÉ should train him and others before they go on air.

TheRiverman wrote: »

Similarly with the words "three, thirty and third", keeping the tongue flat in the mouth with the tip back from the front teeth loses the "th" sound and creates " tree, turty and turd.

I did say sometimes, I know how to pronounce th.

Cole wrote: »

I presume you believe that you pronounce th 'correctly' (which is generally perceived to be the 'standard' Received Pronunciation version). I'd say you might find it revealing if you were analysed by a phonologist. Of course teachers have to teach to an agreed 'standard', but if someone ultimately falls within a range of th pronunciation...as most Irish English speakers do...then so be it. We can't or shouldn't try to insist on a (high) 'standard' th pronunciation that is not inherent in the way that we speak English in Ireland. Our th pronunciation comes from when we started to move from speaking Irish to English centuries ago (influenced by Irish)...embrace it.

Btw none of this takes from the fact that the newsreader is not a good reader.

Paddy wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him until he passes a little maths test.

Here is your first question, the foreman says. “Without using numbers, represent the number 9.”

“Without numbers?” Paddy says? “Dat’s easy.” And proceeds to draw three trees.

“What’s this?” the boss asks.

“Have you no brain? Tree and tree plus tree makes 9” says Paddy.

“Fair enough,” says the boss. “Here’s your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.”

Paddy stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree.. “Ere ye go.”

The boss scratches his head and says, “How on earth do you get that to represent 99?”

“Each of them trees is dirty now. So, it’s dirty tree, and dirty tree, plus dirty tree. Dat makes 99.”

The boss is getting worried that he’s going to actually have to hire Paddy, so he says, “All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100.”

Paddy stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, “Ere ye go. One hundred.”

The boss looks at the attempt. “You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!” Paddy leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and whispers,

“A little dog came along and pooped by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, which makes ONE HUNDRED!”

Cole wrote: »

Poor aul Danny just doesn't seem cut out for reading/delivering the news. Everyone takes a bit of time to find their feet in a new role, but surely RTE screen and train staff before unleashing them onto the public...and onto feckers like us to comment on his performance online.

I am not sure if you are telling me that Danny just needs time and we shouldn't be so hard on him.

Explain those newsreaders that didn't take time to find their feet?

Grainne Seoige in her twenties was given 3 the main evening news, where she was either the main presenter or a co-presenter across 3 separate broadcasters. Should I not hold Danny up to Grainne's standard?

Or perhaps Elaine Crowley who again started on TV3 News, presenting the late night news bulitens and week in review in her early 20s.

Or even Claire Byrne (a suggestion on this thread they are related) who again in her early 20's was the main news reader on Ireland AM.

And their are other examples ...

He is part of the most prestigous broadcasting organisation/media company in the country. Standards have to be high.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/11319489

55mins in Met Eireann guy, who has an accent and is meterlogist and does a flowing job just with a slight stammer (I have no issue, he's not RTÉ).

1:01 in a professional newsreader. (Martin Frawley)

3:01 The person we are talking about. His pauses are in all the wrong places.

touts wrote: »

Isn't it great to be so good at speaking in public that you can come on here and laugh at a lad in his early 20s working the night shift on radio as his first gig and probably earning less than 30k a year.

Maybe some of the experts here would grace us and with a recording of themselves reading the newspapers and show the world how real experts do it. If nothing else the rest of us could do with a great laugh.

Journalism and broadcast radio is a professional field, it's not a part-time hobby and RTE as the taxpayer funded state broadcaster isn't the place.

I had a listen there thinking people were probably over-reacting but he is really bad. He sounds like a college student reading a test bulletin.

In an open competition, there would be a lot of experienced people with much better reading voices applying, so that most certainly is not how he got the job.

Fair enough bit more understandable if he was working in a smaller local radio station, but he is way, way below standard for the state broadcaster.

RTE also pays very well compared to the likes of Newstalk or local radio. An open competition would attract people of a far higher calibre.

He clearly was just handed the job because he had a way in.

alchemist33 wrote: »

When t is pronounced the exact same way as th, one of them is certainly a lot more incorrect than the other. It's the linguistic equivalent of "could of".

I'm guessing you haven't studied linguistics.

bobbyss wrote: »

Does RTE HAVE TO advertise vacancies? If there was some kind of competition it would be interesting under FOI (if it exists in this situation) to get the results of interviews held, the scores attributed to each candidate and the names of the people who interviewed. All that stuff.

You could FoI the process. Numbers that applied for the role, number of interviews, number of second interviews and so on.

As for personal information you wouldn't be able to get that, unless you applied for the job yourself and even then you would only get the details of your interview and application, long with notes about you.

Cole wrote: »

I presume you believe that you pronounce th 'correctly' (which is generally perceived to be the 'standard' Received Pronunciation version). I'd say you might find it revealing if you were analysed by a phonologist. Of course teachers have to teach to an agreed 'standard', but if someone ultimately falls within a range of th pronunciation...as most Irish English speakers do...then so be it. We can't or shouldn't try to insist on a (high) 'standard' th pronunciation that is not inherent in the way that we speak English in Ireland. Our th pronunciation comes from when we started to move from speaking Irish to English centuries ago (influenced by Irish)...embrace it.

All very well, but it doesn't quite explain the widespread misuse of the "th" sound where a plain "t" would be appropriate - there's a recent thread on this.

Clearly many people are able to produce the "th" sound, but are confused at to where it should apply.

E.g. "th"readmill, Thighland (the country elsewhere known as Tie-land). The most glaring example is the recent RSA radio ad imploring drivers to check their "thread" depth.

And most seem able to produce the"th" at the end of "width" and "depth", as well as the rather idiosyncratic "heighth".

Anyway, what harm. It keeps me entertained.

Howitzer the 5th wrote: »

Why? It's RTÉ. Nothing of their entire output is original, creative or in anyway fresh or groundbreaking. Why should the recruitment of relatives of high profile staff or contractors be any different and consequently be described as 'crazy'? It's been part of the fabric there for decades. A bad newsreader or six within RTÉ is entirely usual. Some of the overnighters like Noel Fogarty or Peter Ferris are exceptional but many are abject. Commercial stations will have mostly quite competent and often excellent readers compared to Clare Byrne's cousin and the like. RTÉ is a law unto itself and this is a tiny fragment of the wider disorder and calamity it is in for donkey's.

Exactly, I recall reports of RTE bidding €12 million for 49% of Maximum Media (Joe.ie)
https://www.businesspost.ie/media-marketing/rte-made-eur12-million-offer-for-a-stake-in-maximum-media-02f04c86