How RTÉ Became Recruiting Sergeants For Water Protests - An Exhaustive Analysis
1) By barely mentioning the issue for three years.
Yes, the commitment to establish a single water utility was signed in November 2010.
RTÉ said almost nothing about it till the legislation had passed the oireachtas in December 2013.
2) But they didn’t report that either.
No, on the day Irish Water became law RTÉ didn’t bother covering it all.
It was just boring legislation you say?
Well, Ming caused an almighty uproar by crossing the chamber and handing Fergus O’Dowd a glass of “glorified piss”.
This was so serious that the Ceann Comhairle accused him of
“an act of vandalism…never before in the history of this chamber have I seen such behaviour. Of a member walking down and handing a glass of dirty water to a minister. That is just outrageous and unacceptable behaviour and I’ve asked for an immediate meeting of the Committee for Procedure and Privileges to deal with this matter.”
Unlike Paul Gogarty actually shouting “fuck you” at another deputy, Ming’s display of poisonous drinking water was not dramatic enough to warrant mention on RTÉ News.
I believe the spectacle was too effective for broadcast.
Still, shortly after he had left the chamber, the entire opposition walked out of the Dáil because government had guillotined the legislation. Now look how that turned out.
Thus, the Water Services Bill passed receiving no scrutiny from parliament or the national broadcaster. All going to plan so far. A new semi-state had been created to take control of the nation’s water supply. Billions were being spent. The usual faces were cashing in. None of it was news.
3) In January of 2014, newspapers set to work exposing the enormous money pit Irish Water had become. For three years there had only been sporadic reporting across the media but now it was all about consultants, contracts and staff gyms.
We had Boucher Hayes’ whimsical counting of zeros in the evenings. Fancy graphics on Primetime for tea. €50 million here, another €80 million there. How much in bonuses? God, I forget. The PAC were spitting feathers.
However during all this outrage at no point did RTÉ question the legitimacy of Irish Water. A massive conversion of resources to revenue at a time when government are openly pursuing a project of extracting money from people.
RTÉ would huff & puff about KMPG sucking another few million out of us but they would never dream of asking why. Irish Water had arrived, context free and exists simply because people like Pat Rabbitte said it did. A bankrupt government in the beef industry’s pocket were just taking an eye-wateringly expensive jaunt into saving the planet.
4) RTÉ know this because despite having left the role of Environment Correspondent vacant for nearly four years at that point, their presenters proved their own green credentials by dutifully regurgitating government soundbites when necessary.
This was not ‘balance’ or some ‘devil’s advocate’ bullshit.
They scarcely made use of information in the public domain and routinely failed to acknowledge relevant media stories that would upset the fiction. No, they merely repeat the same lines over and over regardless of whether they are true or not. Water isn’t free, hey!
5) Take for example, Cormac Ó hEadhra on Radio One’s Late Debate. He was sent and acknowledged receipt of the Dept of Environment’s own report which suggests Irish Water should be set up with future privatisation in mind.
Despite this, he persisted in accusing the opposition of “scaremongering” night after night. Wouldn’t even entertain the possibility and stuck to same four or five approved points about investment, conservation and so on.
6) Similarly, take the night Fergus O’Dowd told the Dáil that we “have real reason to be concerned” about privatisation and that -
"There are other forces at work. They may not necessarily be political forces. I do not know where they are coming from but they exist, they are active and they have an influence”.
These comments were shared widely, reported on Broadsheet, The Journal and even the O’Brien controlled media. Questions were put to Alan Kelly on the plinth.
Over on RTE however, they managed to write an article about O’Dowd’s contribution to the committee stage without mentioning any of this.
They devoted four sentences to his regret that TDs weren’t kept better informed about costs. Indeed, “if these questions were answered it would have prevented a lot of what has happened, he told the Dáil”.
The examples above are two, I, unpaid, unresourced and faceless on the internet managed to drag somewhat closer to the public domain, I hope. What is RTÉ’s excuse?
There are countless others like me and many more in traditional media digging stuff up and there is much more to find. True there has been an awful lot of bullshit claimed about Irish Water but there is so much legitimate concern out there now that has not penetrated RTÉ’s line of questioning.
7) Sometimes they get professional help. Elizabeth Arnett is Irish Water’s Head of Communications. A spin doctor and to date, an utterly ineffectual one. She is paid to pour rubbish down your throat, that’s it, nothing more. She is routinely given free airtime to read a prepared script. Much of this has been fire fighting, granted, but time nonetheless.
She has been gifted one-to-one interviews on Primetime and Marian Finucane. In the case of her highly choreographed face off with Miriam O’Callaghan, we had the token gesture of vetted questions from the studio audience.
On the Late Late Show she appeared alongside Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle, Richard Boydd Barrett and Paul Murphy. Where were all the Labour people up in arms last week?
Murphy had been invited, then uninvited, then swiftly invited again after kicking up stink online. We could assume the flip flopping at RTÉ was down to finding debate terms Irish Water would agree to. Wonder did they ask Paul?
Still, if Irish Water’s public relations professional has, in a matter of months, appeared on the country’s three largest current affairs platforms, it can’t be all bad. Maybe people just don’t believe a word she says.
8) Then there are the protests. Ahead of the national demonstration on December 10th, RTÉ’s main evening news devoted nearly ten minutes to boosting the revised plan. Despite Alan Kelly announcing the changes nearly three weeks previously on Novermber 19th and these being extensively covered for another week, RTÉ news rehashed the whole thing again for no reason other than the impending protest. So nauseatingly soft and rosy was the tone it prompted this
“You can beat the cap” according to Sean Whelan.
Just as well he isn’t an Economics Correspondent, eh.
When not slobbering about the government’s generosity, RTÉ have been just as ruthless in demonising protesters as government or the Denis O’Brien controlled media. There is little difference between the three at this stage and thousands of people will never forget the intensity with which they have been bullied and slandered in recent months.
That same day before December’s demonstration, while the newsroom were putting on their cuddly face to sell “conservation grants” to the nation’s sitting rooms, Primetime’s Fran McNulty and others were caught secretly filming protesters from a camera hidden inside a gear bag and another from a van with blacked out windows.
If the likes of the Labour Party believe they are getting a raw deal, you can imagine the reaction if they found a RTÉ camera crew hiding in their bushes.
A month before, Mark Coughlan presented an “in-depth report from the water protests” that amounted to Primetime’s trademark scary music and as many republican flags you can fit into an eight minute report.
Protesters were being profiled right there on Tuesday night telly. Extracts from the éirígí manifesto were read aloud, on a programme that struggles to inform viewers which members of the Iona Institute are on every other week.
The manufacturing of the “sinister fringe”.
Joe Duffy has been running his usual campaign for months. You know the drill, we need not relive the nightmare here.
RTÉ deleted these claims from their podcast. An “internal editorial decision” for which no reason, legal or otherwise, has ever been been given. Notice Alan Kelly only said he disagreed with the remarks. They have not been challenged in any way, only censored.
PR professionals, who have form, have appeared in RTÉ studio audiences without an interest or identification declared by presenters.
Throughout January and February, Primetime and Clare Byrne Live topics ranged from “are protesters gone to far?” to “are protests out of control” and of course
Whose line we are never told but by now, everything from the troubles, Stalin, suicide, anarchy, ISIS and “cyberbullying” has been rolled into the mix as if it something these protests have to answer for.
9) On Primetime this month, one of the episodes former communications minister Rabbitte has complained about, Katie Hannon took the trouble to clarify some confusion arising from Alan Kelly’s contradictory registration numbers earlier in the week. The Political Correspondent “confirmed” the figures and was able to tell us around two thirds have signed up.
How did she confirm this? Asked Irish Water. There was no indication of how this was verified before broadcast. Take it or leave it.
This has been going since day one. Numbers tossed around, front page headlines contradicting numbers on the inside. Regina Doherty categorically stating one figure on Morning Ireland and Joanna Tuffy another on Vincent Browne. Read this summary of the varying claims. Utter bullshit. So far I have not seen a single instance of fact checking. None. Ask Irish Water, do you trust them?
9) So, there have been a number of stages of RTÉ, Irish Water and the protests.
First they didn’t talk about Irish Water at all, for three years, even as this perhaps historic legislation made its way through parliament.
Then they joined the rest of the media in being scandalised by costs without ever questioning legitimacy. When charging began in October there was a brief flurry interest but all were taken aback by the size of opposition and depth of feeling.
When that became too big to ignore their eyes turned to government for direction. The climbdown came in November and the RTÉ mentality can be best surmised by Drivetime’s Mary Wilson expectantly asking Fergal Keane if it will be enough to get government “out of the woods”.
Then came Joan Burton’s ordeal, just the opportunity they had been waiting for. Near blanket coverage since. A singular focus on this aspect alone and as we head towards boycott you can bet that RTÉ, gardaí, government and others intend to squeeze every last drop from Jobstown. How many times did they play the “midget parasite” clip? Is it still on? Probably.
RTÉ have been acting as “recruiting sergeant” this whole time.
10) It has been a long few months and I am certain only a fraction has been covered here. Rather than on the streets, Pat Rabbitte’s thinks we should be home watching television
Where over the last 18 months are the programmes explaining why the public water system is on a knife edge; why our rivers are being polluted; why public health is threatened and our capacity to attract industry undermined and the options available to source the enormous investment needed to make it fit for purpose?
This is untrue. Again, on the week of that December demonstration, RTÉ rehashed a story about water treatment plants which they had already reported in March. Later that month, an EPA report was given special prominence. You know, the kind of problems that were meant to be addressed in 1992 but are somehow being delayed by dastardly water protesters.
Last year, RTÉ reported Irish Water were to eliminate boil notices by the end of this year only to last month report it will be 2021, perhaps.
We have had clips of people pointing at rivers, grumbling about sewage. This is usually the kind of thing of government wouldn’t want on the news but here it is. For now.
The truth is of course that RTÉ have not been relentlessly screening the sort of open propaganda that Pat Rabbitte seeks because RTÉ have only been following government’s lead.
There have been no programmes of this nature because the fact is since Alan Kelly’s November U-turn, no one has been selling Irish Water to the public. It is has all been attack, attack, attack and the armchair critics in the Labour Party are in no position to gripe at RTÉ.
In February, around the twelfth consecutive week of blanket denigration, I wrote
What we get is more smearing of protests, multiple dawn arrests and RTÉ drumming up sympathy for politicians becuase RTÉ, like the rest of government, don’t know how to sell Irish Water any more.
Weeks of nothing but demonisation that culminated in Paul Murphy’s appearance on the Late Late Show.
Though some people will never be satisfied.
You don’t see anyone on television talking up Irish Water because no one has a good word to say about Irish Water. There is nothing to defend and who knows what’s to come.
By Wednesday we will be up to our necks in more idle threats, bullying, divide and conquer and in that time not one person from government will have uttered a positive word about the company. On RTÉ or otherwise.
After all these months, Rabbitte and the rest of these clowns still cling to the notion that this is a communications problem. His chief concern is that
All my political life I have argued that public service broadcasting is a public good. Treatment of the water issue has regrettably fallen short of what licence paying citizens should reasonably expect.
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