Dear RTE

**Mad Moose** · 11/05/2013, 10:27 AM

I post this with a personal note. I have less a right to make this point than most of you but I share the same frustration ad disgust on a daily basis as you do too. It's a point of conversation on this website on a daily basis. I was originally going to email this to RTE but actually it would be best coming from somebody with a right to make the point even though I am no less aggrieved by our national broadcaster. I am Irish through and through and I expect our state broadcasters focus to be primarily focussed on Ireland. And so RTE Sports primary focus should be first and foremost sport in Ireland. There should be few exceptions to this rule.

So with that personal note set aside I make the follow damning statement. RTE you failed your public. You failed the public you were charged with providing a service for. You failed the public who pay for this service. The public who pay your wages. You lost sight of the very responsibility laid out and charged upon you by one of the fathers of the great state. I refer you to those exact words of President De Valera in the opening presentation of Telefís Éireann. I don't believe I have heard these incorrectly. I don't believe I have misunderstood President De Valera's words. Read them. You decide. You ask yourself the question then. Have RTE failed it's people?

Firstly President De Valera set out what I believe you have persistently asked and demanded here.....

"Now it is you the people who will ultimately determine what the programmes in Telefís Éireann are to be. If you insist on having presented to you the good and the true and the beautiful you will get these."

Have you got the programmes you insist upon, the programmes you determine are to be?

Furthermore President De Valera stated the following....

"I have great hopes of this new service. I am confident that those who are in charge will do everything in their power to make it useful for the nation. And that they will bear in mind that we are an old nation and that we have our own distinctive characteristics and that it is desirable that these should be preserved. I am sure that they will do their part. And as I have said it is for the public now to do theirs"

Reading those words, word for word from the mouth of our then President I thereby ask the question immediately. Have RTE failed you? I don't need to remind you of the programmes RTE choose to broadcast, I don't need to remind you of the direction RTE choose to face when they broadcast football in our country. Or maybe RTE are delivering what our wonderful public have 'determined' and insisted upon? We know the crime that is our public's love of all things except home grown culture and sport despite the fact they would assault you or call to arms/pikes were you to suggest they are fundamentally still English. Who led this merry waltz however?. RTE in showing cross channel football down the decades and influencing millions whereby I would say they failed De Valera, failed our great nation.

And therein concludes my argument. Shot from the hip but with no regret. An argument I hand over to safe hands and minds to perhaps present to RTE with the same passion and energy I make my argument.

**peadar1987** · 11/05/2013, 12:47 PM

When you put it that way, I'd almost encourage them to show more English football, just to spite De Valera!!

**Eminence Grise** · 11/05/2013, 1:51 PM

Frustration, indeed! And not unjustifiably so. When look at the listings and see more home produced editions of reality TV franchises I groan. Or the same handful of presenters appearing on everything, stifling new talent. Or Tubridy and O’Connor pressganging anybody hanging round the RTE canteen to appear on their shows... I have to agree with much of what you feel.

But, in what sense has RTE failed the public? It’s a mixed model broadcaster. Is its Reithian responsibility to direct the people towards instructional and formative viewing (as de Valera implied in his speech, and is evident in earlier Dáil debates about the establishment of a national radio station in the 1920s) or to provide the public with the programming they want to watch? Force-feeding the masses live LoI, club rugby, inter-county camogie, 40x20 singles handball (more, please!), the Kilfenora Ceili Band or reruns of 1970s Trom agus Eadrom may not actually engender greater feelings of warmth and fuzziness from the Irish viewing public, whose media consumption gratifies their social and personal needs. Perhaps it is the Irish public who have failed de Valera’s parochial and insular vision of Irishness? Or treated it as obsessive jingoism should be? Perhaps TG4 is a more reliable broadcaster of Irishness and Irish values than RTE ever was, and we should encourage its development, rather than assume that RTE, one eye on the licence fee, the other on advertising revenue, will ever do anything other than bow to the majority view.

I think that in invoking de Valera, you’ve holed your argument below the waterline. Apart from his remarks being 50 years old, they hark back to an even older era that artificially created and ideologically stylised a Celtic, Catholic nation. Personally, I believe he was one of the worst influences on Irish society, politics and culture in the twentieth century. If he is a founder of a great state, then we are no more than accidental offspring conceived after an awkward fumble in the dark with classic republicanism, and abandoned to fend for ourselves. I think we have better role models, and the potential to be better than de Valera’s vision allowed.

**marinobohs** · 12/05/2013, 1:38 PM

Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

Frustration, indeed! And not unjustifiably so. When look at the listings and see more home produced editions of reality TV franchises I groan. Or the same handful of presenters appearing on everything, stifling new talent. Or Tubridy and O’Connor pressganging anybody hanging round the RTE canteen to appear on their shows... I have to agree with much of what you feel.

But, in what sense has RTE failed the public? It’s a mixed model broadcaster. Is its Reithian responsibility to direct the people towards instructional and formative viewing (as de Valera implied in his speech, and is evident in earlier Dáil debates about the establishment of a national radio station in the 1920s) or to provide the public with the programming they want to watch? Force-feeding the masses live LoI, club rugby, inter-county camogie, 40x20 singles handball (more, please!), the Kilfenora Ceili Band or reruns of 1970s Trom agus Eadrom may not actually engender greater feelings of warmth and fuzziness from the Irish viewing public, whose media consumption gratifies their social and personal needs. Perhaps it is the Irish public who have failed de Valera’s parochial and insular vision of Irishness? Or treated it as obsessive jingoism should be? Perhaps TG4 is a more reliable broadcaster of Irishness and Irish values than RTE ever was, and we should encourage its development, rather than assume that RTE, one eye on the licence fee, the other on advertising revenue, will ever do anything other than bow to the majority view.

I think that in invoking de Valera, you’ve holed your argument below the waterline. Apart from his remarks being 50 years old, they hark back to an even older era that artificially created and ideologically stylised a Celtic, Catholic nation. Personally, I believe he was one of the worst influences on Irish society, politics and culture in the twentieth century. If he is a founder of a great state, then we are no more than accidental offspring conceived after an awkward fumble in the dark with classic republicanism, and abandoned to fend for ourselves. I think we have better role models, and the potential to be better than de Valera’s vision allowed.

Agree with the above. RTE is actually a pretty good TV station by international standards and suffers mainly by comparison with BBC ITV (more the former). As regards output the unfortunate reality is more people want to see Corantion street than Fair City. RTE (TV3) not showing Coranation Street is not going to encourage Irish viewers to watch Fair City it is just going to encourage them to watch ITV.

RTE is not a propaganda tool for the Govt (what Dev meant by Usefull to the nation ) nor should it be. TG 4 was designed to progress/support the national language and look how limited that impact is (referring to impact not TG 4)

**Spudulika** · 12/05/2013, 5:24 PM

I'd always step away from using DeV to bolster any argument, despite some positive sides to the man. This is the same crook who fleeced Irish-Americans to fund his own family (Irish Press) and who did more to hand over control of the country to the elite than anyone since (and he has some rivals). Still, there is merit to the argument that RTE are failing the public.

Agree with EG regarding the regurgitating of talent, or lack of. Tubridy shows that having good family connections and agent means more than talent, Brendan O'Connor, well, I just don't get it. Craig Doyle was disappointing yet that was from left wing. Fair City I've never really watched but my family watch it and it gets ratings, so why not. It's no worse or better than other shows of it's genre (better than the latino ones, but with less hot guys and girls - and they wear more clothes in Carrickstown!).

In general RTE is doing a good job, I just would like to see Republic of Telly on 3 times a week.

**Eminence Grise** · 12/05/2013, 7:08 PM

Originally Posted by Spudulika

In general RTE is doing a good job, I just would like to see Jennifer Maguire and Georgia Salpa 3 times a week.

Fixed that for you, Spud! We all know what you're really saying!

**Spudulika** · 12/05/2013, 7:54 PM

You mucky man!

Actually, I'm not a fan of poor old Georgia, Jennifer I think is hilarious and would love to see her on the big screen. Bernard has grown on my and I always liked Dermot since his Panel days (one particular bit about nipple cream sticks in my head). It's one of the few shows from home I'd regularly stay up to watch.

**Mad Moose** · 13/05/2013, 5:50 PM

Originally Posted by peadar1987

When you put it that way, I'd almost encourage them to show more English football, just to spite De Valera!!

Sorry just getting back to this now. That it's the words of De Valera is irrelevant. It could have been any president but it's the message that was delivered that I'm focusing on.

**A N Mouse** · 14/05/2013, 7:31 AM

Originally Posted by Mad Moose

Sorry just getting back to this now. That it's the words of De Valera is irrelevant. It could have been any president but it's the message that was delivered that I'm focusing on.

And I think the point of the replies has been it doesn't matter what words you're using, if you're writing with crayolas.

**bennocelt** · 14/05/2013, 9:36 AM

Originally Posted by marinobohs

Agree with the above. RTE is actually a pretty good TV station by international standards and suffers mainly by comparison with BBC ITV (more the former). As regards output the unfortunate reality is more people want to see Corantion street than Fair City. RTE (TV3) not showing Coranation Street is not going to encourage Irish viewers to watch Fair City it is just going to encourage them to watch ITV.

RTE is not a propaganda tool for the Govt (what Dev meant by Usefull to the nation ) nor should it be. TG 4 was designed to progress/support the national language and look how limited that impact is (referring to impact not TG 4)

Seriously? ha ha
Turgidy, Fair Chitty, Joe Duffy, 2FM, M Finucane, Prime Time Specials, want me to go on......!

**ArdeeBhoy** · 14/05/2013, 9:57 AM

Fair point, but look at 'national' TV stations in numerous other European countries. And beyond.

Ironically RTE is far from the worst...

**peadar1987** · 14/05/2013, 10:49 AM

Other countries seem to have less of a "TV Culture" than the English-speaking ones (Latin American soaps aside!), possibly due to the joint influence of the BBC and the big US networks.

I know Dutch TV seems to swing between stuck in the '80s, to poorly-dubbed or subtitled American stuff.

Probably still better than feeling the need to ape all of the lowest-common-denominator stuff from across the water and come up with Talla-fecking-fornia though.

**SkStu** · 14/05/2013, 6:37 PM

Originally Posted by peadar1987

Probably still better than feeling the need to ape all of the lowest-common-denominator stuff from across the water and come up with Talla-fecking-fornia though.

Its no different to Canadian tv aping US tv. Aping sh!te Brit tv is not something to beat ourselves up too much over. We're not a whole hell of a lot different to the Brits despite what we might like to think.

**Spudulika** · 14/05/2013, 6:47 PM

Russian tv copies and butchers US tv, and sometimes latin ones. Everybody Loves Raymond is a case in point (called Crows here), Married with Children (which was terrible), Scrubs (called Interns) and countless others. The best I saw was in Armenia, they copied a Russian copy of a US show and made it funnier than the original.

Irish tv is good, again I refer to Republic of Telly.

**Mad Moose** · 14/05/2013, 7:13 PM

Originally Posted by A N Mouse

And I think the point of the replies has been it doesn't matter what words you're using, if you're writing with crayolas.

As quips go that sounds pretty nice but that's where the niceties end. There's nothing wrong my point. It really doesn't matter who delivered the message. I think it's a pretty valid statement to make that RTE in service delivery, via TV, website or Social Media should always put Irish culture, sport, politics etc etc first. Why should sport be different? Irish politics come first on RTE. Am I the only person frustrated that the landing page of RTE will always contain a section on Sport and it always headlines English football. Is that right? Maybe it is. I'm merely reflecting the very first televised message to the nation and linking it to a current valid present.

I really wanted to keep this thread focused on RTE and it's relationship and promotion League of Ireland football hence placing it in this forum.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 14/05/2013, 8:51 PM

There's a chicken/egg element , but RTE is just appealing to the biggest audience with the way it places headlines.

**marinobohs** · 15/05/2013, 1:44 PM

Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

There's a chicken/egg element , but RTE is just appealing to the biggest audience with the way it places headlines.

........ TV station appeals to biggest possible audience

ah now I see the problem.

RTE output, while not my cup of tea, would stand comparison with any stationof a similar sized country. The UK probobly still produce the best TV so unsurprising that RTE cant match it ( NOT DEFENDING THE MANY WRONGS IN RTE)