Post-postdoc in public media
Cork, Ireland
Joined March 2008
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A few years ago, this was being heralded as a new departure in transparency and trust-building at RTÉ. And yet, no response to multiple queries to their information office over the last month asking if they're renewing their (seemingly expired) certification under the scheme.
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Short🧵on public trust in @rte, 3 years on from its organisational crisis. Trust trending gradually upward since lows of 2023, reversing about half its losses. Latest figures just released to me under FOI covering Q1 2026 show trust holding at 50% - dire by historical standards.
Given the rhetorical centrality of public trust in debates on RTÉ's future, the impending expiration of its funding deal + fast-diminishing licence fee receipts, v. striking to me that management have not been publicly pressed on what they will do to accelerate trust restoration.
What will get lost in the deserved backlash is that the regulatory model suits broadcasters very well because its interpretations of objectivity/impartiality are *highly* reluctant to impinge on editorial autonomy, as evidenced by miniscule broadcasting complaints success rates.
Minister Patrick O'Donovan has said he will be asking Coimisiún na Meán to review RTÉ and others' coverage of the fuel protests.
He suggested that coverage was "lopsided" in favour of the protest and that "carte blanche was given to some people".
jrnl.ie/7011275t
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Should have been able to provide the 2025 RTÉ public trust metrics this week but RTÉ blew past its own, already-delayed FOI deadline, no reason yet given. Hardly the most auspicious sign of culture change following its self-acknowledged crisis of trust.
rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/041…
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Quite the insight into Claire Byrne's idea of public service here (and into the organisational system that fosters this kind of solipsism among its stars)
If the media is to be really seen as essentially having nothing to do with the themes of the presidential election (lol) then there's no possibility of meaningful self-reflection afterward.
rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/102…
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Remembering today the po-faced sanctification of professional codes of practice and opposition to widening their public contestability (by FG,FF,NUJ) when Sinn Féin timidly suggested an editorial review of public service broadcast conflict reporting before the general election.
Some contrast between this (albeit far from perfect) approach to consultation and RTÉ's determination to delay releasing its 2025 public trust data - which is now being justified on grounds that it would prejudice their next tranche of polling on the subject. 1/2
Short🧵: The BBC has released the results from its survey of over 872,000 people with BBC online accounts
The survey leant heavily on "do you like good things?" sorts of qus - but there is still a clear & deep dissatisfaction with how the BBC is run
bbc.co.uk/ourbbcourfuture/
Mark Cullinane retweeted
Ireland's liberal intelligentsia think themselves above both faith and patriotism, but their europhilia is an instance of both. People who could barely tell you what exact structural changes the Lisbon or Nice treaties effected think it is shocking to have voted against either.
Catherine Connolly defends her decision to vote against EU’s Lisbon and Nice treaties buff.ly/cuSwuzI
Laughable hyperbole from RTÉ here, suggesting here in its submission re new broadcasting legislation that being required to retain copies of its online news output could spell the end of rolling news itself.
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This could be readily achieved with €35 and a few hard drives. We're talking about storing plain text here, its not going to fill data centres. aignes.com/lwa.htm
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