Letter to the Editor – RTÉ
The Editor,
Letters Page,
The Irish Times.
Dear Editor,
John Bowman’s review (Irish Times 5th Feb)of John Horgans “Broadcasting and Public Life: RTE NEWS and Current Affairs 1926-1997″, reminded us of the quality we once could expect from RTE and the hope that we might see it again.
RTE was once a Broadcaster that understood the difference between terrorists and democrats. It once reported objectively and intelligently, but not obsessively,on Northern Ireland. It once reported on young people without it having to be about alcohol, drugs or binge drinking. It once dealt with Current Affairs and Politics as a serious contest of ideas and not as a poorer version of a showbizness tabloid. It was once easier to have access to the airways, if you were elected, than if you had been rejected. It was once a place where people who had something to say, sometimes became “celebrities”, rather than “celebrities”, mostly having nothing to say – but plenty of airtime to say it.
In short it was once a forum for the debates, already taking place in the kitchens, living rooms and bars, all over Ireland, to be brought together in the common good.
RTE was a real Public Broadcasting Service, alas that too, with a few very honorable exceptions, is a thing of the past. There is a huge need for a real debate on how we define, finance and enable the development of a truly contemporary Public Broadcasting Service. Still living in its genuinely monumental past RTE will remain incapable of leading and benefiting from that debate, if it does not embrace Ireland 2005 and forward.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dermot Lacey
