From RTÉ To Ofcom

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RTÉ’s Managing Director of News and Current Affairs, Kevin Bakhurst

RTÉ reports:

RTÉ has confirmed that Kevin Bakhurst, the managing director of the news and current affairs division, is to leave the organisation in October.

He will take up a position as Content Group Director for Ofcom, the communications regulator in the UK.

Mr Bakhurst joined RTÉ four years ago as managing director of the news and current affairs division, and was later appointed Deputy Director-General.

Kevin Bakhurst set to leave RTÉ in October (RTE)

Ofcom

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49 thoughts on “From RTÉ To Ofcom

  1. Eoin

    He should have been fired a long time ago if RTE’s ‘news’ and ‘current affairs’ output has anything to do with him.

    1. John B

      Oh whatever. People are always complaining about RTE news but in fact the standard is very high compared to many national broadcasters worldwide. RTE have refused to dumb down their news and personally I’d rather get news from them than from some rolling channel hosted by dolly birds.

      1. Bob

        The “but there’s worse out there” argument isn’t exactly something to be proud of. RTE’s standard of reporting is shocking and generally only serves to backup the government of the day.

      2. Tish Mahorey

        “But in fact the standard is very high”

        No it’s not. It is always the Government mouthpiece. It doesn’t dumb down the news but rather omits the news.

        It simply does not report certain stories which might offend or jeopardise powerful interests.

    2. Jimmy 2 tones

      Getting your “news” from RTE is your first mistake.

      Plenty of ways to get real news these days.

      rte is only for clueless culchies with no broadband these days.

      1. Tony

        Where do you get your real news from? How much do you pay for it? If its free, then you are the product, not the news.

      2. topsy

        Jimmy. Most of the “clueless culchies” are employed in Dublin doing jobs you lot are not fit to do.

        1. Tish Mahorey

          And keeping bogger nightclubs and weekday surrogate mammy carvery alive on Harcourt Street :0

      3. DubLoony

        I’d be interested to know what source you use for real news?
        One of the phenomena of the social media era is that people self select the news they want to see, hear from people they already agree with and reply to those same people.

        It sets up an bubble, an echo chamber that only confirms what you want to hear.

        A broad spectrum of well researched is desirable. In this country though, it is quite limited.

    3. Sheik Yahbouti

      Now d’eres a lad who is badly needed in the UK. an “Irish Style” Regulator – totally in the pay of the industry he “regulates”. Is this our new biggest export?

    4. steve knievel

      Will the water boys give us a break. RTE have no agenda against the water protesters. Bakhurst overlooked the establishment of the investigation unit. they have had a few scoops. Console. politicians willing to take a few quid, abuse of children in fostercare, problems with creches etc etc.

    5. Cowenwatch

      “He should have been fired a long time ago”!

      I was at a journalism forum where himself gave a talk. When asked by a journalist in the audience about questioning press releases he responded: “Why would you question a press release”? He literally sank into his chair when other audience members started laughing at him. Why question a press release, indeed!

      1. Inopera

        The standard is nowhere near high enough so cop on. There is an obvious bias for the poisonous establishment and they sure made their pro – IW stance clear in the past coverage. Its not even lively, its stale depressing centre-right and worthless

  2. steve knievel

    Thats a tad unfair. My only issue with RTE is their persistent policy of airing repeats and not announcing that they are repeats. That said there is a feeling of rats leaving a sinking ship.

    1. Rugbyfan

      Overpaid and overused presenters or in Marian’s case a couple of hours work/ coughing for lots of money,

  3. Eoin

    The facts suggest otherwise unfortunately. It’s news is blatantly biased and is borderline propaganda. There was even a student on here yesterday showing his analysis of RTE and BBC coverage and the bias towards ruling party policy. And he was using facts for his basis. I have seen it over and over myself. I attended an 50k strong anti Irish Water march in Dublin only to have RTE report on the 6pm ‘news’ that only 15k attended. So I don’t want to hear about the high quality of journalism.

    1. DubLoony

      Unless someone takes an overhead high resolution picture of a march so that a mathematical formula can be applied e.g. area of march space, no. people per square metre ~ approx. no people at march, can be applied its difficult to be exact about crowd spaces.

      Or if there is a specific entry with a counting system in place.
      Crowds always seem bigger if you are in the middle of them.

  4. Eoin

    Yes. I counted them. I stood in one spot (next to the spire) and literally timed the crowd go passed. I figured how many you per road segment and I did the maths later as I joined the end of the march. Minimum of 50k. MINIMUM.

      1. Tish Mahorey

        Oh you so really don’t want to admit the huge support of the anti-water charge movement. You really don’t want there to be that many people whose views you oppose.

        1. DubLoony

          How on earth did you come to that conclusion?
          I have no doubt that there is/was huge support for water protests.

          I’ve a pedantic bee in my bonnet about how we calculate crowds at protests. Pro-life crew are particularly notorious for it.

          http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a7121/the-curious-science-of-counting-a-crowd/
          “… when turnout implies clout, then politicians and event organizers have plenty of motivation to exaggerate the head count. Through careful research, though, it is possible to make better crowd-size estimates that aren’t the result of political bias.”

  5. Eoin

    That’s why I said 50k minimum. It was more like 80k in reality. I was being very conservative. Also, there are drones flying around all these marches. Yet no footage or photos were shown in the media. It wouldn’t do to have photos and footage confirming a 50k plus sized crowd when the official narrative is a 15k crowd (and a dying movement). Its amazing that RTE is blatant with this carry on yet it’s my ability to count and calculate crowd sizes that comes into question.

    1. Tish Mahorey

      Some even said as many as 100K were on that big march so you are being conservative with 50K.

      RTE and the Garda ALWAYS understate protest march turnout in an attempt to undermine the goals of the protesters.

      But when it’s a crowd greeting a home coming team, the numbers are accurate all of a sudden.

      1. Kieran NYC

        Some even said as many as 3 million were on that big march so you are being conservative with 100K.

  6. BelfastGerry

    Hmm.

    The purpose of news and current affairs is clearly to confirm conspiracy theorists in their prejudices. That is why I make sure to have a regular dose of Fox News, Russia Today and those other great sources of news you can get with that fancy internet machine. I myself find that the more references to sheeple in an article the higher the truth content; I am just concluding a PhD on that at the moment.

    The only bias RTE regularly display is a craven desire to give free loading cranks from the ‘left’ a vehicle to spout nonsense without meaningful scrutiny. However I suspect that is what is called balance.

    1. ahjayzis

      That Here’s How podcast was really good for pointing out deficiencies with the spoofer RTE supplied them. Worth a listen, every criticism backed up fairly fairly and squarely with chapter and verse – the RTE guy was utterly useless in addressing them.

      I’m really not a conspiracy theorist but I do think RTE News leaves a lot to be desired.
      Gemma O’D getting the sack was newsworthy, I think news organisations have a special obligation to cover freedom of the press stories, while they still can!

  7. Tish Mahorey

    Bakhurst was as complicit as any previous news editor in maintaining the status quo which suggests RTE has no editorial power of its own.

      1. Tish Mahorey

        Well they didn’t report on the Mary Boyle murder case despite the serious allegations with supporting evidence yet they wallpapered the nation with coverage of Mairia Cahill’s allegations of abuse.

        So yes, there ARE many cases they completely ignore until it becomes so obvious they are shamed into it.

        1. rotide

          Really Tish? They have never once reported on a case that is more than 30 years old?

          Do you read your posts back before you post or what?

          Would you be happy if RTE became the broadcast version of Broadsheet?

          Do you not see the problem with that?

  8. Eoin

    ….and now this guy is off to be a propaganda gatekeeper in the UK. I guess top shelf shills like him are hard to find if they’re hiring abroad.

  9. Jake38

    I don’t think Mr Bakehurst ever fitted in fully at RTE, what with having had jobs in the past other than Equality Office at the students union in UCD.

  10. Tish Mahorey

    I’d say he has some stories of political interference which would shame even a dictatorship.

  11. Dewitt Fowlar

    In one case, a documentary programme had libelled a priest and in the other, a presidential candidate complained of sabotage when an RTE presenter quoted a tweet containing a false allegation live on air. So Bakhurst was charged with restoring faith in the broadcaster’s investigative journalism. His first act was to oversee the development of a new investigations unit, which had a measure of success with programmes on the charity sector, mistreatment in creches and abuse in care homes.

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