Getting the Bird in the U S of A
Jim Carroll
Oh to have been a fly on the wall as those who unsuccessfully applied for the job of RTE’s Washington correspondant in 2008 watched the closing minutes of Charlie Bird’s American Year last night. There was the bould Charlie, giving up the ghost a mere 12 months into his four year stint. He did so with a rueful smile, a shrug of the shoulders and a bottle of red wine, sharing the latter with his two co-workers in the station’s office in the US capital. Those unsuccessful applicants are probably dusting off their CVs and updating their interview gags this morning.
I missed part one of this documentary on RTE’s man in America, but going on these reviews, I don’t seem to have missed much. Last night was more of the same: a journalist on the loose in a foreign land struggling with deadlines and culture clashes. It’s a common scenario in the media trade and one where most journalists overcome these difficulties within a few weeks or months.
Not Charlie: here was a man who obviously really, really, really wanted the gig but quickly found that he was out of his depth. Bird grumbled, fumed and complained about his lot at every turn, like an auld wan with a pain in her hoop on the phone to Joe Duffy. We saw him trying to be chirpy with his very patient cameraman and office manager (the views of both on their year with the Bird would be interesting to hear). We saw him having his dinner on his own in an Irish pub. We followed him stomping about Washington DC. Bird and America should have – could have – got on, but it was not to be.
The real reasons for this mismatch were understandably never extrapolated. After all, to do so would be to cast aspersions on RTE management who sent him out to the wild, wild west in the first place. Bird has always been a great man for the big home games. He’s good at sniffing out the big domestic political dramas, but has a habit of placing himself squarely in the thick of the action as if he’s one of the central players. It’s something which has been caricatured down through the years, but also exploited. In Showtime, Pat Leahy’s excellent book on Fianna Fail’s years in power, you can see how that party leveraged Bird’s coverage of Bertie Ahern’s 1997 election campaign to keep their man in the public eye.
However, away from home, Bird is not quite so effective. His US stories to date have lacked any sort of rhythm or analysis as he has struggled to find an angle which is both new and which will appeal to a home audience. Trying to do a Charlie Bird and inserting himself into the story when that narrative usually contains Barack Obama is always going to be a non-runner. Then, there’s the fact that some of his stories have been told many, many times before. I’ve lost count of the number of times at this stage, for instance, that I’ve encountered, in TV and in print, that hard-chaw sherrif with a fetish for making prisoners sport pink underwear.
Bird’s coverage of Haiti in recent weeks is another case in point. For a whole week, he basically filed the same story every single day. There was no sense of finding and exploring a new angle or taking a step back to examine the bigger picture. That didn’t happen until RTE reporters Cian McCormack and Tomás Ó Mainnín arrived and began despatching much more solid and telling pieces.
Many, including Bird himself several times last night, have pointed out that one of the problems was that the new US corr was pushing 60 and getting on a bit. An old dog unable to learn new tricks, though, is not much of an excuse. There are many, many veteran reporters who are well able to adopt to new situations and postings and keep filing top-class copy. It’s not about age, but ability. Look at last night’s show, for example, and Bird’s interview with Helen Thomas, the leading lady of the White House press corps. She hits 90 this year, has covered the comings and goings of 10 US presidents and still comes across as someone you wouldn’t cross if you knew what was good for you.
While Bird and America has turned out to be a horrific, costly mismatch, the more pressing question is why RTE management sent him out there in the first place. Past US correspondants have tended to be rising stars in the newsroom – Mark Little, Carole Coleman, Robert Shortt – and not established “national treaures”. Did RTE management really think Bird was the best candidate? Was this some sort of stroke to keep Bird happy? Who are they going to send out now? At least Charlie has a job to come home to.
(Part one of Charlie Bird’s American Year is here and part two is here)
i was planning on watching this at some stage on rte player (clever boys and girls at RTE) however now I’m not too sure if I’ll be wasting my time?
I was however intrigued to watching the politicans in the UK living in council blocks last night on channel 4, which made for some interesting watching. I’ll be curious to see what they will do with their new found first hand knowledge…
http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2010/01/29/review-tower-block-of-commons
The last 20 minutes of last night’s programme was the only bit of it that I saw, was it a series or a once off? I hadn’t noticed it before last night.
Anyway, it was bizarre, Charlie there in America going “wah, wah, wah, I’ve got this job that most reporters would kill for and I’m so sad, no one wants to be my friend,” like some homesick kid who’s parents just shipped off to boarding school. Maybe he could have tried harder. Helen Thomas, Obama’s barber, he could have at least offered them something from his tuck locker to buy their good graces. They could have been his friends.
For a guy who, like you said, often positions himself very strongly within a story, sometimes to the point of becoming part of the story it was somewhat revelatory viewing in terms of why he goes about his business in that way.
Then right after, just before The Frontline came on the continuity announcer said “let’s join Pat Kenny for tonight’s topical debate.” I refuse to believe that was nothing other than a prank being played on poor Pat, the Partridge-isms just won’t leave him alone.
caroline – it’s worth watching some of it just to actually see how moany he gets. I was shouting at the TV every 5 mins watching it, but maybe that’s just me. And ta for link to that story
ian – it was a 2 part series. you also reminded me of something – isn’t it amazing how quickly the Frontline has become Liveline on the telly? I’ve stopped watching it because I was getting repetitive strain injury from hearing the same bellyaching and fuming every week.
Zing.
It’s like he didn’t even try. It’s one thing when waiting for the phone to ring in RTE, which it inevitably does when a big story hits, quite another to go out looking for one when no-one knows who you are. In that sense, Bird wasn’t up to the job. His loneliness was a neat smokescreen.
So rather than doing the job, he decided he was going to make a documentary about not doing the job. Hilarious
- isn’t it amazing how quickly the Frontline has become Liveline on the telly? I’ve stopped watching it because I was getting repetitive strain injury from hearing the same bellyaching and fuming every week.
I thought it started off well, I watched the first 2-3 episodes in full but yeah, the cranks got a foothold pretty quickly and I haven’t watched it in weeks. I even missed the nutter they had on live.
Spot on, Jim. And Liam Fay nailed it in his Sunday Times piece at the weekend too. A laughably inept, deluded, self-congratulating correspondant with little more to say than “Look at me. I am here!”
Fay remarked that, on the day of Obama’s inauguration in DC, good oul’ Charlie chose to sign off his reporting on such an historically significant event with the words “…One of the biggest days in MY BROADCASTING CAREER.” Which sums him up really.
Never mind the fact that he makes Alan Partridge look slick, his failures as a reporter have finally been woefully exposed by taking him out of his D4 comfort zone. I shudder to think of the salary he receives. Time for some new blood to bring us real reporting from the likes of Washington/Haiti.
Why don’t RTE just hire someone with abot of experience who is already based in Washington? Someone with a rolodex to die for and who knows all the insiders (not including Obama’s barber). Charlie Bird looked like he was doing a school project.
It’s all just very embarrassing.
Is eating alone what Bird will be most remembered for? He gave an interview in the RTE Guide a few years back where he mentioned how lonely he felt eating meals on his own, Mongrel magazine constantly parodied him for it. It seemed nowt changed Stateside.
He gave an interview in the RTE Guide a few years back where he mentioned how lonely he felt eating meals on his own,
Little did Charlie know that he was at the cutting edge – http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/31/foodies-meals-for-one
Maybe Charlie could pull a Georgey Lee (remember him?) and run for the Shinners?
What with his Marxist past and recently established track record of being able to quit once he gets his backside in the seat, he should be perfect for them!
Poor auld Charlie, I think that it was as much his looking over the shoulder back home and seeing the major stories of the church crumbling, banks sliding further into their own mire, public and private sector set up to be at each other’s throats, Greens bailing water like Billyo, Thierry Henry, even a Grand Slam. Charlie was looking on, going “How could they, How could they let all this happen without me to be there to star in it”.
Now that FF are crawling up the polls, the weather will get back to normal and Charlie can enter stage left as if he’s never been away.
Although he’ll have a few war wounds to show the kids, that cactus must have really hurt.
Actually I thought a little more about Colum’s comment at 9 – surely the whole point of being a Washington corr is that you do a hell of a lot of networking and build up your contacts book? There’s no better way to do this than inviting someone to lunch or dinner and chewing the fat (in every way). But instead, Charlie pulled the “woe is me” routine.
JD – there’s a lot of would-be politicos out in Montrose – Joe Duffy is only gagging for the chance to run – http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/1219/1224260952184.html
The most ridicolous thing about this series is that RTE broadcast it in the first place!
Look at what an awful lonely job RTE sent me out on, i am so alone …booo hoooo (but i am getting paid a lot of money to do it)
The article in this weeks Sunday Times nailled it spot on
RTE should hire a dynamic American or Irish American based in Washington with lots of contacts and who is a networker. We need interesting reports from the USA! Charlie did not get into the role at all. I do wonder what his two Washington DC colleagues thought of him after the younger reporters of previous years!!
I couldn’t bare to watch the second episode after the cringefest that was the first.
Just four minutes in, while filming his inauguration piece, he had this gem.
“… here today, people of all colours and creeds, people from all over the world, from all over America. If I stop and ask somebody where they’re from, I’ll bet you they’re not from Washington.
‘Sir, can I ask you where are you from?’
‘I’m from here, in the District…’”
When your luck is in…
Colette – but didn’t Bird go west proclaiming that he was in love with America and wanted to embrace this brave new world? Anyone want to call Liveline this afternoon and say what a waste of the licence fee it was to have him there for a year twiddling his thumbs?
Ivor – and they left that one in. Ouch!
Ageist claptrap! Plenty of journalists go on into their 80s and 90s producing great copy.
It seems to me to be lazy/dull/immature/irresponsible broadcasting when the story reporter becomes the story…
Pageturners – exactly – it’s not about age but ability
Yet another reason, along with the ghastly and expensive Saturday Night Show, not to pay one’s TV license. Will the arse-kissing and back-slapping of our ‘national’ broadcaster ever end?
re that Sat night show,
the sunday mail reported BO’C was on 80k,
(AN EPISODE)
OC – WHAT??? You’re joking me right? 80k an episode to talk to Jim Corr? 80k? Matt Cooper must be annoyed. Fuck me, I’m in the wrong game.
it’s no laughing matter,
thinkin about it, that might be total production costs for one show and they reported it as BOC’s fee
OC – would be gobsmacked if BOC is getting 80k a show – that would be 560k for the series. Nah, not a chance.
As for “production costs” – the set looked like the old Bosco set with the lights turned off.
Maybe they paid 80k to Jim Corr to come on in and entertain the nation. Some musicians embark on solo projects or take up gardening between albums – Jim Corr becomes a conspiracy theorist
if the MOS are saying it’s true, it must be so…
There are so many exciting things happening in America in many Industries and new and exciting areas like climate change etc . It is really amazing that a senior journalist cannot file stories back to ireland which would be of great interest to many people eg The Virtual Revolution shown on BBC last Saturday evening.i have always been suspicious of the standards in the Irish Media and i think this is an example of poor standards. That is one of the reasons they are so hung up on the Freedom of Information which is a real avenue for the lazy journalist .Charlie Bird should reflect on his comfortable position in RTE and give us all a break we are not interested in his personal problems the world has changed and so should Charlie Bird.
I’ve never, for the life of me, been able to understand the plaudits laid at this man’s feet in terms of his journalistic abilities. I really believe that he’s the most over-rated and underwhelming of performers on TV and quite how he landed the plum role of Chief News Correspondent is beyond me. Consider, if you will, his reporting on the Iraq war from the comfortable confines of a plush hotel in Qatar? Consider, if you will, on the other hand BBC journalist John Simpson (Bird’s senior in age i imagine by some years) actually crossing the border through to Pakistan dressed in a burqa! Bird, in an ideal world, would be better suited to a Nationwide type of format. This pitiful show, perhaps inadvertently, has revealed the lack of talent, insight and journalistic ability of someone who got lucky and leaped, opportunistically into a vacuum. Harrumph!
Charlie is so deluded he thought he’d be palling it about with Barack and the boys getting all the inside stories. Why should he have a job when he gets back?
I wonder will we be seeing a similar fly on the wall show about fellow deflated RTE news “star” George Lee in a year or two. Another man with a big opinion of himself who thought he could shine on another stage. Another flop but it looks like they are keeping a job for him too.
martin – that’s a very good point and again, it shows up the failure of RTE management in the first place to send him there. Was Charlie going to be the man who’d come up with those stories? Not a chance.
Fergal – I’ve always found that Charlie Bird falls apart when he has to cover a story beyond these four green fields and I’m obviously not alone in this view
comet – I assume he’s staff in RTE and the US gig would have been just a newsroom deployment hence why he gets his old job back on his return. And you’re right, George Lee has become quite subdued since he moved to the backbenches. Surely he knew that Inda would not ditch the mighty Richard Bruton in favour of George Lee?
Role Call:
Charlie Bird
Pat Kenny
Joe Duffy
Rachel English
Mary Wilson
Áine Lawlor
- should all be employed by The Sun newspaper such is the level of their journalism and rigour when addressing any topic. Redtops all. None of them would be missed in broadcasting.
Frank – jaysus, steady on! Writing for “reptop” is actually not as easy as it looks. If it was, anyone could do it.
What is really ridiculous is that RTE thought it was worth making a very dull boring documentary about Charlie Bird in Washington. For God’s sake…what planet are they all on. What is staggering about this documentary is the narrow mindset of both the journalist in question and the broadcasting station. Charlie Bird came across as a hand wringing, whinging, self pitying, rude and unprofessional hack. He should have learnt something from the razor sharp questioning of Helen Thomas…no self pitying there…just a highly developed forensic questioning mind. She wouldn’t have been afraid to ask difficult or unpopular questions…a real professional. Bird wasn’t even at the races by comparison. RTE please stop churning out this mediocre low brow programming. Please, we need to widen our horizons beyond the same old tired personalities…there are plenty of talented people in the country who need to be found and developed..enough of the regurgitation of the same old, same old. Its boring, dull and mentally unchallenging.
Chris – unfortunately, all RTE will do is point to the numbers who watched the show – 563,000 viewers http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0203/1224263659751.html – as proof that people wanted to see this.
I totally agree – there are far more talented, newer faces who deserve a shot and this time but the chances of RTE giving a primetime slot to them? Zilch. And the justification for this? The numbers. This is the excuse offered by RTE for everything from why music shows are stuck in the graveyard slot to why Brendan O’Connor is the new face of Saturday night TV.
Generation of swine. BOC is standard RTE mediocre, overpaid drivel.
Jesus, don’t get me started on Brendan O’Connor!
Charlie, like most RTE journalists wants to be a player, not a journalist. In the US he found he just wan’t that important. If only Tommie Gorman wouyld get the same message now…