Another spin on the merry-go-round

RADIO REVIEW:IN AN ELECTION in which there has been surprisingly little negative campaigning, there are still those who have gone on the attack to win over the public. Newstalk, for one. Over the past three weeks, the station has been inviting listeners to "get the truth without the state-run spin", implicitly impugning RTÉ's coverage. Eye-catching though the ad is, in common with many political slogans, it does not bear too much scrutiny.

Newstalk has had its own problems with spin of late: not asking questions about Enda Kenny’s pension during Monday’s interview on

Breakfast

(Newstalk, weekdays) was hardly the kind of fearless, dissident act designed to highlight RTÉ’s supposed Pravda-like deference to the establishment.

That was not the main problem, however. Nor was it the campaigning activities of presenter George Hook, who despite declaring his show ( The Right Hook, Newstalk, weekdays) a "politician-free zone", took the stage at a Fine Gael rally last weekend. The prosaic truth is that Newstalk's brash approach has not yielded much in the way of a more candid political dialogue. Last Wednesday's Breakfastwas a case in point. Ivan Yates introduced the directors of election from the three main parties – Fianna Fáil's Tony Killeen, Fine Gael's Phil Hogan and Labour's Ruairi Quinn – in the manner of a prizefight announcer, promising a knock-down, Rocky Balboa-style bout with his guests.

The minister-turned-anchor conducted his questioning in the same vein, doing “a bit of headbutting” on the weaknesses of the party manifestos. Yates spoke of the “fiction” that Fine Gael would create 100,000 new jobs, compared Eamon Gilmore’s campaign to a striker missing an open goal, and mused that Brian Cowen’s “political crime” was a lack of electoral preparation, an ineptitude which had disgraced the organisation. The three politicians responded to such baiting by sounding unruffled, sticking to the party line and generally spinning as usual.

The nearest thing to a revelation came when Quinn admitted that Gilmore’s description of the European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet as a civil servant – “bullshit” to Yates’s ears – was “perhaps too strong”: hardly political dynamite.

Yates’s grilling technique was akin to a cheeky schoolboy using swear words, but brought little fresh insight.

The appearance of the Killeen, Hogan and Quinn roadshow on News At One(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) allowed a useful comparison between Newstalk's irreverence and RTÉ's alleged conformity. Sean O'Rourke was less dramatic than Yates, but still sought to stir things up, wondering whether the sniping between Labour and Fine Gael made a coalition more difficult.

When Quinn compared the two parties to the Munster and Leinster rugby teams, at odds when playing against each other but at one when they donned the Ireland jersey, O’Rourke quipped that he always thought Labour were more like Connacht, the sport’s also-ran province. Such subtle barbs speak of the integrity of RTÉ’s election coverage, unfairly maligned by Newstalk’s publicity machine. Even so, O’Rourke’s understated tenacity could not shake his guests’ iron grip on their respective party lines any more than Yates’s two-fisted technique.

If RTÉ is susceptible to spin, it is from closer to home. Earlier on Wednesday, O'Rourke had been a guest of Ryan Tubridy's ( Tubridy, 2FM, weekdays) as he plugged RTÉ Radio 1's election count special. In fairness, most of the conversation was taken up with the mechanics of the electoral process, with Tubridy showing off his yen for political trivia: he knew that Malta was the only other country to use the same voting system as Ireland. But an hour-long discussion on the topic seemed excessive, justified only by the national broadcaster's need to promote itself.

By way of confirmation, Tubridy opened his show by mentioning he had met Miriam O'Callaghan, who was that night hosting the leaders' debate, on the way to the studio. What he did not mention was that O'Callaghan was at that moment appearing on The John Murray Show(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), plugging, yes, the debate on RTÉ television. Murray's interview was wide-ranging, though it tilted towards froth more than substance. Topics ranged from the changed political landscape to snippets about O'Callaghan's family life to her pithy explanation why there were so few women in Irish politics: "Because we have babies." She also said her role as moderator in the debate was "irrelevant", which sounded a bit odd, given that was the reason she was on the radio in the first place.

In the end, Tubridy and Murray’s slots veered close to cheerleading. Even in the face of outside attacks, RTÉ does itself no favours with such cosy backslapping.

radioreview@irishtimes.com

Radio moment of the week

It was not the most subtle radio drama, but, in terms of topicality, The Bail-Out (BBC Radio 4, Thursday) was hard to fault. Written by Hugh Costello, the play mixed relationship drama and political polemic to recount the causes and repercussions of the IMF/EU rescue through the experiences of Annie Clancy (Karen Ardiff), a Dublin journalist. At times it was a clunky combination, with characters such as maverick economist and would-be TD Prof Culloty (Mark Lambert) spelling out events for the unfamiliar listener. But at bottom it was a heartfelt and forlorn portrait of the “used-up, spat-up country” that is contemporary Ireland. If they did not like what they heard, British listeners could just turn it off: we are not so fortunate here.