Sir, - Now that the election is over, it is worth commenting on the coverage provided by RTE both before and over the weekend of the count.
The coverage of the count was particularly awful. I really can't imagine what the designers in RTE were thinking about when they put together the studio design. We had a tacky studio setting and behind the "round table" where many of the interviews were being conducted, we had television screens showing the RTE election pop video - constantly repeating screen images of Leinster House, old film projectors and whatever else they could find. What a distraction to the discussions that were taking place.
On the detail of the day, it was impossible to follow the news from the constituencies as it was so disjointed and not enough tables were put up on screen to allow the viewer to understand what was happening. I couldn't help feeling that RTE had made the classic mistake of thinking that the technology was more important than the business - in this case, communicating election results.
My main other complaint concerns the summary of the election campaign during the three weeks before polling day given alter the nine o'clock news each Friday. The "film bites" and "sound bites" put to music only served to trivialise the campaigns and put into context the way that RTE saw the three weeks: one big show.
As I write this, I look forward to reading The Irish Times so that I can at last understand what happened. Sorry, RTE: one big failure. - Yours, etc.,
Templeroan Park,
Dublin 16.