RTE Frontline III

I have posted previously (here and here) about RTE's The Frontline programme with Pat Kenny. Having avoided the show for much of the spring, I found myself at home last night with not much else on TV and decided to give it another go.

Firstly, I still think that at times Pat Kenny is one of the best broadcasters that RTE have when it comes to current affairs. He has the knowledge and sharpness of wit to deal with most issues adroitly. After ten years in the wilderness of light entertainment on the Late Late Show his return to serious TV presenting is welcome.

Unfortunately, last night's show reminded me of why I gave up on The Frontline. Firstly, the makeup of the audience is about as predictable as the one that used to attend Questions and Answers. After about two sentences it is easy to determine people's loyalties. In fact with the advent of Twitter and the #rtefl hashtag, spotting plants in the audience has turned into a drinking game of sorts. Sinn Fein member - drink! SIPTU shop steward - drink! Barrister - drink! Libertas conspiracy theorist - neck the bottle!

My next gripe is the politicians that appear on the show. Last night we were treated to the third division duo of Michael Kennedy (FF, Dublin North) and Brendan Howlin (Lab, Wexford). Kennedy must be one of the poorest media performers in the Dáil. He spent five minutes going around in circles, with incomplete sentences, cliches and effectively kicking for touch on every issue. Now maybe that's the batting the Government want their backbenchers to do but we the public deserve better from our public representative. Howlin didn't do any better - in fact he probably did worse. He should have read the document he was waving around before trying to quote from it. Joan Burton must have been screaming at her TV watching his inept performance on Labour's proposals to close the gap in the public finances.

Constantin Gurdgiev did provide some light entertainment with his witty comments about how the Rainbow coalition balanced the books by accident rather than by design. I tend to not agree with much the man has to say but I strongly objected to Howlin's repeated interruptions when he was trying to elaborate on how he would try to balance the books. After Kenny's questions to Howlin on the specifics of the Labour document which took an age to answer I gave up again.

Maybe over the summer break The Frontline's team will have a look at the format and figure out how to improve the show. The Joe Duffy on the Telly style only goes so far and the repeated efforts to turn lots of issues into a public sector vs private sector fight don't help either. There is potential but a fair bit of work is required before I am going to become a regular viewer again.

RTE Frontline II

Due to being at a branch meeting last night I only got home in time to watch the 2nd half of The Frontline on RTE last night. The author of "The Lolita Effect", MG Durham, was the guest and she lead a debate on the sexualisation of children. While it wasn't cutting edge current affairs it was an interesting discussion with some very good contributions from the floor, especially from the younger members of the audience who brought into focus the unwillingness or inability of teachers and parents to talk to teens about sexual matters.

Unfortunately I seem to have missed the best bit of the show. During the first half, while talking to Mary Hanafin, an angry man in the audience started ripping into Pat Kenny. During his almost three minute rant he said everything that the public have been thinking about the hypocrisy of overpaid RTE presenters demanding cutbacks in welfare. Following Jack O'Connor's trophy house comments last week, Frontline might end being more focused on attacking Pat Kenny than debating the issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6VOoO0F4MQ

RTE Frontline

Last night Pat Kenny hosted the second edition of his new current affairs show called "The Frontline". After a strong first episode on the banking and financial turmoil we're now in, yesterday's show pitted the public sector versus the private sector.

As a public sector employee married to a self employed person I can see the impact the downturn has had on both sides of the divide. Since this time last year we have moved most of my partner's tax credits over to me due to her smaller number of contracts. Even with those extra credits, my net pay is now down about 13% compared to this time last year with the extra levies, taxes etc.

All workers are being hit and the mud slinging that was encouraged last night on The Frontline didn't help one bit. Polarizing the community rather than galvanizing it together to find a solution to the current situation might make for good TV but it doesn't contribute to the debate.

While I agree with Colm McCarthy's central arguement that the state can't continue to borrow €20Bn per anumm, his slash and burn to the bottom line doesn't take into account that the jobs lost will end up increasing the social welfare budget. Also his smartass and somewhat condescending delivery definitely rub people up the wrong way.

The public sector workers on the programme didn't exactly cover themselves with glory either. Sob stories about losing benefits and making additional contributions to pensions from people in fairly secure employment won't engender support from the private sector. The public sector need to come up with a line of argument that doesn't make us seem like whiny kids. Hard facts and an acceptance that those on over €50k are actually doing alright and can afford to pay a bit more. On the other hand, the private sector need to dial down the witch-hunt mentality.

The whole political system is busted but the infighting amongst the workers is the equivalent to fiddling while Rome burns. At the moment all we're doing is throwing more petrol on the fire