Gallagher demands Frontline questions inquiry
Mr Gallagher has called for the inquiry and is seeking legal advice amid claims an audience member was given a prepared question by programme staff designed to damage him.
Mr Rabbitte is to discuss the controversy with Mr Gallagher today following the weekend’s revelations. RTÉ and Frontline have already been criticised by the broadcasting watchdog for airing a bogus tweet some argue helped derail Mr Gallagher’s campaign.
RTÉ issued a statement yesterday after claims by audience member Pat McGuirk that staff advised him to change his question and wanted him to “gun down” Mr Gallagher.
Mr Gallagher said the revelation was “deeply disturbing” and raised the “most fundamental questions about the trustworthiness and impartiality of RTÉ”.
“It now seems that RTÉ’s production staff were working towards setting the agenda, rather than facilitating a debate between the audience and the candidates,” he said.
He said he will contact Mr Rabbitte today and had asked his legal team to examine the revelations.
He called for a full inquiry into Frontline, the release of records from the night of the presidential debate and for staff to be questioned in an independent forum.
Last week, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld a complaint by Mr Gallagher about the debate. It said the station made “no apparent efforts” to verify the source and accuracy of a tweet broadcast during the show. The tweet, incorrectly described by presenter Pat Kenny as being from the official Martin McGuinness campaign, put Mr Gallagher under pressure to explain his past links to Fianna Fáil.
Mr McGuinness’s real campaign account on Twitter released a corrective tweet with almost 30 minutes of the programme left. However, this was never passed on to viewers, nor to listeners of Mr Kenny’s radio show the next morning.
Mr Gallagher went into the debate a clear leader in the polls, but finished second to Michael D Higgins.
Last night, Mr McGuinness said: “There is no doubt that RTÉ should not have broadcast a tweet during the Frontline presidential debate which incorrectly claimed that Hugh Morgan would appear at a press conference the following day.
“None of this, however, takes way from the fact that Seán Gallagher had legitimate questions to answer. The facts are that Seán Gallagher did solicit money on behalf of Fianna Fáil and was deeply involved in the culture of money buying access to politicians. It was Seán Gallagher’s lack of clarity and credibility in relation to straight questions on these issues from myself in the course of the Frontline debate which was his undoing.”
