RTÉ head: Debate did not decide presidency

The head of RTÉ has insisted it is impossible to say if a controversial debate on The Frontline had decided the outcome of last year’s presidential election won by Michael D Higgins.

RTÉ director general Noel Curran said yesterday he did not know how anybody could say the programme decided the election. It is a view that directly contradicts recent remarks by the station’s news and current affairs editor, David Nally, who said he accepted the programme had changed the outcome of the presidential race.

The Frontline debate hosted by Pat Kenny on Oct 24, 2011, broadcast details of a bogus tweet which claimed Sinn Féin would hold a press conference the following day with a person who had given a €5,000 fundraising cheque for Fianna Fáil to Seán Gallagher.

The businessman and independent candidate had enjoyed a substantial lead in the opinion polls at the time of the programme but was overtaken by Mr Higgins on voting day.

Mr Curran and other senior RTÉ executives appeared before the Oireachtas communications committee to discuss the recently published editorial review of The Frontline debate.

The RTÉ director general said Mr Nally’s views were personal. Mr Curran argued that the debate had 700,000 viewers, compared to the 1.8m people who had voted in the election, while Mr Gallagher had appeared on several television and radio programmes following The Frontline.

Mr Curran stressed he was not saying the RTÉ debate did not have some impact on the election but he doubted the swing against Mr Gallagher could be attributed to a single programme.

He claimed the influence of media was often exaggerated by other people including politicians. However, Mr Curran admitted it was difficult to say if the programme would have been the subject of an inquiry if the controversy about the tweet had not arisen.

Mr Curran admitted that RTÉ had never traced the source of the bogus tweet. He acknowledged the contents of the editorial review made for difficult reading for RTÉ on a controversy which he acknowledged had caused concern and anger both among the public and within the station.

One of the co-authors of the review, Rob Morrison, said he was unhappy with the format of the Frontline debate, which he described as “very confused and complicated”.

Questions which had been put to the candidates during the broadcast came much closer to rewriting by the production staff than we would have liked and often were more like comments, said Mr Morrison. He also maintained the audience selection process was “inappropriate” and training among staff was poor.

However, he stressed that they had found no evidence of any bias by the production team.

The report’s other co-author and RTÉ’s director of programmes, Steve Carson, said the programme team believed a challenging question on abortion would be put to Mr Higgins during the debate but the quest-ioner had not shown up due to bad weather.

RTÉ new managing director of news and current affairs, Kevin Bakhurst, said it was “completely unacceptable” that the bogus tweet had been aired. Mr Bakhurst said he would take personal responsibility in ensuring all future election debates would be carried out in the correct way.

RTÉ’s handling of the programme and its fallout was criticised by a number of TDs and senators including Michael Moynihan (FF) who said it was unacceptable and unbelievable that the tweet could not be verified while the show was on air.

Meanwhile, Mr Curran said the station was on target to “regain financial stability” in 2013 after reporting a €30m deficit in 2011.