Tweetgate leaves RTÉ all a twitter, but there was no plot against Gallagher

HISTORY is written by the winners, except on those rare occasions when it is written by a sore loser who claims to have lost a presidential election because of an errant tweet.

RTÉ has been subjected to self-righteous indignation and smug criticism from politicians and media rivals since the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) published its report into ‘tweetgate’ — the infamous, and erroneous, 140-character comment purporting to be from Martin McGuinness’s official Twitter account, broadcast during the Frontline TV show presidential debate.

Considering the wailing and gnashing of teeth engendered by the BAI report, one would be forgiven for thinking it found in favour of RTÉ. It didn’t. The report stated the broadcast of the bogus tweet was unfair, that the production team had not verified the information and that there was no attempt to correct the error, despite a clarification from McGuinness’s team being tweeted 30 minutes before the end of the debate.