Colin Sheridan: You stay classy, Bryan Dobson 

The inimitable anchorman is stepping down, one of a dying breed of anchors who delivered the news, without becoming it

Minister of State Liz O Donnell with RTÉ'S Bryan Dobson, wipes away a tear as she tells journalists it is a historic day, as it becomes obvious that a peace deal is almost on the table in Castle Buildings, Belfast, ahead of the Good Friday Agreement.

It says a lot about the authority of Bryan Dobson that the first time you saw a picture of him ‘dressed down’ in casual clothes, it was like seeing a soldier out of uniform, or a doctor out of his scrubs. 

For a generation of us who grew up with him as anchor of RTÉs Six One News — a chair he filled from 1996 to 2017 — Dobson was almost like a third parent. His voice commanding, his hair immaculate, his signature suit and tie a totem of his dependability. He made delivering the news look easy. 

His transition from screen to radio six years ago diminished none of that aura. If he voiced the sat nav in the car, you’d do exactly as he told you, even if it were to drive directly into a lake. When Dobbo talked, we listened. As of the end of April this year, he will tell us no more. On RTÉ at any rate.

Whether interviewing political party leaders one-on-one, or doing outside broadcasts from significant state occasions, you always felt Dobson was in complete control. There were never any soft-ball questions, nor sycophantic deference to celebrity, just good, hard-core journalism delivered in a killer suit and with a silky voice. 

He made easy what is undeniably very difficult. More than that, he provided an almost nightly comfort blanket for those who tuned in. He never chose to milk his own celebrity for further gain, thereby diminishing the impact of his unmistakable voice. 

The closest he came to mere mortality was when he posted a picture of himself working from home during the pandemic. Dressed in his signature blue shirt and suspenders, the sight of his pristinely manicured bookshelf backdrop made a mockery of those of us who were blurring out our utility room walls for meetings and had us all zooming in to see if there was any Jilly Coopers amongst his Joyce and Flann O’Brien.

What comes next for Dobson is unclear —   Dancing with the Stars, maybe? — but it’s unlikely we will ever see him behind a news desk again. Given the national broadcaster's troubles of late, losing Dobson may help Kevin Bakhurst's budgetary issues, but will diminish RTÉs talent pool, and further damage the station's standing on the public's trustworthy index. 

As the Toy Show musical debacle rains fresh embarrassment upon Montrose, El Dobbo exuded an older school, fatherly air of reliability. He was never prone to skipping down to the company car park to shoot an advertisement for a pack of crisps on his coffee break, at any rate.

Like Channel 4’s Jon Snow before him, Dobson leaves at a time when news anchoring — after an extended golden age — seems to be smack bang in a period of crisis and undeniable decline. 

Snow and Dobson should at least be happy they left on their own terms.

While CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite was once regarded as the most trusted man in America, successive scandals in US news media have eroded that faith in broadcast journalism to the point of it disappearing entirely. 

When Brian Williams succeeded NBC News legend Tom Brokaw in 2004, he signed a multi-million dollar contract, indicative of how reading the news was fast becoming part of the actual news. Williams enjoyed almost unanimous praise for his role, until he appeared on The David Letterman Show in 2013, and told a riveting story from the Iraq war of how a military helicopter he was traveling in was forced down after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Later the same week, on NBC Nightly News, he repeated the story again, with graphic pictures of the incident. The trouble was Williams was never aboard the helicopter, and his embellishment was quickly exposed by those watching at home. Unsurprisingly, he lost his seat as a news anchor, and his reputation never recovered. 

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather.

Williams’s fall from grace echoed that of another trusted voice, Dan Rather, who presented a 60 Minutes special in 2004 alleging President George W Bush hadn’t fulfilled his obligations while serving in the Texas Air National Guard. When challenged, CBS News couldn’t prove the veracity of the claims and Rather stepped down as anchor.

Since Williams, NBC fired Matt Lauer (whom they were paying a reported $20m), while CNN parted ways with big names Don Lemon, and Chris Cuomo. Even Fox News — hardly ever the paragon of virtue — has dispensed with Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson.

Perhaps the lesson in all of this is that the demise of the news anchor has been accelerated by the cult of celebrity it encouraged.

Dobson — and his stable mate Sharon Ní Bheoláin — owe much of their longevity and reputational security to their ability for delivering the news, not becoming it.