Journalists off to the dark side in scary numbers

THIS WEEK RTÉ1, Sundays, 1pm OLIVER CALLAN RTÉ1, weekdays, 9am FROM ENNIS TO NASHVILLE Clare FM, Monday, 11am

Since I’ve in the past been critical of RTÉ1’s This Week, I note with approval that they did an item last week which for them must have been challenging. It was about the alarming number of journalists who are becoming political “advisers”; a story with many strands, one of which is the symbiotic relationship which can exist between these two estates – something to which This Week itself must be regarded as a net contributor.

They had a crack at it anyway, without openly acknowledging that contribution – maybe they felt that would be too “personal”, but we’ll let it go this time.

Journalist Justine McCarthy and Dr Roddy Flynn of DCU were in the studio, and while they made strong points, it seemed they were also avoiding anything too “personal”. Indeed, almost the first thing the otherwise excellent Justine wanted to make clear was that she was not finding fault with individual journalists who had gone over to the other side, that she regarded them very highly. That it was precisely because they were so good that they were in such demand.

There was no pushback on this from presenter Justin McCarthy – no relation – so we’ll have to raise the awkward question here: is the ability to move from journalism to the opposite of journalism a kind of DNA test that ultimately reveals whether you were ever that good?

I cite in evidence here, m’lud, one Justine McCarthy. As far as I know, Justine has never been offered some “role” advising “the Minister”. Or if she has, clearly she hasn’t taken it. So why would that be, I wonder? Why would someone who is so respected for her many abilities not be in the frame here?

I suggest, m’lud, it’s because at the core of her being, she passes that DNA test, as it were; that some ancient instinct is telling the Minister she just wouldn’t be the sort of person who could turn themselves into a spinmeister, just like that.

So the broader issues are clear: yes, too much political journalism is akin to PR anyway, and yes, too much of what “the Minister” does is just media management. But sometimes it’s no more mysterious than this: there are some journalists who will go there, and some who won’t. It’s an essentially personal thing, as individual as DNA itself.

Dr Flynn spoke in sage generalities too, but someone in his position should be especially aware of the root of the issue; that it’s not all about journalists moving into politics, it’s also about the kind of people who become journalists in the first place.

In suggesting that This Week might have done even better by holding itself more accountable here, I have the outstanding example of an item on Oliver Callan featuring John O’Regan, the creator and producer of Reeling in the Years.

That’s how he was introduced anyway, which immediately triggered an old reminder that Reeling..., one of the most successful shows in Irish TV history, was an idea mostly lifted from a BBC show called The Rock’n’Roll Years.

I was just musing on this when O’Regan himself interrupted my thoughts by telling Callan the show was indeed based on that BBC original – he even threw in The Rock’n’Goal Years, an ITV show that had been there or thereabouts.

It was almost the first thing he said, this clear refusal to take credit where it wasn’t due. And I have to say my admiration for the man soared. In a world in which the top people are trying to take all the praise and none of the blame, media and political types often underestimate just how good it sounds when someone refuses to take the credit that is freely available.

Certainly that’s what I’d be advising the Minister.

But sometimes you don’t even need the input of a highly paid advisor. If you’re Maura O’Connell, for example, mainly you just have to show up and do your great singing. Nor was there anything complicated about From Ennis to Nashville, a documentary about Maura made and presented by Padraic Flaherty on Clare FM – which would be Maura’s local station, since her family ran a fish shop in Ennis, long before she moved to Nashville.

All you need is a tremendous talent, a blameless life, and an empathetic documentary maker. I’d be telling the Minister that too.