Viewers short-changed as RTÉ interviews short

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Presenters on RTÉ, the national broadcaster, are forever cutting interviews short.  Be it on radio or television, when it comes to news and current affairs programmes, it seems RTÉ is always running out of time.

How many occasions have you heard Miriam O’Callaghan, on Prime Time, say “we’ll have to leave it there . . . it’s an important subject and I’m sure we’ll be returning to it at a later stage”, or words to that effect.

We cite her as an example, but she’s by no means the worst offender and they’re all at it.

It’s the same on radio. Morning Ireland is forever squeezing an interview in at a minute or two before nine o’clock. Why bother?

Go through all the programmes on RTÉ, and this pattern of cutting interviews short is ever-present.

The Six One News live interviews, particularly when politicians are being grilled, nearly always come to an abrupt end before the surface is scratched. And it’s even crept into the flagship entertainment talk shows, when Ryan Tubridy and Ray Darcy keep ‘running out of time’ with interviewees.

Maybe there are instances where they do genuinely run out of time, or they are stuck for time. But it happens on such a regular basis now that it cannot be coincidence.

This must be policy: shoehorn the interviews into a minimum timeframe; use that tiny amount of time to extract a soundbite that can then be used on the news at the top of the hour; and whatever you do, try not to get too in-depth.

It’s as if they think the listeners and viewers can’t cope with anything other than short and snappy (and confrontational, in the case of Morning Ireland).

There are exceptions. Séan O’Rourke’s mid-morning slot allows for more analysis, and the presenter at least teases out the issues and gives them the time they merit.

And the Late Debate weeknights on RTÉ radio usually allows contributors to delve further into issues, without fear of being cut-off mid-sentence.

In fairness to the presenters, they probably have producers roaring at them in their earpiece, telling them to cut to an ad break, or the Angelus.

But really, they need to sort it out – interviews can’t go on forever, but neither should interviewers be completely constrained by the rigidity of time. If the subject matter is relevant enough to cover in the first place, then why cut interviewees short with the compensatory promise of a further debate at a later date.

Why not extend the programmes by another 10 minutes, or start a little bit earlier?

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.