RTE's New Washington Correspondent

international | arts and media | opinion/analysis

Tuesday September 28, 2004 16:37

by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts.com

Robert Shortt currenty a business correspondent at RTE, is to succeed the current incumbent Carole Coleman as the station's Washington Correspondent. Is an expatriate posting justified when areas of the world such as Asia and Africa generally go unreported?

Americans are well known to have a limited interest in foreign news unless there is an American angle to it. The following is from a satirical piece on a US survey on the annoying amount of international news on the web. "I can see where it's important if we're, like, beating some country in the Olympics or bombing them or, ideally, both," Grisham added. "But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"

Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo. "Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong Kong back to Canada."

The RTE audience's interest in US news is served by several services including the Washington Correspondent. However, it is difficult to see how a cost of at least €300,000 could be justified compared with having a contracted competent freelancer. It would surely take years for a newcomer to such a crowded media market as Washington to develop useful contacts beyond the Irish Embassy.

These days as newspapers use freelancer bylines from different part of the globe as if the individuals are on their own staff, there is no particular cachet in having a full-time expatriate correspondent in a place like Washington. Europe is a different matter as European news is not 'foreign' news and there will be an Irish angle to many such stories.

In the past, the role of a resident foreign correspondent such as the famed Alastair Cooke of the Guardian and the BBC's 'Letter from America' was important but with the web and cable, everyone has the potential to access American media themselves. Meanwhile, significant news from much of Asia and Africa only gets attention when it only gets bad enough to be taken seriously.

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Comments (6 of 6)

Did the White House get Carole Coleman's head on a plate?

by Curious

Tue Sep 28, 2004 17:06

Could the departure of Carole Coleman have anything to do with her interview with George Bush during his visit here last June?

There was more than wailing and gnashing of teeth when Coleman asked the halfwit a few uncomfortable questions. The reach of Washington is long indeed, right into Montrose it seems.

Cheers Carol

by Lerner

Tue Sep 28, 2004 17:16

I imagine she's persona non grata in the White House since that interview. As a result, she's a lame duck correspondant now, so they really have to replace her. She presumably knew this would happen before she did the interview. I'd say that doing a proper interview with chimpy, rather than a puff-piece was worth the resulting sacrifice.

I heard she wanted out anyway

by Anon

Tue Sep 28, 2004 17:33

I think it was the phoenix, or perhaps even her own colleagues in RTE who sniggered that her show during the Bush interview was a cynical ploy to move up the ranks in Irish journalism, becoming a "heavy hitter" or whatever. It was quite light and fluffy really. She asked him questions which he couldn't answer anyway (like is the world safer, or is God on his side). She was just trying to embarrass him, and it worked. Fine. But she didn't ask him any of the questions about Iraq, Halliburton, International Law or anything at all that would have really put him on the spot.

Narrow Views of the World

by Polyglot

Tue Sep 28, 2004 20:55

The amazing thing about all these Irish foreign correspondents, be they RTE, Irish Times, NewsTalk 106 or wherever, is that none of them speaks a foreign language.
How can they develop a multiplicity of sources and opinions if they're stuck in just one language ?
Its even worse than that. When does RTE interview an "expert" from outside Britain or the US on anything, from urban planning to the war on Iraq ? No wonder we have the Anglo-American view of the world ! Wouldn't it make sense to say that anyone aspiring to be a foreign correspondent must speak at least one language other than English ? And why does RTE take the sloppy and lazy road of always calling London or Washington when it needs an "expert" ?

The Sun: Ron Keane's House Comes Under Attack

by toneore

Tue Sep 28, 2004 21:54

toneore at eircom dot net

First of all, that's BS. Irish Times correspondents in Moscow learnt Russian, Lala Marlowe speaks French, and Mark Little and Miriam O'Callaghan speak the language of every other VIP magazine reader.

But, do you need to speak a second language to report on stuff like this?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004451271,00.html

"Police said the wording contained a “disturbing message”.

It is understood to have included the insulting words “Irish tw*t”."

Irish tw*t? Sounds like the work of one of the Beckhams (any one). But a race hate slogan? Bloody Cork pansy.

The Sun (not strictly on-topic, but)

by John

Thu Sep 30, 2004 14:44

On following the link above, I noted there was a section where you could submit stories to the sun and earn money, so

MANDYS MUM IN ROMP WITH RANDY REG SAYS VICAR

Single Mum of four, Sandy Snotts, 43, has been spied romping with saucy eastenders love-rat "Randy" Reg Beckham, a brother in law of soccer ace, David, says local Fcukleminster vicar, Armitage Crocksworthy. "Phoarr, what a bit o' totty", said Reg, when our reporter Sue Cellulite caught up with him having been evicted from Slapper's nightclub (ooh!) after a boozy night out on the town. Busty page 3 stunner, Sandy's daughter, Mandy, was in floods of tears when she heard the news, in hospital, following her painful, heart rending breast augmenttion surgery. She labeled Reg a "sicko" and a "perv" and vowed revenge on the totty-mad thespian!

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Comments (6 of 6)