Stephen Collins: We should all be alarmed by how fast Tubridy went from national treasure to hate figure

Two weeks on from the eruption of the RTÉ payments scandal, it is surely time to take stock. What does it say about Irish society that politicians and the media go into a frenzy at intervals, demanding that people deemed to have transgressed should be hounded out of their jobs before all the facts are known?

Of course accountability is required from RTÉ – and from Ryan Tubridy himself – over the deception relating to the value of his pay package, but it is hardly the most pressing issue facing Irish society today.

A disturbing aspect of the affair is the way someone who just a month ago was widely regarded as close to a national treasure can suddenly be transformed into public enemy number one. Not content with seeing Tubridy’s career in tatters, his louder critics are demanding that he should never be allowed to work again.

This side of journalism is nothing new. Mark Twain captured it back in the 1890s when quoting the philosophy of the New York Sun editor, Charles Anderson Dana, about the secret of success in the yellow press. “The first great end and aim of journalism is to make a sensation. If you have none, make one. Seize about the prominent events of the day and clamour about them with a maniacal fury that shall compel attention. Vilify everything that is unpopular, harry it, hunt it without rhyme or reason so that you get a sensation out of it. Laud that which is popular, unless you feel sure that you can make it unpopular by attacking it. Hit every man that is down – never fail in this for it is safe.”

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We saw the same rush to judgment in the Golfgate affair of 2020, when prominent individuals in politics and journalism were hounded out of their jobs in a matter of days

The nature and scale of Tubridy’s transgressions seem immaterial as far as some critics are concerned; the only thing they will settle for is his complete professional ruin. We saw the same rush to judgment in the Golfgate affair of 2020, when prominent individuals in politics and journalism were hounded out of their jobs in a matter of days, on the basis of what turned out to be incomplete and misleading information.

At this stage it is worth recalling what Tubridy has done, or failed to do.

Unlike a variety of prominent media figures globally, who have experienced similarly precipitous falls from grace amid accusations of abuse and bullying, his only “crime” is that he did not object when his employers at RTÉ understated his earnings to give the impression he had taken a more significant pay cut in a time of Covid.

Celebrity culture

Of course, Tubridy and his agent should not have sought to minimise the pay cut, and the presenter should certainly have voiced his objections when RTÉ under-declared his earnings to an Oireachtas committee. Those who accuse him of being blinded by greed or ambition have a point.

However, he was part of a celebrity culture fostered by RTÉ which has for decades been prepared to pay its most prominent presenters, the so-called “talent”, eye watering salaries. This hasn’t stopped the organisation pleading with Government time and time again to increase the licence fee, as the only way to ensure the viability of public-service broadcasting.

Long before Dee Forbes darkened the door of RTÉ, star presenters such as Pat Kenny and Gay Byrne, were earning far more than Tubridy when they had the same role as him, presenting the Late Late Show and a morning radio programme. A number of other well-known names in television and radio are still being paid large sums, far in excess of those paid to regular staff.

The scale of the disparity between “the talent” and the rest of the staff at the broadcaster has prompted Independent senator Rónán Mullen to introduce a Bill specifying that nobody in RTÉ should earn more than €195,000 a year.

The one positive from the affair is that this aspect of the whole rotten system is now unlikely to survive

This is probably impractical, but it does serve to highlight the way public money has been dished out to some broadcasters with no questions asked. Those same broadcasters have no compunction about laying into politicians or senior public servants when questions are raised about their remuneration or their handling of public money.

Another dubious aspect of the star system is that the prominence given to them by RTÉ enables them to earn very significant sums from public appearances on top of their already large earnings. The potential for conflicts of interest is obvious, but something that has never been properly addressed.

The one positive from the affair is that this aspect of the whole rotten system is now unlikely to survive. But the more important question is whether public service broadcasting can recover from the reputational damage it has suffered.

One thing for sure is that no Government is going to agree to an increase in the licence fee for a long time to come. The affair may well spark a wave of non-payment by disgruntled television viewers. RTÉ management was already facing tough decisions. Those decisions have just got an awful lot tougher.