Sir, - Your edition of November 17th reports that RTE's Later with Finlay and Gallagher is to be dropped, but quotes Joe Mulholland as saying, "No final decisions have been taken". As a viewer with attitude, I look forward to Fergus Finlay and company on Thursdays. The civilised flow of conversation on the show is about right. Cadence and pace is a key feature of the success of The Last Word on Today FM. RTE must have noticed.
Viewers of late-night political television shows are likely to be partisan. It is not necessary to know Fergus Finlay to realise that he has a personal political agenda. That has not stopped him being fair. Anyone who has been a political adviser to a government is an unlikely purveyor of objectivity as perceived by opponents. What is objectivity, anyway? The varied weekly participants on Later with Finlay and Gallagher are well able to joust and hold their own.
Conflicts of interest are a problem only when hidden. Jackie Gallagher should have made his interest in a bank investigated by the DIRT inquiry known or Fergus should have torpedoed him live on air. The pretence of a decontamination period following active political involvement is a sham. However, it is a pretence that allows many of our better communicators to serve the State through direct participation in the political process without becoming unemployable in their area of expertise.
Sean Duignan, Shane Kenny, Bill O'Herlihy and others have well-known party political pedigrees. Should they carry a label on screen so that every comment can be judged against the bogus gold standard of objectivity? Even Kevin Rafter in his recent critical article on lobbyists hosting TV chat shows (The Irish Times, November 6th) omitted his own role in the TCD Fianna Fail cumann or in Aras de Valera. Do I suppose he has been miraculously cleansed of a political tendency?
On BBC, Edwina Curry, David Mellor and Steve Norris are among the politicians who host interesting chat shows. TV4 has Alan Dukes and Maire Geoghegan-Quinn as presenters.
Orla Guerin reports from Eastern Europe's war zones. If RTE remove Later with Finlay and Gallagher/Dunlop, management should answer the simple question, why? It would certainly leave a space for TV3 to enter. Finlay is a friend of mine but does not tell me what to think. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Bill Tormey, Glasnevin Avenue, Dublin 11.