Madam, – I believe I may have found the cure for what is, apparently, a nation-wide malady which might be dubbed Recession Depression. The remedy is simple and, crucially, it is free: I became a born-again BBC Radio 4 listener.
No longer for me RTÉ’s seven-day diet of myopic megalomania nurtured in a parallel universe populated by anaemic analysts, apoplectic academics, breathless breaking-story peddlers, convulsive correspondents – more often than not print media double-jobbers, demented demagogues of every hue, delusory developers, egotistic economists and selective mendicant mortgagees not forgetting the parsimonious (Government) and populist (Opposition) politicians.
Just in case a 30-second window of potential relief might be allowed peep through, there is on tap a seemingly endless supply of retro-fitted prophets and extempore experts on everything else who can be relied upon to ensure that RTÉ’s cloud-filled skies continue to rain over us.
Is it any wonder our beleaguered Taoiseach called for news-reportage change? I commend my remedy to all and sundry but particularly to the national broadcaster’s programme makers. One week of compulsory listening to Radio 4 might just be enough to convince them that there is another world beyond the strict confines of our shores and that public service broadcasting can and should comprise a wide mix of daytime programmes.
More so, they might come to appreciate that what they currently produce is nothing more or less than a series of daytime programmes dictated by the contents of Morning Ireland.
Succeeding programmes, with one or two short periods of respite, are but a mishmash of mind-numbing attempts to outdo the preceding presenter, justified only by the availability of airtime in which to do it. Proof, if needed, that the theory of work expanding to fill the time allocated to perform it is alive and well in RTÉ. – Yours, etc,