To justify their massive emoluments, the least we expect of those top RTE executives is that they get the really big decisions right. And in fairness, the decision to have Pat Kenny presenting Frontline was obviously right.

Yet as we watch Pat in his natural domain, a man apparently born again, we find it almost incomprehensible that the same Pat has been presenting the Late Late Show for the past 10 years. Frankly we don't want to think about it, because to waste the best years of a man's life in this way -- the one life he has -- is a deeply sad thing.

How could they have done this to him, and indeed to us? Because they have been wasting our time too, on a lavish scale.

Why did they have this superb current affairs broadcaster doing interviews with the stars of Emmerdale, asking them if their own personalities in any way resemble those of their soap characters? What were they thinking of, when they saw him doing those things with Bridget Nielsen?

And there's no point in telling us that Pat is so professional he can do anything. Indeed Pat is so remorselessly professional on screen, if he had been asked to play the role of McMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, his performance might not have been quite as memorable as that of Jack Nicholson, but it would still have been... professional.

He could have done it, but he would not have been right for it.

Obviously they had to wait for Tubridy to grow up to give the Late Late to him, but 10 years is still a long time to have Pat keeping the seat warm while he was so eminently capable of other things.

Which raises the spectre of our old friend Questions & Answers, and its role in the misuse of the available talent and the wasting of our precious time. After about two minutes of the first episode of Frontline, it was immediately apparent to me that my implacable opposition to Q&A had, if anything, been understated.

Frontline, with its vigour, its energy, and its lack of obvious lunatics in the audience, has demonstrated that Q&A also managed to

consume the best years of another outstanding broadcaster, John Bowman.

And no doubt it has occurred to Bowman himself, as he enjoys his Monday evenings off, getting his weekly fix of The Apprentice: You're Fired, that presenter Brendan O'Connor never once made it to the panel of Q&A -- for reasons that you don't want to think about either, but which would probably help to explain a lot of other things that went awry at RTE during those lost years.

O'Connor is demonstrating an almost spooky command of both the TV screen and of current affairs commentary. The Q&A crowd didn't see it.

But how they would have loved last week's debate, sparked by Enda Kenny's proposal to abolish the Seanad. On Prime Time, on Tonight With Vincent Browne, on the News, on far too many programmes which feature the political classes, they were loving this one.

It was a gift from Enda to his own kind.

They could get through a whole week bullshitting about the salient aspects: was this a political stunt? Or was it necessary in the context of the cutbacks which everyone else is being asked to make? And by the way, would they not be better off abolishing the Dail because Senator David Norris is such good value ha-ha-ha-ha-ha?

It had a bit of everything -- it allowed commentators to pretend that they are serious people by holding forth on constitutional matters, yet it contained nothing that would be intellectually challenging to the average 12-year-old; it caused a bit of a stir in Leinster House, while being of genuine interest only to the institutionalised. Ah. they were loving it.

And in case there is any confusion here, I should clarify that my principled objection to the reading out of texts and emails on shows such as Browne's, is not based on a desire to give exclusive and uninterrupted access to these established media commentators. In fact nothing could be further from the truth.

No, it is based on a much deeper desire, for a world with just a little bit less bullshit in it.

Because the reading out of texts and emails is based on one of the lies of modern broadcasting, the lie being, that you are connecting with your audience by involving them in this way.

In fact the way to connect with your audience, is by making a brilliant programme.

You can best serve the public, by telling them something they don't know, rather than by repeating back to them what they know already -- leaving aside the small matter that these contributions could be coming from Satan himself.

So it looks like you're taking a lot of trouble, reading out all these vital contributions to the great debate, when in fact you are taking the easy way out.

You are flattering to deceive.

The way to connect with your audience, is by doing the business, baby!

- Declan Lynch

Sunday Independent