The underground “dirty trick” world of media was revealed in Ireland today as a national television station uncovered an embarrassing phone call from a competitor, aimed to discover its programming schedules.
TV3 accused RTÉ of “dirty tricks” after it found out a bid to see the channel’s programming schedules through a “rogue caller” who works for the national station.
TV3 said they received a phone call from the RTÉ employee pretending to be a member of the public, but the undercover agent didn’t check his tools before his investigation began. His phone number at RTÉ Television had been identified. How embarrassing.
The incident took place on Wednesday, when a caller rang and identified himself as a “TV3 viewer”. He asked what home-produced programmes the station had planned for its long-term programming schedule.
Because that would be a regular phone call a station would receive from a viewer…? Bizarre…
TV3 told the Irish Independent today that the incident was a deliberate attempt to seek classified information.
“Clearly, we are doing something right when RTE resorts to dirty tricks (like this),” said a spokeswoman for the station.
RTÉ declined to comment about the incident.
The TV3 spokesperson added that the caller stressed on numerous occasions that he was a viewer, but kept asking very in-depth questions about when their Irish programmes would air and for how long. This person will definitely not be receiving a promotion any time soon…
“It was very bizarre. It’s very unusual to get these kinds of calls, but even more amazing that the person didn’t even ring from an ‘offside’ phone,” added the source.
“When staff at TV3 investigated it further, they discovered that the number was actually a number in RTE.
“Obviously, there is always rivalry between stations, but this time it seems that people have been caught in the act when trying to push for information.”
The incident is obviously very embarrassing for RTÉ. It’s not the first red-faced incident the television station has been involved in this year, last May RTÉ News were left mortifies after it transpired they had airbrushed a TV3 logo off a microphone during a news story about Jedward’s Eurovision homecoming.
At the time, RTÉ claimed that the airbrushing was done by a non-editorial member of staff “who was not instructed to do so”.
Oh no…
