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POLITICAL PUNDIT AND broadcaster Ivan Yates has told the Oireachtas Media Committee that since the story broke that he did media training for Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin the reaction from the public has been that this is a “media political bubble”.
Shortly after the election, it emerged that Yates had coached Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin, while also co-hosting the independent podcast and presenting shows on Newstalk during the presidential campaign.
Yates’s active involvement in Gavin’s campaign only emerged after the vote, but came after he attracted criticism for saying he would, if he were advising Fine Gael, “smear the bejaysus” out of winning candidate Catherine Connolly.
Yates, a former minister turned political pundit, was axed from the Path to Power podcast he co-presented with Matt Cooper after it was revealed he was involved with Gavin’s campaign.
Coimisiún na Meán is carrying out a review on the matter, with Newstalk, a radio station for which Yates also did some work for during the presidential campaign, also carrying out an internal review.
When asked if he regretted not telling his former podcast co-host Matt Cooper about doing media training with Gavin, Yates said:
“I reflected on that, and on the particular morning where this blew up, on the Saturday morning, I said to Matt, ‘I deliberately didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to be in any way conflicted’.
“In other words, he could say, ‘Oh, I never knew any of this’, and it was a statement of fact.
“If I had said, confidentially, Matt, ‘This is something I do’, it would have put him in a very invidious position. So I didn’t put NK Productions or him in that situation. And I felt that was fair to them.
“I took it upon myself. I took full responsibility for myself, and I took those decisions, knowingly and in real time.”
When asked if he thinks he needs to win the public’s trust back, Yates said he had met hundreds of people since this story broke and they “absolutely understand all the interests that I’ve tried to manage, and they actually understand it and the hysteria”.
He said the majority, like himself, are flabbergasted by the controversy.
“To be honest, I’m surprised at the level of surprise that my work in this area has generated,” Yates said this evening.
He will say the second thing listed on his LinkedIn profile is media trainer and that as “most people know” that he is a former politician, it “hardly requires an enormous leap of imagination to think that I might have combined these interests at some point”.
Yates told politicians that he has been doing media training for about four years, “but importantly I was not doing it in any way when I was a full-time broadcaster with Newstalk Radio for about a decade between 2009 and 2020,” adding that he left full-time broadcasting five years ago.
He said the attraction of political podcasts is that they take “a looser, less cautious, more contrarian approach to issues and allow voices to be heard that are increasingly hard to hear in the so-called mainstream media”.
Yates said it would be a “guaranteed mood-killer” if podcasters have to preface every debate with a disclaimer or a declaration of interests.
“Thankfully we did not and I hope that burden is never placed on podcasters,” he added.
“I was never impartial” Yates said later as he defended his decision not to declare his work with politicians to his listeners.
“I am in the opinion business, and so therefore I don’t think that people expect anything from me other than being anti-woke, pro-Trump, whatever it might be,” he said.
While being questioned by the committee of the chair, Alan Kelly TD, Yates said he has declined roles where he feels he has a conflict of interest, including offers to work on legislation relating to gambling banning.
Yates said he totally disagrees with the idea of regulating podcasts in the same way radio and TV broadcasters are.
He said many podcasts are produced outside the jurisdiction, adding “there’s no way, in my view, that you could police” podcasts.
“It is a fantasy to think you can do that,” he added.
Alan Kelly later said “regulatory change” is needed to protect podcast listeners, but Yates said how this should be done is “above my pay grade”.
Speaking further about the podcast Path to Power, he said he would often refer to the committee chairperson, Alan Kenny, as ‘AK47′ – a nickname often used for the Labour TD.
He said such a reference would be more “colloquial” than what national broadcasters would call him.
“That’s a different language, and it’s more gossipy, and people love it, and it’s, just, it’s less PC.”
Asked about the controversy over his “smear the bejesus” comments he made on another presidential podcast, Yates said:
“I have some regrets in relation to the ‘smearing the bejesus’ comments and the impact on the way they were used by the Connolly campaign, and the impact it had on Heather Humphreys.”
He went on to say that he would not apologise for the comment, but said he regretted that the comment was “weaponised” by the Connolly campaign, in his view.
Yates was asked by Wicklow-Wexford TD Brian Brennan if he wanted to use this opportunity to apologise for it, in which Yates responded by stating that he felt Brennan was being “overly precious” about the matter.
Politics is a “knock down, drag down business,” he added.
Yates said he never felt beholden to anyone because of his other work, stating that his punditry during elections “were based solely on being as accurate and informative as possible”.
“I don’t believe any training role altered the way I saw the election unfolding or the performance of the various candidates,” he said.
Yates was questioned by Fine Gael Senator Garrett Ahern about the role he plays in housing.
“Build baby build” is my view, said Yates, who acknowledged that he is involved in property development.
Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan, who said he also received training with Yates as part of group sessions for the party in 2020, asked him about remarks he made on Billy Kelleher ahead of the presidential election.
Yates said the remarks he made suggesting that, in his opinion, Kelleher would not be a successful candidate, were made before he began working with Gavin.
Alan Kelly thanked Yates for his presence, adding that his contributions will provide “food for thought”.
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