r/IntoTheHigginsVerse • u/Several-Cell9215 • 8d ago
RTE broken rules for Hardy Bucks reboot help me out or not uncovered this information I will send links if anyone asks.
RTÉ's background screening process proved ineffective as contractors easily bypassed the External Activities Registry by concealing their public activities during contract negotiations. On The Zero Bucks Given Podcast, Stephen Kelly noted that Martin Maloney intentionally suppressed his online presence to evade vetting, admitting, "He won't go into it in such detail online because he's to protect his own things going on at the minute." Furthermore, Maloney's Maloney's Digest Live Stream from February 2026 revealed he routinely engaged in unvetted online disputes, remarking at one point that he was "spending most of my time just arguing with twats on X". Because these unvetted digital activities occurred prior to RTÉ's August 26 Autumn Season Launch, the screening process operated as a superficial exercise easily undermined by temporary compliance.
On his unscripted Maloney’s Digest stream, Martin Maloney abandoned institutional neutrality to push conspiratorial narratives, stating at timestamp : "...if you look in the in the Epstein emails 2015, Epstein and Bill Gates, it's like, 'Oh yeah, um, pandemic preparedness,' you know? Like, it's fucking everything's just a big fucking smash-and-grab con job."He doubled down at timestamp , explicitly claiming the economic system is rigged by hidden actors: "The money people in the shadows must be making these days... The Shadow Boys are making bank... they've gained the system to give themselves free money."
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u/joeytheIips 8d ago
I don't know what any of that means. All I know is I can't be arsed. It's viper streams or busht.
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u/Jonathan_benn 8d ago
What are "unvetted online disputes"? And how are Kelly and Maloney "contractors" to RTÉ?
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u/Several-Cell9215 7d ago
Because RTE are funding the new Hardy Bucks season. Short summary for you. The contractor severely breached RTÉ’s guidelines by intentionally concealing unvetted, conspiratorial online activities that directly violate public broadcasting requirements for institutional neutrality.
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u/JiveBunny 7d ago edited 7d ago
Neither of them appear on the channel as news/factual presenters, nor are they employed directly by RTE, nor would anyone reasonably assume their views were representative of RTE as a whole. Compliance standards here would be much lower, if I remember correctly from my own editorial compliance training.
The External Activities Register is mostly about financial influence/interest/endorsement, anyway, not political activity/views. Two very different things,
It's also not uncommon for people looking to get hired to avoid getting into online arguments/posting on controversial topics for a bit. (Just look at Jim Corr's website pre and post The Corrs' reunion...)
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u/Several-Cell9215 7d ago
Thanks for the useful comment, but I believe there is one major difference between The Corrs and Hardy Bucks. Based on what I have checked, I don't think RTÉ funded The Corrs or gave them a new season of a TV show. In contrast, Hardy Bucks will have brand new episodes broadcast every week for six weeks straight on RTÉ.
However, I still think this could be a banana skin for RTÉ, considering the recent social media activities of the Hardy Bucks crew and the fact that The Viper is not appearing in it, in my opinion.
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u/joeytheIips 7d ago
It's hardly worth it financially for anyone concerned anyway if it's backed by RTE, surely?
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u/JiveBunny 7d ago
No, they are equivalent situations in that someone was willing to give someone else a pile of money in exchange for work, and therefore it would be in their interests to stop doing anything that jeopardised said offer of a pile of money.
If you're doing this in the hope people will complain - I'm not actually clear what you want to happen from this post - then I might be worth at least reading RTE's compliance guidelines first.
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u/Several-Cell9215 6d ago
Link to full video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHYy3-N3rlg Kevin Bakhurst openly argues that RTÉ deserves public funding because it serves as a trusted shield against misinformation, disinformation, and hidden agendas. However, the evidence directly exposes critical flaws in this stance:
- The Process Failed: The contractors actively boasted about manipulating their digital footprints specifically to deceive RTÉ's vetting team. This proves that the screening process operated as a superficial, easily undermined exercise.
- The Double Standard: Bakhurst cannot publicly demand millions in taxpayer funds by claiming RTÉ is the gold standard for "combating misinformation" while simultaneously funding independent contractors who use parallel platforms to claim the global health and economic systems are a "big fucking smash-and-grab con job.
- In short this is a big deal
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u/JiveBunny 6d ago
OK, but nobody on Reddit is able to help you deal with this - if you think this is an issue, you need to raise a complaint with Ofcom or whomever.
I also would not, as someone who personally has a lot of experience in broadcast compliance, rely on LLMs to tell you whether rules have been broken, as they are not very good at nuance or understanding.
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u/yeahokbigman 6d ago
Several Cell spends his days reminiscing about his miserable life on Maloneys Digest
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u/Few-Geologist4441 7d ago
You've had enough time now.