RTE’s Kieran Cuddihy challenges ex-Newstalk colleague Ivan Yates to on-air debate after Liveline ‘barbecue’ blast

LIVELINE host Kieran Cuddihy has challenged PR guru Ivan Yates to a debate live on air — after Yates claimed the RTE show was a “barbecue” that treated guests like “pinballs”.

But Ivan told The Irish Sun this week: “Would I go on Liveline? No! No! Not at all.”

The former Newstalk colleagues have gone to war ahead of tomorrow’s IMRO Radio Awards in Kilkenny, in which Kieran is nominated for Speech Broadcaster of the Year.

It comes after ex-Newstalk presenter Ivan admitted to The Irish Sun that he advises his clients to steer clear of going on Liveline as it is “the wrong place to get your message across”.

Former TV and radio host Yates, 66, now works as a communications coach and media trainer for a host of clients who are often in the public eye.

He said he always advises his clients, who have included ill-fated presidential candidate Jim Gavin, to avoid phone-in radio shows like Liveline if possible.

Ivan told us: “Would I go on Liveline? No! No! Not at all.

“But it’s the same issue I have with all phone-in shows. It’s the same issue as social media.

“The main driver is to trigger the listener’s emotions. Emotions of anger and emotions of rage.

“That’s what the algorithms on social media do, which will give you the most shocking responses. And it isn’t necessarily normal or real.

“The nature of Liveline is guerrilla tactics, and the entertainment feature of it is that it’s a barbecue. If you want to get your message across, as opposed to being a pinball, if you go on Liveline, you’ve gone on the wrong show.”

However, dismissing Ivan’s claim that Liveline is the ‘wrong place to get your message across’, Kieran told The Irish Sun: “I think it’s a testament to Liveline that you can’t control the message. I’d love Ivan to come on Liveline and discuss it.

“Honestly I’d be more upset if Ivan Yates’ advice was ‘go on Liveline, you’ll be able to get your point across and come out smelling like roses’.”

Meanwhile, ahead of tomorrows radio awards, Yates has blasted Newstalk and RTE Radio for being “interchangeable”, with the same opinions and shows, and being guilty of a ‘mono-culture’ and out of touch with normal people.

Ivan, who has just released his new book, ‘The Game of Life and How to Win it’, said: “I think the two stations have come together in terms of their items, like the items are the same.

“I think Newstalk has moved more mainstream. The Claire Byrne show, or David McCullagh show. They’re interchangeable. We’ve a monoculture which is out of touch with normal people.

“This left-of-centre nanny state/woke culture is now uniform in the media. Telling you how you should think.

“This is the way of mainstream media culture now. For instance, we’re told this is the way we are thinking about the Israeli soccer match.

“But on social media it’s a totally different conversation.

“They have eliminated the George Hooks, the Kevin Myers, the Eoghan Harris, the Eddie Hobbs.

“Anyone who has a deviation from the mainstream media is simply cancelled.

“That’s why podcasts are growing in popularity, they don’t have the same constraints, telling you how you should think about things.”

The former Minister said he has no wish to return to broadcasting after penning his book in which he dishes out advice on life and how to live it from successful people he has encountered in politics, sports and the arts.

Ivan added: “I wish over the last 50 years I had a life manual that had told me never to sign a personal guarantee.

“But it only comes with the benefit of experience. It comes from real-life scars. It’s not a book to be a bestseller, but maybe for somebody who faces the sack over some public controversy.

Ivan Yates’ The Game of Life and How to Win it, published by Gill Books, is out now, priced at €19.79.