Last Saturday, on a midday bulletin, RTE radio reported that the resignation of the SDLP leader, John Hume, was imminent. The item was subsequently dropped. On Sunday, the 1 p.m.flagship news contained a particularly reverential interview with Hume, fresh from his party's annual conference.
Barry Turley, the SDLP's spokesman, explains what happened. Agence France Presse (AFP) interviewed Hume before the conference. He told them he was proposing to resign his seat in the NI Assembly.
Somewhere along the line, somebody in AFP took this to mean Hume was stepping down as party leader. This duly went out on the AFP wire - from which RTE picked it up.
Turley lost no time in contacting the RTE newsroom to advise them of the error. "We were not amused," he says.
Was the subsequent interview on Sunday by way of an apology? "No, that had been arranged in advance to coincide with the party conference."