Firstly, anyone reading Bakhurst's CV will be astonished to see him being described as a "journalist". To my mind, any such designation should imply having worked for a considerable period as a person seeking, evaluating and writing content for published media.
After his MA in mod lang, Bakhurst articled in accountancy with PWC before dumping it for a graduate position at the BBC. Only for a period of about 1 year was he involved as an actual reporter - that was for a business programme and he had scant enough quals for that domain. Before and after that short reporting stint, he was an editor all the way. This seems strange to me as one can hardly edit fairly unless one has plenty of experience of gathering content - I'm taking it here that BBC editorship involves more than its literal meaning of curbing hyperbole, avoiding libel and sharpening up phrasing: it also has to surely involve encouraging junior reporters and keeping seniors from veering off on solo runs - tasks only doable if you have some street cred as a reporter yourself.
I was therefore astonished to see him moved into RTE News/Current Affairs after the Mission To Prey disaster. It needed someone from outside RTE but surely a well-known ex-journalist and current editor from BBC, ITV, etc would have been a better choice.
In business you sometimes see major investors/stockholders appointing an outsider to deliver a business plan on a troubled company whose original management team remain. Of course no sooner is the new MD appointed when the existing team form a cohesive drag on everything he/she tries to push through. Surely, it is only common sense that the stockholders ask the existing team to nominate an MD from among themselves to deliver the new plan and that new MD allow normal selection processes to replace him/herself in their former role as finance/sales/production/tech director ? People are happier being led by someone who has been through the trenches with them in the past.
The dilemma for Bakhurst was he was damned (by the €25k-€50k staff in RTE) if he let Tubs back into Radio and will be damned in the future by being the dagger-wielder from abroad by virtually everyone in RTE. If Bakhurst saw his appointment as an opportunity to shape the quality of content in RTE in the coming years, the Tubridy situation has turned his job into that of a feared British axeman of our National Broadcaster - a figure destined to be hated by all.
His only chance at glory would be in his determination to match every commercial or organizational decision with one equally well-publicised on improving programming quality. A hard old station, to say the least.