RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

that was brilliant from "Yes minister" about polling. The polling is done by media companies who have a vested interest in getting this story buried therefore it is in their interests to get a sympathetic poll regarding the RTE scandal. If the government comes down heavy on RTE and breaks it up it affects all journos and media people, so they want the status quo to remain as much as possible.

An acquaintance of mine did a year stint on the Citizens assembly, I was curious as to how he was selected for that, he said a polling agency rang him for a poll they were doing and they got talking then she asked him would he like to be on the citizen's assembly. So it looks like the citizens assembly is not random at all but hand picked to get people that are sympathetic to the topics that they will discuss usually liberal social issues. It also explains why defence and neutrality were not given to the citizen's assembly to discuss because the government knew that the citizens assembly is very left wing as thats how it was selected

They would miss it for a period of time but then they would move on. Someone might, for example, be used to listening to Liveline with Joe Duffy on the radio but if it was cancelled they would miss it for a couple of months and no more. The reason they would miss it at all is not because it is a high quality radio programme but rather that it has become part of the background, a regular part of the day they can depend on. But they would eventually move on.

I do think there needs to be subsidies for Irish produced content but that doesn't require a traditional broadcaster as it might have done in the past.

How would the government scare old people and gaslight the young if they didn't have RTE?

Same way as they don’t do it now, I suppose.

They only sent gardai to the Tuam Baby site after Sky News began doing their own ground-penetrating radar works.

They're about as useful as tits on a bull when it comes to anything that might shine a light on corruption in establishment. Anyone can go into a station and report Jimmy next door for growing a cannabis plant, and they'd have a search warrant next day

@ButtersSuki

kudos on your post regarding what you would like to do to reform the national broadcaster.

however - such reforms (like all reforms) would take years to implement (phasing out and phasing in periods).

i think any changes that take place should take place gradually and the problem with gradual change is that it appears as if nothing is changing

The comparison to the RUC doesn't work. Many RUC officers took early retirement and there was 50:50 recruitment in place for a decade but the organisation was still the same but with a different name and emblem. The PSNI's full legal name is 'Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster Constabulary)'.

There is a concept in some school districts in the US nicknamed "rubber rooms". In these rooms teachers who have are being investigated for various allegations, are given a desk in a room with other teachers in similar circumstances. They have to clock in and clock out and are paid in full but are given no work.

Well for radio you could cynically say that RTE Gold and Lyric are half used for that purpose. Disclaimer I listen to both so amn't trying to rag on them.

I like to think of them more like retirement homes rather than the "bad bank"

While this has been entertaining and major structural change to rte or it's successor will likely follow now, I somehow doubt it will actually result in a major change in output or balance - as that's entirely culturally driven. Irelands media, over the past 20-30 years has adopted a form of curiosity free activist journalism that seems to take much of its cues from the US Democratic Party - no matter how out of place those are in Ireland. Welcome to the new RTE, much the same as the old RTE.

Ssssh! Don't suggest this out loud, Enoch might hear!

The photo is almost a parody/Phoenix/Private Eye. I thought it was a makey-uppey when I first saw it - Photoshop, all in black. I mean WTAF were they thinking? This photo might have captured the moment that their feeling of superiority and invulnerability reached radio-active levels. I bet there's a few of the "Talent" looking at that photo over breakfast this morning, and rueing the day it was taken.

I can't help you with the question in your second sentence. As Toyah said, "It's a Mystery"