RTÉ issued a press release naming David McCullagh as the new mid-morning current affairs host on Radio 1 without mentioning that Claire Byrne is leaving for Newstalk. The terse line "Claire Byrne will leave RTÉ later this year" carried the tone of a politburo bulletin announcing the removal of a once-favoured comrade. The national broadcaster repeatedly escapes full accountability because the Government intervenes whenever failures or controversies surface. Those interventions shield management from consequences, perpetuate institutional inertia, and leave the public broadcaster unaccountable with weakened transparency and diminished editorial responsibility.
The national broadcaster will remain the lumbering behemoth in the media landscape because every time its mistakes start to catch up with it, the Government rides to the rescue On Friday, RTÉ managed to put out a whole press release announcing that David McCullagh had been anointed as the new host of the mid-morning current affairs slot on Radio 1 without once mentioning that the woman he is replacing is off to Newstalk.
"Claire Byrne will leave RTÉ later this year," was all that it said, a statement with the reassuring warmth of a bulletin from the politburo announcing that a once-favoured comrade has been relieved of his duties.
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