Max Keiser: Ireland's biggest problem is RTE

KyussBishop wrote: »

While I agree with the first sentence, I think disbanding RTE would actually be damaging to the country: Then we would only have news/media controlled by private wealthy interests (and promoting their interests), who would not even need to maintain the thin-veneer of public accountability, that RTE does.

We need to keep RTE, and demand better standards of journalism from them - and we also need better journalism in general in Ireland, including in private organizations. Most importantly though, we need good investigative journalists, who are able to act completely independently of any journalistic organization.

I agree. In the year 2000 I had a letter to the Irish Times published, a portion of it below sums up how I feel:

"Surely it is about time, in this the year 2000, for RTE to be completely restructured, weeded of it's bloated staff numbers and given a completely fresh mandate.
In an Ireland where the overwhelming majority have or will shortly have access to dozens of television channels of all kinds, why is RTE spending millions of license payers money empire building and duplicating what is on these channels ?
When RTE's Gerry Ryan asserts that if we want to have our own identity through our own television station then we must pay for it, I agree wholeheartedly. But that is not what RTE is delivering.
How is it reflecting Irish identity to broadcast hours and hours of the same U.S. comedies and drama series they already see on BBC, ITV, C4 and SKY ? How is it benefiting Irish license payers to watch series after series of UK dramas a few weeks or a few months after they have already been broadcast on UK channels ?
Every year or so we see RTE spending yet more millions bidding on coverage of the World Cup, the Olympics and European soccer matches, yet these events already receive blanket coverage on UK and satellite channels. Is it for our benefit or for the prestige of RTE and it's top brass.
We need a new RTE that will receive our license fees with responsibility, and spend it on programming that we cannot watch on other channels; on Irish drama, music and the arts as well as current events and news coverage from an Irish perspective. Goodness knows there is also excellent potential for oversees sales for such cultural programming. When has there ever been a time when all things Irish have been so popular all over the world ?
Where Digital television is concerned, the infrastructure and delivery systems should be totally independent of RTE and indeed all broadcasters, and they should not be able to waste yet more money on their desire to gain total control of this key technology for the future of all media in this country.
An Irish public broadcasting channel to give a voice to Irish culture and not to mimic, regurgitate and duplicate other channel's programming is where RTE should be focussed, and for that I believe Irish license payers are willing to pay."

Khomeini wrote: »

RTE is a disgraceful disinformation machine. It's promotion of gombeen values and propping up of the oligarchy is a disgrace.

That's funny in a thread about Max Keiser. Doesn't he work for Russia Today?

Phill Ewinn wrote: »

Tells the truth about Ireland nononetheless.

No he doesn't. He's a retard and a fraud.

conorhal wrote: »

That's interesting, considering bitcoin is currently a bubble curency that could collapse, you'd imagine Keiser would shun investments who's value is based on hot air and positive market sentement driven by fear and greed.

I reckon he has taken a long position on bitcoin and is using his RT soapbox to pimp it at every opportunity.

Imho RTE is nothing that cannot be adequately covered by the term "lazy". And this is what I would expect from a civil servant organisation where there is little culpability and an excess of committee control. They employ too many people and aspire to little. They go along to get along and waste money in the millions. End of.