Irish Examiner view: Support RTÉ to block toxic bias

Within weeks the world will know which of the two wings of America's divided media has prevailed. Should President Trump be re-elected, Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News corporation will celebrate. 

That celebration would be built on dishonest, deliberately detached and the utterly partisan reportage that only the most secure democracies can withstand. 

Should Joe Biden be elected then the far-from-perfect traditional media will have an opportunity to recover lost ground and, hopefully, begin to bring the post-truth era to an end. The stakes could hardly be higher.

That conflict may seem far away and almost academic. However, the issue of media impartiality, independence and security, even if for a different reason, is in play here. Our public service broadcaster RTÉ has announced that it will reopen its voluntary redundancy scheme in January as part of a plan agreed with Government to cut costs by €60m before 2023. 

This is a gargantuan task for what is, in today's media landscape, a small regional broadcaster that has lost its traditional revenue streams, a loss exacerbated by a failing licence system.

It is very easy to criticise RTÉ but it is far more difficult to predict how that organisation's hollowing out might have an impact on our democracy, especially if there is a change in government. RTÉ has, to a large degree, its future in its own hands but unless Government supports its efforts, through direct funding and licence reform, then we create the kind of vacuum where the very worst kind of media thrive.