Sam Smyth was a few weeks ago sacked from his radio show on Today FM as discussed in the thread below

https://www.gaire.com/e/f/default.asp?page=view.asp&parent=164671 etc ...

Today it was also announced that Eamon Dunphy apparently resigned in sympathy/protest and also placed many questions over how Newstalk is managed editorially

http://www.thejournal.ie/newstalk-staff-surprised-by-eamon-dunphy etc ...

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/eamon-dunphy-quit etc ...

This raises many issues. Denis O Briens ownership of media in Ireland is quite extensive in the areas of radio, advertising, newspapers, digital media. The radio stations have in the past shown that they can be very biased in certain ways such as the budget "editorial" a few years ago and many of the prominent broadcasters are certainly linked to Fine Gael (Anton Savage, George Hook, Ivan Yates). Ironically enough Newstalk in recent times advertised "News without the state run spin" -

Should we be worried about the growing influence of Denis O Briens media empire? Do you think that in general the media he owns is biased or objective?

Echoes of News Corp / Fox News

Fair and Balanced news.

Yeah, right.

Dolli, have you hacked Mango's account?

fetch

Might be a Dolli topic, but its not in Dolli style.

Never saw it before.

Darcy Ray is also thinking of moving back to Montrose,was Sam Smyth sacked for criticising D O'B?

Yes and thats not allowed, sam should be shot!

I'm a huge Today FM and Newstalk fan, but this worries me. Smith and Dumphy are right to higlight this, it does seem like hes throwning his weight around.

It depend who you ask. Newstalk say he was sacked because of falling ratings. As for Dunphy's resignation, his spell at Newstalk is one of the longest he's had in years. He always leaves in a cloud of drama / tantrum, so the idea of him taking a stand for some reason or another is somewhat devalued.

The truth is that we don't really know the facts about this: we just have one side of it. Until we know more it might be better to reserve judgement and see what emerges.

Maybe Denis o Brian is suffering in this recession the same as other businesspeople ?

suffering my hole - he lived in Portugal for a long time so he wouldn't have to pay taxes in Ireland. His business empire is constantly expanding all over the world. Anyway what has his 'suffering' got to do with anything.

It's a shame because I really liked Dunphy as a broadcaster. And Sam Smyth was great too. I have stopped listening to the hideous morning show with Ivan Yates.