Jenni Murray RIP

It was both misogynistic and cowardly.

Presenter doesn't dare to actually look at what she achieved and fought for (unlike the other people covered), or the role of the BBC in cancelling her, because that would involve a difficult subject.

So hey, let's concentrate on how she drank wine with her mate and her son's comments on her driving an expensive car.

They've just broadcast JM's "official" Radio 4 obituary on Last Word. For some reason they announced that they'd be providing one that was more about her as a person rather than in terms of her career. Odd choice, I don't recall them having done this for any other subject before.

What this meant was that, unsurprisingly, a key part of her career at the BBC, how it ended, was not referred to at all.

Orwell modelled the Ministry of Truth in 1984 on the BBC.

That's really galling. ZW has been hopeless on trans stuff and IIRC very quick to smear women who shared Jenni's views as bigots/idiots/reactionaries.

I noticed Zoe Williams wrote a piece in the Guardian praising Jenni. No mention of why she left WH, of course. Fuck off Zoe, you have no idea what the word feminism even means.

Thank you very much, love the 'sniffing reflected glory in a battle won' comment, so true!

For you
https://www.thetimes.com/article/0d8a1421-6c11-4eca-ab0f-03d9efae6a20?shareToken=06ae7410f82cf63328151a9472f5e58e&ver=article

Put it into the search function of https://www.archive.ph and see what you get.

Thanhs, but has anyone got a share token or can archive this? No subscription!

Nicely put Janice. Great bit of context.

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/tribute-jenni-murray-hollow-harriet-harman-phmh3c5b5

Janice Turner takes Harriet Harman to task in the Times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04kcj90/player

I had forgotten to add this.

This is a great article and a much needed antidote to the rewriting of history that is happening over the appalling way the BBC treated one of their finest broadcasters.

The comments were great though, lots of them correcting this

Thank you. I am so glad she has spoken out about this.

Another absolutely lovely and trenchant article by Julie Bindel

https://archive.ph/xDVDm

https://unherd.com/2026/03/how-the-bbc-betrayed-jenni-murray/?edition=us

This why I have pretty much permanently turned off R4: it reached a point of complete (and often preachy) predictability.

Yes, this is the leg-shaving episode. India Willoughby basically misunderstands.

I had to turn it off after the first 10 minutes. Could tell which way it was heading.

Was it on WH with Jenni that Windy Illiaboy talked about the shaving of legs?

Sorry, I missed your post before.

It was shameful. It was the elephant in the room. They might try to argue that they wanted to praise Jenni by recounting only her golden moments. But when she stood up for women by saying women are not interchangeable with transwomen (males), that was a crowning achievement.

They might argue that they were talking about her special on-air interviews, and this was said in an article, but to my mind they should not have omitted it.

They very obviously avoided any mention of her leaving and the reasons for that. Very disappointing and it must be hurtful for her family, who presumably know the truth.

Woman’s Hour this morning was talking about her and her qualities including how she stood up for women.

Shamefully no mention was made about how she was in fact so brave in standing up for women that she dared state the fact that women are different from transwomen (males) in the experiences and needs, only to be punished for doing so by the BBC.

The shame was theirs not hers.

I think it was Feldman on an interview who made it seem as though the trans issue [actually women’s issue that women are distinct from transwomen (males)], which Jenni had brought up, was Jenni not being quite as good as she usually was. (My paraphrase, unfortunately I can’t re-find it to listen to, but I think someone else on this thread heard it too.)

To add insult to injury, they've now got a "women and birthing people" guest on talking about maternity care. At least the presenter referred to "pregnant women"

They went on and on and on about JM's fearlessness and being willing to ask difficult questions and yet, that characteristic that led to the end of her career was completely ignored.

They even ended by talking about her lasting contribution being to give women a voice and to enable them to discuss taboo subjects.

In its way, that was shameful.

The presenter, whose name escapes, me is a regular but presents less frequently than McGovern and Rani.