Emma Barnett

[ProvincialLady2024]

What do we think?

I'm finding her interviews difficult to listen to.

I'm hoping she'll settle into the role.

She has great questions but she needs to be a bit more forensic and devastating with her timing like Mishal Hussein.

Thank God you've started this thread. I assume you've just listened to her 'interviewing' Jeremy Hunt? Fucking awful. First time I've ever been tempted to email the BBC to express my displeasure.

I've heard other posters rave about her joining Today after doing Woman's Hour (which I don't listen to). Dead Ringers have already started taking the piss out of her by portraying her treating Today as a phone-in programme.

I love Emma and won't hear a word against her !

I'm just pleased she left Womans Hour and I feel her style is more suited to the Today programme.
Having said that having been an avid radio 4 listener all my life I can hardly listen to the station at all now because it is so poor, and that includes the Today programme.I spend my time toggling between that and radio 3 because whilst in theory I want to listen to Today I find it so irritating I can't bear it.

Reserving judgement; I don’t think she’s totally found her groove yet. Which is understandable, really - it’s a big change of scene and as high profile as it gets.

What questions was she asking Jeremy Hunt this morning? She seemed to make long rambling statements and then expected him to answer. Answer what? The only takeaway I have from that interview is that a listener called Nick has had his mortgage increase by £200 because his landlord's mortgage has gone up.

Admittedly JH wasn't able to deliver a prepared political monologue, but only because he was so flummoxed by her interview style that there wasn't really anything to answer. If this continues, I can imagine politicians avoiding the programme, not because of a difficult John Humphreys-style grilling, but because there's nothing insightful they can respond with to EB"s verbal wind machine.

@Plexie

I was wincing.

Her interview with Jeremy Hunt was woeful. She's totally out of her depth. I switched off.

Ha ha I've just Googled who's that annoying presenter on The Today programme today! I found she wasn't actually letting him answer her questions and just haranguing him.

Turns out the programme has a very easy-to-remember email address: [email protected]

EB's reading of the script of her next article about Myanmar was rather stilted in places. I don't know if that's her usual style or whether she was distracted by an avalanche of negative comments about her Jeremy Hunt interview.

It's the top dog elite job in BBC radio journalism to present Today. She's still finding her way (day 2?): which is fine by me. Probably nervous as hell. I am a long time fan & think she'll be fab at it.

She's still sounding very Women's Hour but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt as she was good on Newsnight.

What time the interview was ?

Nice to hear someone actually asking questions and holding them to their choices! She was great!

Same as you and @Plexie

I think she's very promising, needs a little polish but at least she doesn't fawn over politicians and holds them to account. Today has been giving them an easy ride for too long. Mishal Husain is putting a stop to that and Emma Barnett looks to be cut from the same cloth.

Christ alive. A woman with a tricky background who has done well for herself is on, what, day two of one of the highest profile jobs in journalism and here we are on what should be a relatively supportive forum tearing her down.

I can’t tell you how difficult presenting live radio is, especially when interviewing seasoned politicians who want to anything but answer your questions.

Give the poor woman a bloody chance.

I loved her last week but this morning felt a bit like she had lost her way. I think she will settle though as she's a brilliant broadcaster. I feel like her and Amol won't take any shit.

I like the way she holds a line of question and stands up for herself, not allowing them to whitewash the audience, but yes I can see that’s it a difficult job and I did find it hard to listen to this morning, while applauding the sentiment! It’s such a fine balancing act. I don’t particularly like the anodyne messages from listeners though. Great if they’re incisive or making a real point but it could be a bit “Mike from Huddersfield is sick of having four bins”, which there’s enough of on other stations.

A good effort and a confident interviewing style doesn’t happen overnight!

Give her a chance! She’s only just settling in to a new role. It was the same with women’s hour and she totally blossomed in that role over time.

it’s amazing to see a young woman and working mother of small children take that top spot and doesn’t feel very fair to immediately tear her down. She’s an incredible role model so I’d rather support her.

What does this mean! Engrained sexism much?!

@lljkk and @JaniceBattersby

She started last week, so I don't think today was her second programme. Unless she only did one programme last week.

Not sure she would describe her background as ‘tricky’, her interview in the Times last week was very positive about her family/childhood/private education I thought.

She was fantastic with Jeremy Hunt this morning. He was rolling out the usual crap and she was challenging him. I loved how she asked him if he felt richer as a minister and a landlord, because lots of people were messaging in to say they disagreed with him that people are better off now. It was a brilliant question - if he said no then he was proving his point wrong, and if he said yes then he was proving I'm alright Jack.

Obviously he didn't answer it however many time she asked him.

Time somebody challenged Hunt. Go Emma B!

I do think she needs to calm down - she's very adversarial at present and I don't want to listen to someone (anyone!) haranguing another person at 8 am. I want to catch up on the news, not listen to a sodding argument!

This has been my complaint with the Today programme for years though and EB is not the first presenter to make me switch channels - John Humphries used to make me do it, Amol Rajan was awful when he started (he's calmed down now, although I still find him irritatingly smug at times), and now we have Emma Barnett. It's stressful enough doing the school run on an exam day, without having to listen to an argument at the same time.