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.

Give her a chance!
Tell me about day 2 of your new job?? How did that go?

This morning's interview was woeful: there was no coherence to her line of questioning and she managed to come over as shouty and tabloid without really landing any hard blows

Interesting. I feel the exact opposite of you. I really want the Today presenters to hold politicians to account and not let them get away with spouting fallacies. That's why I enjoyed today's interview, and why Hunt didn't. He actually said he had things he wanted her to question him on. I bet he did!

Yes that’s my take. Maybe she’ll try with all politicians to be impartial but really I found it an irritating style of interview.

Today programme has always been bad at interrupting and this was up a level.

Very well thank you, because I'm competent in what I do.

She doesn’t have a “tricky” background - her father was a sex trafficker and she’s never publicly condemned what he did, in fact she seems to support him. I don’t like what that says about her personal values so whatever she does I have to admit I’m biased against her.

You clearly don’t remember John Humphreys then, this morning was down several notches on his interviews. Politicians have got used to being given an easy ride in recent years. That’s obviously over now there’s an election in view.

You can’t say what I remember. Your view is 🤷‍♀️ to me.

Lol. If you were perfect in your roll on day 2 I’m assuming it can’t be anything particularly challenging 😂

I'm pleased others have the same opinion as me. I always liked her on Woman's Hour but that interview of Jeremy Hunt was tragic. I'm not fan (understatement) of JH but when the line went dead I said (to the car radio) "I bet he's hung up because she won't let him speak and is just talking over him and repeating herself".

She then had the audacity to say that he wouldn't let her speak! Stunning. I hope she listens to it again later and realises how bad it was.

Come on Emma, you can do better than that.

Not sure you can assume that. Some people get paid to do well even if contracted for a day or week. Well paid in all likelihood

Doesn’t this make her even more impressive that’s she’s carved out such an incredible career despite coming from such challenging circumstances? This makes me admire and respect her even more now I have learned this about her. If she was insanely privileged you’d be blaming her role on her getting a leg up, and yet she has scrapped her way to success and that’s still not good enough. She is not responsible for the crimes of her parents you realise ?

I wonder if there could be any other aspects of her background that people are too cowardly to admit to being the true reason they dislike her….

In general I think her style is more 5live than R4 , personally I didn't like her on WH but actually I thought last week she had a really good start.She is big mates with Amol though so I do think it was probably harder with a different partner, Today is renowned for being a bit prima dona ish and there is definitely a hierarchy as to who get to do the big interview after 8am. i ahve heard worse frankly and I was listening in the Brian Redhead years!

I do find her background difficult to take and found this problematical on WH in particular.she certainly didn't 'scrape her way up' that sex trafficking father provided her with a pretty affluent background including private school etc

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.

See, I thought that was a pointless question and a waste of time. He couldn't answer one way or the other, without looking bad. Therefore it was pointless and a wasted opportunity to ask something else. She needs to be more concise with her questioning.

And it's an uncomfortable truth for some people to hear, but not everyone is on the breadline. That's not to diminish the suffering of people experiencing poverty and the need to address that, but many people have just had to tighten their belts a bit or haven't really felt impacted by the rises in costs of living. And not necessarily because they're rich or well-off; it can be due to life-stage (eg kids grown into adults and now independent, finished paying the mortgage etc). They don't admit it publicly but it comes out occasionally, eg discussions about overpaying their mortgage. So there's a silent proportion of the population who aren't feeling hard done by and who we don't hear about. Understandably it's people who are in difficulties that the media focus on. So we'll hear about the renter whose landlord has evicted them to sell the property, and not about the renter who has been able to buy their property from the landlord and is quite happy with the situation.

It was an attempt at a gotcha question which is I agree pointless and obvious. Best to ignore.

I wonder if there could be any other aspects of her background that people are too cowardly to admit to being the true reason they dislike her….

I know nothing about her background and I'm perfectly capable of distinguishing between what I think of Emma Barnett as a person (in fact I have no view on this) and Emma Barnett as a presenter on the Today programme.

No, she isn't responsible, but when she's written about it she hasn't, in my opinion, said anything that suggests she condemns his crimes or even has any empathy for the women involved. I have a job that puts me somewhat in the public eye (not to the same extent as EB) and I know that if I were to write about something like that from my past I'd be unequivocal in my condemnation of it.

Meaning the chatty style and constantly solicting of comments from listeners which is very Woman's Hour. There's always a period of adjustment in a new job and it's very early days. Absolutely nothing to do with her sex.

I don't find Amol Rajan's style of presenting to my taste. We all have different preferences. I like Justin Webb and Mishal Husain best as a combo, prior to that James Naughtie and John Humprhys. Different strokes for different folks.

She didn’t scrape her way up. She was privately educated with loving parents. When she was at university her father was convicted.

@GhoulWithADragonTattoo I have just spent ten minute googling who the presenter was. Knew I’d find comments here. I was listening early doors - rant about people being overweight set off alarm bells. She then followed up with a sarky comment to a school head (ie basically Joe Public). Woman said ‘I brought my children up’ and Emma Barnett cut in snippily ‘good for you’. It was painful. This is just aggression and pushing personal opinions not hard cutting investigative journalism.

I see Today as an extended news programme not a magazine programme- what was she chunnering on about ‘I’ll be reading your mails, sharing your news’ … I’m frankly uninterested! Awful. I have no clue who this woman is but if she continues I won’t be listening.

I'm really conflicted about Emma Barnett. I want to like her and I do admire her energy and openness.

I think she says her childhood was happy and she was loved but I think in court it did transpire that she knew about her father's brothels and referred to the women as 'his whores' in emails. I wonder about her views on some women and I think she did wobble around on the gender issue for a while.

And all that said I don't like the aggressive questioning (not sexism I didn't like it from Paxman or John Humphrey's either). And I worry that she's another one debasing political discourse and making it a miserable toxic place.

Same, it’s purely on the presenter style

… The MEN reported in 2010 that ‘Police found mails between Mr Barnett and his daughter Emma, talking about his ‘whores’. Right you are then. What a legend and female role model.

And I worry that she's another one debasing political discourse and making it a miserable toxic place.

That ship sailed some time ago.

I don't like Amol Rajan's style either. Again, too verbose, too Radio 5 and too about the interviewer rather than the interviewee. Bring back Sue & Jim 😂Of the current batch I agree Mishal and Justin are the best combo.