FFS Radio 4 - The Today Programme

[MrFirthsDate]

Finally had enough, had to switch off this morning and will probably not return. I am so sick and tired of the guests being harried and bullied by the presenters. Today alone there was the Scottish Minister for Health invited on to talk about IVF plans in Scotland, who wasn't allowed to get a word in edgeways while the interviewer fired off topic questions at her. This was followed by a British MP who was "trying" to talk about the atrocities in London last Wednesday but was constantly interrupted. What is the point of having guests on the show if they aren't given space to say anything/

This is happening morning after morning and I'm starting to think I would learn more if I just read the Daily Fail!

Anyone else noticied this?

NotRumpole, I'm not quite sure what you mean? I don't want anyone shot or anything, just thought it was a bit off.

I can forgive the Today programme anything after the wonderful moment when a presenter (Jim Naughtie or Eddie Mair) inadvertently spoonerised the phrase "Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary".

I was driving at the time and had to pull over, I was laughing so much.

Sorry, I thought you said granny not grumpy. Better go to specsavers.

YANBU. I find it too politically biased as well, so no longer listen.

I sometimes listen to LBC but that Nick Ferrari gets on my fucking tits. No one likes the sound of their own voice and sense of posturing more than he does!

LakieLady What is to spoonerise a phrase?

Here you go VladimirsPoutine

I don't listen anymore much. The seeming obsession with Brexit with a BBC Remain bias just got on my nerves too much, every time I turned the radio on. I quite like You and Yours when I catch it - I was on there once! And the Moral Maze - if its still going - was genuinely thought-provoking! Sometimes there are unusual but interesting items.

YABU. Your description of the interview with the Scottish health minister is inaccurate. Listen again on iPlayer if you want proof.

The Scottish minister was awful - she was essentially attempting to read out her press release, unchallenged. Letting her get away with it would have been a disservice to the audience. The journalist, rightly, asked her some more probing and valid questions, which the minister failed to answer. That tells me a lot!

If all you want is one-sided propaganda then clearly you shouldn't bother engaging with the news media (and I say that as a trenchant critic of most MSM and the BBC in particular)

Politicians pre prepared and turning every question back to their bullet points. combined with interviewers resorting to aggressive heckling then add on no body language or facial expressions to see it is always going to be difficult to get right on radio.

MrFirth, we're in the same area, and DH has listened to a local station that had some excellent balanced debate- the programme he listened to was an hour long, and he thought it well researched, well presented (he likes R4 and world service only!) and a refreshing change. I think it was about education.
But i can't think what the station was called. I'll ask him later.
That was in the middle of the afternoon though, I'm afraid.

Disagree. Sometimes the Guest View A vs Guest View B set-up is a bit combative and contrived, but the challenge from the presenters is absolutely needed. Interviewees know the score before they go on and will have been prepped to the hilt.

YANBU. I prefer it early in the morning before the politicians are up. I listen for a bit most mornings, usually listen to a report or an interview with a correspondent, until the end of the first question to a politician and switch off before they try to answer.

I can thoroughly recommend Radio 3 Breakfast, they are doing their best to be Radio 3 Lite or perhaps Classic FM Heavy at that time, they have wonderful presenters and you still get the news, albeit in that special radio 3 fluty voice. The radio 3 reverential drop annoys me too, in that I'll be listening to some amazing piece of music, it ends, the announcer says 'Well, and what a truly passionate interpretation of that unusual piece, Marie [reverential drop in volume, inaudible] playing her heart out for an appreciative Wigmore Hall audience in that late piece by Ernest [reverential pause, drop in volume, inaudible]'. Drives me mad.

And the best spoonerism was cunt Kentryside!

R3 is definitely far quieter in general though. In the car, i have to turn it up massively from R4/classic FM/absolute. They do play some interesting, yet accessible stuff in the morning. I enjoyed the live broadcast from ?Goonhilly.

Agree r3 is quiet, seems to have a very low dark signal. The Classic FM signal sounds like a searchlight in comparison, weirdly loud and screechy.

BoreOfWhabylon thanks!

I've actually heard Norman Smith do similar on BBC. I'm not always sure it's an accident

The reason that politicians ARE so 'on script' is because of this kind of interviewing. I am not sure what the answer is, because going back to the deferential reporting of the fifties wouldn't be good either.

I do think that I can listen and make my own mind up about what a politician is saying, I don't need John Humphreys to set the agenda every time. Eddie Mair manages to let the politicians have their say AND ask the difficult questions, so it is possible.

At the moment the Today programme generates more heat than light with its combative and aggressive stance. John Humphreys was doing it to the poor blokes talking about fossilised fish the other day, he just seems stuck in the aggressive groove.

I agree that PM feels much more respectful but also much more forensic and as if interviewees can't get away with stuff just by media training tricks.

NotRumpole I agree with you those are important questions that need to be asked for sure, it's just the goady way Laura Kuenssberg does it - she sort of implies that they MUST be hiding something.