Woman's Hour today on Camila Batmanghelidjh

[PursuingProxemicExactitude]

I honestly have no words.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sjxy

Relentless hostility and suspicion. Not one single positive word in half an hour. So tired of this. Woman's Hour is a travesty of itself now.

(I glimpsed another thread but can't find it.)

IMO this thread is led by CB's promoters. Or possibly CB is here herself.

grin grin grin

Again, why is this funny? This is about vulnerable children. CB was one of a very few people who actually had the balls to try and tackle issues like drugs, inadequate social care, gangs, mh provision etc. And I remember that virtually the whole of Mumsnet , swayed by the media, swallowing all the nasty red top smears (and other) against her, came down on her like a ton of bricks leaving a tiny few of us stalwarts defending her. I remember accusations against her by people who had never met her saying she was an egotist and "I know the type" when they had never met her. Oh because she "dresses funny" and the balls to stand up to cabinet ministers?

People need to wake up.

The BBC are refusing to release the video where she swore at Kelechi Okafor, called her anti-semitic and used the old ‘aggressive black woman’ tropes, she also confused her with Reggie Yates and attempted to hold her responsible for the views of Reggie Yates.
God, not this again. KO IS antisemetic and publicly supported RY.
What part of that don't you get?
And, IF she swore (IF) it was about KO to a producer, not AT KO. Yes, not nice, but it served for KO to create herself as a victim.

You had 2 established women at the helm of WH for a long time. You need to give anyone new time to settle in.

This is true, but I have never liked Emma Barnet's interview style. It's a very different show now and I miss Jane Garvey in particular

Runwithtorches you misunderstood me. I'm laughing at the fact that someone thinks I started this thread because I have some personal connection to the people concerned.

I don't.

And I found the conduct of the interviewer appalling.

They are trying to make Emma Barnett the James O Brien of Radio 4.

Fucking tedious.

@PursuingProxemicExactitude

Runwithtorches you misunderstood me. I'm laughing at the fact that someone thinks I started this thread because I have some personal connection to the people concerned.

I don't.

And I found the conduct of the interviewer appalling.

Fair enough PursuingProxemicExactitude I apolohise for going off topic. I was just quite surprised by your comment when, in the past, the vitriol directed towards CB was really horrible to read on here and overwhelmingly against her. The narrative in general has been very much swayed by press smears at a government level so I'm sure you know it's a cause for concern (given what they are trying to cover up, or if not cover up, distract from) and as such is a contentious topic.

I totally agree with your general point that it appears that some women journalists feel, that in order to get on, they need to behave like men and conform to male perceptions of how to steer a successful interview. I wonder if there are still more young male producers at the Beeb than female and that all presenters come under some pressure to behave this way?

Its so short sighted , particularly for WH. Emily Maitless extracted far more "golden" nuggets from Prince Andrew by stealth than by aggression.

Emily Maitliss is a class apart as a presenter compared to Emma Barnett.

@MaMaLa321

The BBC are refusing to release the video where she swore at Kelechi Okafor, called her anti-semitic and used the old ‘aggressive black woman’ tropes, she also confused her with Reggie Yates and attempted to hold her responsible for the views of Reggie Yates. God, not this again. KO IS antisemetic and publicly supported RY. What part of that don't you get? And, IF she swore (IF) it was about KO to a producer, not AT KO. Yes, not nice, but it served for KO to create herself as a victim.

Kelechi has spoken our against Reggie, why are you also blaming a black woman for the actions of a man? Both Kelechi and the charity confirmed the actions of Emma, the BBC refuse to release the video where she swore at Kelechi. Once again a white person is allowed to do as she likes while the people who aren’t white are automatically untrustworthy.

Once again a black woman is being held accountable for the actions of men and white people.

Kelechi has spoken our against Reggie, why are you also blaming a black woman for the actions of a man? Both Kelechi and the charity confirmed the actions of Emma, the BBC refuse to release the video where she swore at Kelechi. Once again a white person is allowed to do as she likes while the people who aren’t white are automatically untrustworthy.
She tweeted infavour of what he said. And why are you framing this through race? I'm not.

What Nith said.

Serious allegations were made against CB. The courts and legal system (who might know more about it than the average MN poster) exonerated CB.
Yet as evidenced from this thread she will be treated as guilty.

Imagine for one moment - you’re accused of embezzlement at work. You lose your job. You’re taken to court and found not guilty.
You are prevented from getting another job because everyone assumes you probably were guilty really and your old employer encourages that viewpoint.
We have a legal system (and one of the best in the world) for a reason.

I also have stopped listening to women’s hour because of Emma Barnett. It’s like channel 4 news with no discussion just a presenter with an agenda who screams at the interviewee till they can get the sound bite they need for their headlines. Piss poor tbh.

I didn't hear this interview as I have already given up on woman's hour after the first few weeks with Emma Barnett. I commented on another thread a few weeks back at how disappointing WH is with her (but I do like Anita Rani) and her bloody interrupting! Had me shouting at the radio so I just decided it's not for me any more. And I'm not that old either - so probably the demographic WH want. It's a total shame as I loved it with JG and JM.

I'd like Anita Rani to head the programme every day. She is firm but gentle.

I don’t get why Emma Barnett is getting such a hard time. As a journalist, she’s supposed to ask difficult questions. That is her job. I don’t think she sounded aggressive or rude.

It’s a more hard hitting interview than you normally get on Women’s hour. So it needed a different approach.

CB may have been exonerated by a judge- but we all know that courts look at a very narrow definition based on evidence.

It’s still accepted that KC was badly run- and the trustees mismanaged millions of pounds of public funds. That requires strong questioning.

You can still be shit at your job without breaking the law or being a criminal.

Yes but it's Women's Hour. Not a political debate or news programme so they could really do with lowering the aggressive tone.

I wonder how many complaints the BBC are dealing with?

@dameofdilemma

What Nith said.

Serious allegations were made against CB. The courts and legal system (who might know more about it than the average MN poster) exonerated CB.
Yet as evidenced from this thread she will be treated as guilty.

Imagine for one moment - you’re accused of embezzlement at work. You lose your job. You’re taken to court and found not guilty.
You are prevented from getting another job because everyone assumes you probably were guilty really and your old employer encourages that viewpoint.
We have a legal system (and one of the best in the world) for a reason.

CB had ample opportunity to put that point across in the interview. She clearly did it well because it’s very clear she was exonerated.

However, being asked difficult questions actually allows her to answer her critics directly.

A polite fluffy interview doesn’t make her critics think she didn’t do anything- quite the opposite.

@MaMaLa321

I think CB has got off very lightly and should have hard questions asked of her.

I agree, I used to admire what she was doing and sent money to the organisation , then I went to a meeting where she clearly thought she was among friends and said things which shocked me about the way Kids company was run and distributed funds.

Thought CB came across really well in this interview and actually EB’s crap interview style helped CB. It seemed as though EB either wasn’t listening properly to the answers given or couldn’t cope with the fact that perhaps the narrative she believed was in fact wrong. It was as though she had a set list of questions that she’d prepared assuming certain answers would be given and when CB didn’t play ball EB didn’t know how to respond.

CB may have been exonerated by a judge- but we all know that courts look at a very narrow definition based on evidence.

As a former lawyer I'm at this statement ...

As a person who is female and not white - I am watching the conduct of the new WH presenter with considerable alarm.

Haven’t listened yet but in principle interviewers should be allowed to be robust, and to be honest I found EBs WH shows to be refreshing compared to JGs later apologist and self denigrating interviews aimed at telling us about men. I think she would be ideal to counter some of the gender nonsense and drill down into the agenda. But for some reason important topics such as House of Lords debate yesterday are ignored. Though she did allow Nic From FPFW a reasonable time to state the case the other day. In my view did not challenge the chair of SW enough

She tweeted infavour of what he said. And why are you framing this through race? I'm not.

As a person who is female and not white - I am watching the conduct of the new WH presenter with considerable alarm

ditto.

Yes but it's Women's Hour. Not a political debate or news programme so they could really do with lowering the aggressive tone

Quite. Anita Rani is far more effective at progressing the subject and getting actual answers. More to the point on Friday is WH with Anita Rani rather than The Anita Rani show.

You need to give anyone new time to settle in.

You can settle in without hostility and rudeness. There was an interview a few weeks ago with a (male) politician who was there to discuss a government scheme whereby employers would be encouraged to help employees who they suspected might be victims of domestic violence. Not counsel, not provide shelter for...help. By the means of knowing what signs to look out for, knowing where to point them towards and practical small things they could do (e.g. changing the bank account that the victims's salary was paid into in the case of financial abuse).

Emma was unbelievably hostile to the MP; she wouldn't let him speak and kept attacking the policy with the most ridiculous scenarios ("Well, we spoke to an employer with 40,000 people and they said they don't have time for this" - it's unlikely person making the comment had 40,000 direct reports, no?). All the policy seemed to be was "Keep an eye out and here's how to help if you need to" but the way Barnett banged on you'd have thought the government were asking employers to fund a refuge or something.

It seemed such a positive step and all Barnett could do was shit all over it. I listened to the whole interview and I'm still baffled as to what she thought she achieved other than "Ooh look at me, I'm a notoriously tough interviewer". And she didn't actually achieve that because she just came across as an absolute arsehole.

She's like a UK light version of that right wing American senator Marjorie Taylor Green.

Her 'Interview' with Zara Muhammed a couple of weeks ago was also shockingly aggressive
Was that about the lack of female imams in the U.K.? She is sec general of the Muslim of Britain but wouldn't comment on it - however Germany, France etc do have female imams.
She said it wasn't her remit - that was an evasive answer imv.