John Humphries needs to go

[badbadhusky]

Caught on tape slagging off Carrie Gracie and the BBC equal pay row: www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/12/john-humphrys-jokes-about-bbc-gender-pay-gap-in-leaked-off-air-recording

After his disgraceful attitude about the Weinstein/#metoo affair on the live Today programme with Michael Gove a few weeks ago, this dinosaur needs to be kicked into touch.

Despite his grandee status, I’ve started to find his dismissive, hectoring interview style is getting in the way of reporting the news.

What an arse!

The complaint form could be better/quicker IMO but it still only took 5 mins.

And how the heck is Jon Sopel paid more than Jeremy Bowen? I could actually support JB earning more on account of his knowledge of the Middle East, not to mention danger money, but JS not so much.

Yes indeed Butteredparsnips Jeremy Bowen is a legend!

I hope this is the start of a national women's strike for equal pay.
Abloodygain.
Barbara Castle would be appalled at us for doing anything less.

Agree with upthread comments about how racist comments would not be tolerated. I have been in lots of situations where if you replaced the word women with black people the speaker would have been fired. Just one example in a previous jobs one of the trainers said there were no women crime writers. When I challenged him reeling off pd James Agatha Christie etc he just said that was not the crime writers he meant ie classic male redefining.
I do not in any way wish to imply that racism is not a problem just that sexism and misogyny can be more insidious.

Also there are loads of lower paid staff st the bbc who could be developed to take on the star roles at a more appropriate level of compensation. There is no magic to decent journalism.

Glad it's not just me who dislikes Melvyn Bragg... I love the concept of In Our Time but I can't stand him, especially when the guests are female, he just interrupts them and reprimands them etc. It has me fuming!

Eddie Mair is brilliant though

Response:

"Thank you for contacting us about the off-air conversation between Jon Sopel and John Humphrys. The BBC has been clear that this was an ill-advised conversation and has stated that it is committed to getting its pay structures right. It is conducting a comprehensive analysis of presenter pay which is expected to be published at the end of the month.

John Humphrys is bound by the same rules on impartiality as all other BBC presenters. Staff are entitled to their own opinions but if they choose to campaign on a topic publicly, then judgements are made as to whether they can go on to interview people on that subject. In this case, John was clearly not ‘campaigning’ on the topic.

We are grateful that you have taken the time to contact us. Please be assured that your complaint has been included on our audience feedback report that is seen by BBC senior management."

How cowardly and dishonest. A little bit of my decades' long support of the BBC has died. Next time there's talk of reform I'll be thinking "on balance, perhaps I might be interested in these ideas".

I had the same response. Have we all?

The BBC have missed the point, I don't care if he was campaigning or not, that wasn't what I complained about.

I care that he spoke about a colleague in such offensive terms.

The BBC have missed the point

They haven't, they've chosen to ignore the point. That's why in my view they've picked up an extra black mark. Dishonest is never a good look. Especially for a public service broadcaster.

I had exactly the same response from the BBC - which really did not address the issues I raised. I see that the story has now been dropped and there has been no comeback for Humphreys. Bloody typical.

Same response to me. But I wonder if he might be doing a few less hours next year...

Interesting to see him trying to smarm his way off the hook when doorstepped by reporters. The slightly indignant how-could-anyone-possibly-think-when-I'm-so-reasonable-and-a-national-treasure attitude.
Imagine how he'd have savaged someone else caught on tape making those sort of comments.
Boot on the other foot is the phrase that comes to mind.
Not before time.

I stopped listening to Today ages ago because of his interview style, and actually the knock on effect is that I don't really listen to other R4 programmes anymore because I found podcasts instead. I don't expect the BBC to really care though....

I actually wake up to classic FM. I used to listen to Terry Wogan on R2 back in the day when I was going through a bad time and R4 got too stressful and shouty. However, this time it was Chris Evans, so after a brief try of the local station and R5live, ClassicFM it was.

Sometimes I listen to Today later if there is something interesting going on or If I know there is something I want to listen to. But quite often, it stays off, unless I remember Womans Hour.

In Our Time is dreary - I don't know why they stick to one presenter year in and year out. You would think it would be a good idea to ring the changes and have two or three presenters so that it can carry on seamlessly if someone gets ill or goes on holiday, and there will be presenters being trained up, and adding new aspects to the programme. It is the sort of thing we were doing at work nearly 30 years ago. BBC seems to be cult of the individual.

With In Our Time, you have to distinguish between the content and the presentation. I've heard some fabulous content on there but unfortunately Melvyn always barges in and makes it about him.

I'm not sure why but over the past few years these big old male egos on Radio 4 have really really started to grate.

Oh yes I remember Mervyn applying his expertise to String Theory.

Get rid of Laurie Taylor too.

Quite a few of us on the AIBU thread had exactly the same response too.

I hate the fact that the BBC create National Treasures for us all to bow down to. Including Jimmy Savile of course. IMO the BBC have yet to take responsibility for creating that monster, and providing studios for him to abuse children in. And yes, creating National Treasures is a very effective form of bread and circuses.

Having had a quick google vaginafetishist I see that Laurie Taylor's son is Matthew Taylor.

Is this the founding of another of those dismal dynasties the BBC seems to specialise in?

Humphries’ dismal showing on science and technology stories put me off him years ago. Normally I’ll be a knee jerk supporter of any Welshman in the public eye but I make and exception for him.

I see they’ve stopped him doing the chat with contestants on Mastermind; his contempt for any subject that he personally happened not to know about was very unedifying.

Yes nauticant, another male dynasty to look forward to