FEEDBACK R4 430PM Tom Sutcliffe responds re JKR

[Abitofalark]

Tune in this afternoon to hear the explanation / excuses for putting JKR alongside Hitler, or as the BBC blandly puts it:

"Radio 4’s Tom Sutcliffe responds to listener criticism of Front Row's discussion on the views of JK Rowling."

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015vm1

Just-in-time Bump.

Already the BBC spin starts with the above programme intro, shifting the focus to 'the views of JK Rowling' rather than the behaviour of Tom Sutcliffe in placing JK Rowling alongside some sex offender paedophiles and Hitler.

It continues on Feedback with the very same Sutcliffe telling us he was right, really, while making a small concession or two. Note he says, 'we made the point...' Is that you, Sutcliffe, the royal 'we', or is this roping in somebody else to shore you up? I think we should be told.

He maintains it wasn't wrong to say her views were not popular; refers to her view as being at one end of a spectrum and it was a mistake not to give a voice to a counter view.

All of the above represents the royal Sutcliffe view of the world from inside the BBC Stonewalled bubble, up becomes down, day is night, where the most widely held and reasonable views among the population and by JK Rowling become the 'not popular', a 'counter view' and at the extreme of a spectrum.

Smug as a bug in a rug, Mr Sutcliffe, regardless of the well reasoned and articulated points we heard read out from listeners.

I've just seen there's an original thread on the Front Row discussion. If only mumsnet had the capability to merge threads on a topic. I asked them about this re the new platform but didn't receive an answer.

Brilliant use of smug as a bug in a rug OP!

Thanks for reporting back. Sounds very a bit weak but at least they got him onto Feedback, it brings it to a wider audience and a sign to the BBC that there is some resistance.

Those are only a few snippets of the discussion - really the ones that I wanted to highlight in what Sutcliffe said which I felt were denial or unsatisfactory.

He did say other things as well. One of them was that he thought he should have stated that JK Rowling's views were not bigoted. That looks fine until you think, wait a minute, if they're not bigoted, why would you need to say that they're not bigoted? I know they're not bigoted. Is he assuming that the listeners will think they're bigoted, unless royal Tom is there to put them right? Or is it because he said something else which implied that they were bigoted?

The presenter, Roger Bolton, did make also some interesting comments which I haven't highlighted. One thing he suggested was that the top people at the BBC seem nervous of discussing this issue and that attacks on individuals and capture of the language and appropriation of language got in the way. Strong words there.

To this, Sutcliffe said that this wasn't a debate about JK Rowling's views on 'gender' but about art and artist and it was an interesting case in that context.

Note, as mentioned in my first post above, the programme notes, quoted above, did say that it was about JKR's views. Make up your mind, BBC and Sutcliffe.