Anyone listening to Woman's Hour? (Weds 14/6)

[WinterTrees]

My radio is on, but the signal keeps dipping in and out (often does this in hot weather for some reason) and I wasn't concentrating properly. It seems to be a discussion about the rise of the anti-abortion movement, and the role of the far right in this.

The young interviewee (Sian someone, I think, but I didn't catch her full name) has just brought in the general rise of 'wokeism' and the 'culture war' around LGBTQ+ issues as being part of the problem. She cited the push back against Drag Queen Story Hour as an example of this far right influence, and then circled seamlessly back to abortion, with no challenge at all from Nuala McGovern.

I didn't hear it properly and will listen again when it becomes available. I'm hoping that I've misunderstood, and the BBC's flagship women's programme was not promoting the narrative that women who object to pornified men breaching safeguarding best practice and blurring children's perception of appropriate boundaries are dangerous far-right zealots. Did anyone else hear it?

Nuala McG is only sure of her ground when she is interviewing a person she can praise - eg someone who has won something.

This is true and also if a guest is attractive/well-presented. I can’t remember who it was but she was gushing repeatedly about how gorgeous one interviewee was and talking about her nails etc and how they’d post a picture on social media. The woman wasn’t being interviewed about appearance or working in the beauty industry so it was weird for WH.

Spring is dreadful. I remember a programme she did a while ago about a man who had died of Covid in shrewsbury after refusing the vaccine. At the outset she was waxing lyrical about the view of the Severn with the vast, luxurious boathouse belonging to the privileged public school - wholly irrelevant to the subject matter - while completely neglecting to mention the equally lovely boathouse belonging to the town club (which anyone can join) which is literally right next to it!
A tiresome woman with a tiresome agenda. And yes, we are paying for her. Of course.

People often say “if both left and right-wing people think the BBC is biased against them, it means the BBC is perfectly balanced”.

My own view is that ever since Dr David Kelly and the “sexed-up dossier”, the BBC has been hobbled and gelded by the government of the day, and now with the whole board of Tory members and donors the BBC is cowed and fearful. Political editors seem to give greater weight to their continued access to politicians than to ask the questions their viewers would like asked.

The government should have no say in who runs the BBC.

But I don't think the BBC is in step with the gov at all. They are pretty anti the current gov. And pro labour. So not really cosying to those in power but rather what they think the majority think but is actually only what the white mc liberal elies think?

Bloody hell. I do not see what you see @Boomboom22 .

They seem to think “balance” means the mid-point between the truth and a lie.

They don't support any gov policy? They are dismissive of most politicians whilst demonstrating a real lack of thinking. And let labour spout twaw. Sky news is far better for finding out the facts of what is happening rather than the BBC spin.

What do you listen to instead? I've listened to R4 for years but increasingly queer theory keeps infiltrating every bloody programme

What makes you think this? Any examples of programmes?

Thanks, OP, sounds very interesting - have downloaded that and will have a listen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb/episodes/downloads

Very interesting the general praise on this thread for Emma Barnett. I recall when Jane Garvey and Jenny Murray left there was uproar on MN and most people were saying they couldn't stand EB! (I love her and always have.)

@EdithStourton - you have articulated exactly what I feel and it makes me feel so much better that I am not the only one. I too, used to have R4 on virtually all day and enjoyed coming across random programmes that were interesting and enjoyable. What used to feel familiar now feels like a different planet.

@AlisonDonut - your post made me smile! 6Music has indeed become quite a trial in that respect. 😴

I've thought the same about Marianna Spring - she has/is given a certain agenda and sticks rigidly to it.

I think it's actually extremely arrogant of the BBC to set itself up as 'the home of truth' and the self-appointed whistleblower on 'disinformation' - as if it hasn't historically (and to this day) deliberately suppressed the truth of what's going on within its own house and doesn't blatantly use propaganda to push its own (very non-neutral) message.

If it were truly interested in exposing 'disinformation', would you not expect it at least occasionally to focus on the disinformation emanating from one of the biggest, most high-profile media corporations in the world (one known by three letters which are near the beginning of the alphabet)?

"Marianna in Conspiracyland" Ep. 6/10 - Totnes
https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2023/25/marianna-in-conspiracyland

Fascinating how many untruths one of the interviewees packed into part of this episode, all swallowed hook line and sinker by Marianna with no fact-checking.

The series seems to be well-named, but only because Marianna is a sucker for conspiracy theories, and her job title is apt since she peddles disinformation: "BBC’s Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent".

I find Carl Benjamin a smug, obnoxious, arrogant, self-promoting, intellectually unimpressive misogynist but I have no sympathy for Marianna ludicrously broadcasting a bunch of lies about him.

This just goes to show what an utter sham the "Disinformation" project is and I hope he makes a right, royal stink about it. They deserve each other, two sides of the same coin.

The BBC’s Disinformation Service Begins Disinforming

But I don't think the BBC is in step with the gov at all.

The BBC is in step with the Establishment and at the moment the Establishment is in step with the government in some things and not in step in some other things. What the Establishment is in step with though is progressive thinking, which is why we get Pride, gender identity ideology, critical race theory type thinking, a set of fixed beliefs around Covid, and an urge to censor ideas that don't fit in with correct thinking. So we get all of this from the BBC.

I find Carl Benjamin a smug, obnoxious, arrogant, self-promoting, intellectually unimpressive misogynist but I have no sympathy for Marianna ludicrously broadcasting a bunch of lies about him.

Yes my DP listened to this earlier. I share your view on both!

I thought I was being harsh about Nuala McGovern because I tend to have a short fuse when my Irish compatriots annoy me. But it seems I am not alone.

Therefore I wasn't surprised to learn from Google that her radio career began in NYC. But then she spent 7 years with BBC World Service. It's years since I heard WS and I recall it as very serious and vaguely reassuring , with reruns of 1950s comedy etc.

Then I tuned in on satellite out of curiosity. It all sounded a bit chaotic and juvenile with multiple presenters who sounded very excitable. Like I'd blundered into an under 5s birthday party.

So I doubt Nuala is particularly engaged with the trans debate one way or another. She just wants to 'drive on' and get back to her Cosmo comfort zone topics.

I didn't hear the interview with Sianushka but I did hear an interview earlier in the week about Carla Foster. One of the interviewees was called Ruth Rawlins. She was British and repeatedly referred to the '8 month baby'. Nuala did pick her up on this as it was clearly wrong. I would easily imgine Ruth supporting the 'great replacement' conspiracy. It certainly seems to me that within the past 30 years abortion has moved from a fairly non contentious issue to being incredibly divisive. The early anti abortion MPs lke David Alcott sought to restrict abortion by reducing he time limits. Now Jacob Rees Mogg states that he is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest, an identical view to that found in the most hardline US states.

I like Nuala but she is no substitute for Emma's incisive style. She is also too similar in style to Anita. Whn Emma was doing the beginning of the week, they complemented each other better. Jessica and Krupa are good.

I was interested to read the comments bout Marianna Spring. I've been wondering how she has managed to become so important within the BBC so it was refreshing to read she is not universally admired.

Someone upthread said the Mariana Spring piece was like an A-level student piece of coursework and I think this is right - perhaps with better production! It's just dire - she's just giving her un-evidenced opinion and drawing conclusions that the evidence really doesn't support. I'd give it a D or an E.

She constantly refers to people being 'radicalised' by the 'far right' but never any evidence and also seems to conflate a belief in 'free speech' with being 'far right'. Which is a really disturbing take for democracy.

Even if what she said was true - which it appears it absolutely wasn't, and she didn't do basic fact checking about things she was being told - if suddenly half of Totnes realise that they need to defend free speech, I'd draw a vastly different conclusion about that than Mariana has.

If these people were formerly progressive Totnes residents, presumably many of middle age and older with quite a bit of life experience, is it really likely that they've suddenly all been hoodwinked by far right lunatics? I think it's far more likely that they've realised how under threat free speech is from institutional capture and propaganda pieces, just like Mariana's (ironically), on the BBC. Perhaps as people with some life experience they don't feel they need to passively accept their opinions from BBC journalists who know very little of the world.

People are able to fact check for themselves more easily these days, this standard of journalism is just abysmal.

Not caught up with all the posts but without any of the superficial One Show tendencies of the ones we’ve got now. struck a chord.

The next episode of Marianna in Conspiracyland starting just now.

All sorts.

Battleground Ukraine - absolutely excellent for insights into events there

Triggernometry - I pick and choose which episodes I listen to but I do love KK's passion for his adopted country and the West in general

The Rest is History - they do both stand-alone episodes and what are effectively mini-series so you can scroll their back catalogue, find something that interests you and work through it

Honestly with Bari Weiss - again, I pick and choose as some of them are very US-centric and while I know that US politics etc is v important, I just can't get too excited about it

I am also a tragic dog nerd, so I listen to a broad mix of podcasts there.

Once you start listening, suggestions start coming up or you hear adverts for others. It can sometimes take a while to get into a particular presentation style. I used to be a annoyed by the matey bantz of a pair of dog training dudes but now I feel as if I know them and laugh at their jokes...

Interesting to hear that Marianna Spring considers it a duty of a media outlet to provide information that is "accurate and fair". I get "accurate", I wonder what "fair" means, because it implies to me the suppression of information that is "accurate but unfair".