Further to yesterday's post about those three diversity-seeking senior directors and controllers at the BBC who are going to ensure more women, more gays and more blacks on BBC comedy shows and dramas....
It's now the turn of Match of the Day to face BBC Director of Television Danny Cohen's diversity-loving ire.
There are too many white men on MOTD he says, and that's gotta change.
I agree, but I think he needs to go much, much further.
For starters, there are far too many ex-footballers on Match of the Day.
I propose that the UK's Olympic women's curling team should take over as pundits, in the interests of diversity.
They drew large TV audiences, and attracted a lot of viewers to their sport after all. They'd be perfect to replace Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen (and aren't there too many 'Alans' on MOTD too, Danny?). I'd happily watch Eve Muirhead explaining the offside rule and Anna Sloan slagging off Manchester United's defence.
Gary Lineker - white, male, straight, an ex-footballer - would have to go too. Obviously. He's just so wrong for the job, on all four counts.
Clare Balding would naturally be at the forefront of the BBC's mind when it comes to finding a replacement for him, but - alongside the programme's new pundits - that wouldn't solve Danny Cohen's 'too many whites' problem, would it? Maybe Christine Ohuruogu then?
Perhaps Danny should start looking even closer to home though.
You may have noticed that he and Ben Stephenson and Charlotte Moore - and the rest of top BBC TV and radio bigwigs - are all hideously white too.
Maybe he should start by sacking himself, and appointing The Sky at Night's Maggie Aderin-Pocock instead.
She'd make a great BBC Director of TV. She could scrap The One Show for starters and replace it with The Sky at Night for example.
I'd be up for that. Onwards to maximum diversity at the BBC!
I'd be up for that. Onwards to maximum diversity at the BBC!
Off topic but what happened to mrs merkel? much fanfare , not what they wanted to hear, they disappeared her! Revisionism.
ReplyDeleteYes. I've just been catching up with this week's editions of 'Newsnight' and, as you say, there was a big build-up on Wednesday night's programme on the eve of Angela Merkel's visit. It even led the programme.
ReplyDeleteThen, on the day of Mrs Merkel's visit, nothing...silence...on that night's show.
Well and truly 'disappeared'!
Surely reporting what she actually said after she'd said it rather than speculating about it - and what problems David Cameron might be facing - in advance is REAL news reporting?
The BBC all but ignores women's football. An occasional patronising pat-on-the-head when a team does particularly well ignores the fact that the BBC goes against its entire ethos of public service by filling prime-time weekend TV with male-only programmes about male-only teams. I would go so far as to say that the BBC has absolutely no right to do this. I have absolutely no interest in football, but I do have an interest in equality. The BBC bought into the status quo back in the early years, and has been too lazy, too timid or just too misogynistic to change for the better. And before they "Yes, but.." about the Olympics and Wimbledon etc., those are tournaments where women are given (almost) equal standing and competitions integrated with males within one tournament. Any tournaments which are entirely male, with a female equivalent taking place elsewhere, and you can bet your shirt that the BBC will send its main outdoor broadcasting unit to the male tournament, and perhaps a junior reporter and cameraman to the female one.
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