Monday 29 May 2017

A Modest Proposal


Via Twitter, I've been watching (yes watching) quite a few snatches of LBC. It's a fascinating channel, with presenters ranging from Nigel Farage and Iain Dale on the Right to Maajid Nawaz and James O'Brien on the Left (though no Katie Hopkins any more of course). You know their views, and they aren't afraid to express them, but they also like engaging with listeners who disagree with them. It's open and healthy and democratic, and it feels like breath of fresh air in comparison to, say, BBC Radio 4 or Radio 5 Live.

Because of the range of views at LBC, and the undisguised nature of those views by the LBC presenters themselves, you don't find yourself repeatedly caught in the claustrophobic atmosphere of so many BBC talk shows where 'impartial' BBC presenters try to pretend that they have no views and yet can't stop them leaking out - a BBC problem made so much worse by the fact that, unlike LBC's presenters, most of the BBC's presenters seem to inhabit a narrow part of the political spectrum and to share a similar outlook on so many things.

Just imagine how much more interesting Radio 4's Woman's Hour would be, for example, if it (flexibly) alternated, presenter-wise, between days when Dame Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey and Emma Barnett were presenting and days when women with a very different point of view, say Kathy Gyngell, Laura Perrins and Jane Kelly of The Conservative Woman, were presenting. How much less stifling and agenda-driven it would feel if that kind of thing happened, and how much more interesting it would surely be. 

While we're waiting for that to happen (yeah, as if!), here's a bit of recent LBC broadcasting (h/t Biased BBC):



And for more on Maajid's theme and a very clear example of the BBC's stifling uniformity of view, just try yesterday's Sunday on Radio 4. 

By-and-large it consisted of lots and lots of talk of love and hope and interfaith harmony, and 'It's Nothing To Do With Islam', and the 'backlash', the 'backlash', the 'backlash', and everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, and (with one exception) the presenter (Martin Bashir) leading this congregation of like-minded people. It proved so unrelenting that I couldn't bring myself to re-listen to it in order to write about it yesterday.

And it was entirely typical, therefore, of Sunday to deal with the issue of Didsbury Mosque by talking to an outreach worker there, taking his every word on trust and sympathising with him about the 'backlash' the mosque has (allegedly) been facing - in other words, by taking the mosque's side. (Listen for yourselves). 

4 comments:

  1. Yes, oddly enough I’ve been watching that too. There’s another LBC one of Maajid Nawaz arguing with Peter Hitchens about legalising marijuana. Maajid comes across badly in my opinion, and his manner is immature and impolite.

    He has written some good pieces on Jewish News (ToI) though. I’m ambivalent about Maajid.

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  2. I was thinking yesterday : how is it that the only media that allows the expression of some muslim opinion in a non-partisan / non- defensive way are the likes of Rebel Media, Mark Steyn and the Nigel Farage LBC show ? Farage gets a lot of muslims and hindus calling in.

    The so called 'right wing' YouTube channels have more honest discussion that lack the racism of low expectation demonstrated by the BBC, which I
    loathe.

    Take this Angry Foreigner vid for instance :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa6X_07RuGM
    Skip to 09:20 and be amazed, you'll never see this on the BBC, those days are gone.

    Or this from Rebel Media (muslims opposed to the islamophobia motion in Canada) :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYPy_68TbWo

    Or this interview with Raheel Raza by Mark Steyn.

    The BBC is so intent on offending no-one, it's managed to plough a very narrow and fallow farrow. (Is that poetry ?)

    I wonder what it is the BBC is attempting to do. If the answer is social unity, it's failing.

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  3. I just can't listen to the BBC any more. They are not even on my radio's preset buttons (except for Radio 3 and that less and less - I tend to use internet radio for classic or baroque music).

    LBC (except O'Brien who repeats himself endlessly - just listen to the first 10 minutes of his shows).

    Talksport in the afternoon. Hawkesby and Jacobs can be very funny (you have to skip the adverts of course)

    I've just bought my 82-year-old sister a DAB radio so she can avoid the BBC by listening farther afield. Of course she is not paying a licence fee; I still am!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I also recommend a bit of FOX News radio from the USA. I get a more balanced view of Trump and it's not all positive, btw, but more adult. They also give a better perspective on the Islamic terror campaign.

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