Listen up! I've applied to run Radio 4
I have just applied for the post of Controller of BBC Radio 4. My application form went in on Thursday. Am I serious? Perfectly. Will their response be? I doubt it.
I was partly motivated by rumours of the names that were being considered – a collection of liberal establishment figures of the sort who are already strangling the BBC.
My view is that, in return for the licence fee, the BBC owes a duty to listen to, and treat seriously, the views of people who are not in that establishment.
And they don’t do this. Many of them don’t even realise there is any other view of the world than their own. I have promised that, if appointed, I will most certainly bring equality and diversity to that great radio station. Just perhaps not the sort of equality and diversity the BBC has in mind.
I heard them discuss this on BH. There was general agreement that while Hitchens' application was to be treated as a joke (why, exactly?) the BBC needed to be a bit careful not reject what was referred to as "the centre right" (presumably something between May and Kenneth Clarke) lest they are tempted to metamorphose into the "hard right". V. funny coming on Radio 4 which is now wall-to-wall PC left-sympathetic broadcasting (The Archers and the Weather Forecast no exception).
ReplyDeleteIf they did treat it as a joke that would not have been wise.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is rigged from the get-go, but being overt is a no-no.
Run it by Complaints, for the lolz at least.
Can you please provide the link to listen to the discussion on BH?
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