"Sounding hysterical"

Here are two senior media types taking issue with the BBC and Channel 4:

David Elstein, the former BBC editor who launched Channel 5, criticised broadcasters’ sense of entitlement and “generalised hostility” to politicians. 

“I don’t think Andrew Neil helped himself by putting out such a public challenge because he made it inevitable that it would be turned down,” he told The Times. He described the Channel 4 News decision to replace Mr Johnson and Nigel Farage with ice sculptures as “regrettable, foolish and childish”. 

Lord Grade of Yarmouth, the former BBC and ITV chairman, said that broadcasters were sounding hysterical and urged Ofcom to review rules around empty chairing. He said that Neil’s monologue on Thursday was “pretty close to the edge”. 

“What’s coming through is an arrogance on the part of the journalists in the media, which I think is unwarranted, unnecessary and unseemly,” Lord Grade, a Conservative peer, said.