John Humphrys on the BBC's 'liberal bias' | Liddle's Got Issues

I'm with someone who was in the BBC for 50 years a friend a brilliant journalist who has decided not to do the Today programme anymore and has given up at the comparatively young age of 76 that in a Delhi why wimp a wimp and he has a book to sell of course and a very good book as well John Humphrys a day like today so I thought I'd better catch up with him rod yes you made me what I am so whatever you're going to say in the next few minutes it's all your fault all right yeah yeah good fifty years in the BBC you've left it when I left the BBC suddenly all this freedom occurred to me I know and what do you do with it no I know I know well did you feel that I think intensely felt that writing the book I thought because I'd find myself writing something about the BBC's you think Saturday even as we were saying goodbye at the party the presses were running of the Daily Mail was reading a huge splash on the mail saying I'm for you says the BBC's apostle jeez no couldn't have been worth the time out could all fall that's how awful for the book such a cynical run it really is here's an organization that is fed and nurtured me and given me all this wonderful gold from so many years and well except well with regard or with regards to that I mean a couple of things firstly you summed up so beautifully it's a PPC middle management PLC is full of middle managers who do not make programs but do their best to stop other people making programs which is a bit a moat I know it's not it's the most accurate description and so there are two things firstly its profusion of managers you know as I'm reading it from my time too many yeah we've had a very senior appointment not that long ago in BBC News and I think it's fair to say that nobody including some of his senior colleagues knows quite no no that's right and it's not his fault I mean you know it's not that have they're all nice people largely from different backgrounds to the two of us they are not biological work in class I think you could safely say yes but the other point that you were making about the BBC in which which some of us would have guessed out that the BBC has a kind of bias about it it's not necessarily a left-wing bias but it's a little liberal to little lies I mean it's liberal on the side the left does put yes yeah yeah and you believe that oh I do oh I don't think there's any doubt about that and it's partly because of the sort of people who get the job as the big jobs who become trainees and the life because I mean the old days as you well know if you became a trainee Tony holds a good example you stand a pretty good chance of becoming director-general wonder you usually have to leave the BBC and then go back to it in order to get the big jobs but that's it that is the sort of progression and they go to the sorts of universities their liberal arts students mostly and they go to the sort of universities and learn from the sorts of professors and lecturers and all the rest of them I I speak from profound ignorance because I've never been to one I'm assuming this is what happens who have themselves pretty powerful liberal views and they are income yeah that's the way it is I've got this theory what I do best what you is a former editor the day program thinks about it which is and it sounds bonkers on one level but it is that editors of programs should know how their producers vote or not necessarily how it was but what they are poor their mindset exactly newspaper editors do because because you need the diversity of views one of the things which comes through from the book or from the bits which I've been allowed to read because it's not really released yet class still plays a big part isn't it yeah but maybe inevitably they inevitably but it is I want into people how would you manage to get a job and you're working on all that and that is true but I started on a newspaper tiny tiny little the Penarth times then work for a bigger one and then a big exactly no we look for and some time's to my eternal regret any up with with media studies people the other point I wanted to bring up regard in the previous point we were talking about which is the the the soft liberal bias of the BBC it's a rather naive bias oh yes think it is yes as I say you've said it I've said it Robin Aitken said it John sergeant a said it Jeremy Paxman said it Michael Burke has said it one thing we all have in common we're old white men I don't think it's dope I don't know this how can you tell we can't possibly tell kill me I don't think it is an old white male perspective I was talking to a young woman the other day whose best friend had had a son who has decided that he's the daughter and has changed his name now she felt incapable of I mean really incapable of being able to rail again or against a caution him because he was afraid that she would be seen as a prejudiced bigoted yeah she's not she's a very decent and I would have said in the good old bad old days a very decent liberal educated well she's afraid it's this policy it's interesting that I think the transgender issue is that is kind of the tipping point in this is it because most people simply don't get it well do you think it's not really that they I think they do get it and they see it as a fad and also one which is inherently it's an oxymoron it's a it's a paradox it's ludicrous they don't they we've got ourselves into a position whereby we are prepared to say that a transgendered persons transgenderism was hardwired and just as a gay person was hardwired to be gay but we deny that a woman is hardwired to be a female I mean it is an absurd atrocities and and a hundred different genders a hundred different except there are two genders you know it's I mean we do both except we this is the old BBC of me we were both accepted that our people who are gender dysphoria time and we would also accept that people who want to dress as women can do circle you could say I was God wouldn't um guarantee that John thanks a lot Mary it's been a great pleasure rock and you were a bloody good editor I'm sure we work with I must say yeah he's actually much nicer than he seems thanks a lot

Channel: The Times and The Sunday Times

Views: 137,855

Keywords: bbc, liberal bias, politics, rod liddle, liddle, liddle's got issues, news, uk news, bbc one, today, today programme, john humphrys, bbc news, boris johnson, breaking news, suspending parliament, trans, transgender, rod liddle's got issues, suspend parliament, supreme court, bbc corruption, bbc bias, labour, tories, no deal, brexit, eu, european union, no-deal, hong kong, gender neutral, rod liddle spectator

Id: bW8F8m3wdrc

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 06 2019