In the wake of the BBC/Martin Bashir affair there was an amusing 'discussion' on Five Live this morning.
I didn't catch the start but when I tuned in guest Alex Deane – an arch critic of the corporation – was asking whether, in this day and age, we actually need a national broadcaster.
Had there been only one guest, presenter Adrian Chiles would have been entitled to play devil's advocate, but there was another guest – the BBC's royal correspondent Jonny Dymond – and Alex should have been allowed to express his opinions without constant interruption and snarky comments from Chiles who came across as petulant, defensive and tone deaf.
The worst moment was the pathetic question (I paraphrase), "Did you apply for a job with the BBC and get rejected?"
As Tim Montgomerie, founder of ConservativeHome, immediately tweeted:
Just heard this. Absolutely awful playing of the man rather than the ball from Adrian Chiles. Assumption was that you can't be a good faith critic of the BBC. It is still an organisation that thinks too much of itself.
Funnily enough, a similar attempt was made to smear me when I was director of the Media Monitoring Unit over 30 years ago.
In March 1990 I was interviewed for a four-page feature in the review section of the Independent on Sunday and in the car en route to having my photograph taken at my home in Camberwell I naively told the journalist that ten years earlier I had missed out on a place on the BBC's news trainee scheme in Cardiff.
My 'confession' was quite light-hearted because I have never held this 'rejection' against the BBC. Out of 3,500 applicants I was one of only 50 to be interviewed and I was happy to have got that far.
In fact, I realised from the first question that I didn't have the in depth knowledge of world affairs they were looking for, and when the interview board asked me what I knew of Tibetan politics "during the last 20 years" I knew the game was up.
Instead of trying to bluff an answer I laughed and told them, "Not a lot", a response I was happy to share with my Independent on Sunday interrogator who used it to add colour to a front page 'story' that was headlined 'BBC's right-wing critic failed to secure trainee's job'!
The implication that I was driven to criticise the BBC because of my failure to land a job with them was laughable, but it's standard practice to assume that any critic has some ulterior motive.
Thankfully Alex was able to respond to Chiles' sly and unnecessary question with a firm "No" that immediately put him in his place.
If you get a chance do listen to the programme on iPlayer. Alex is an experienced political commentator but even by his high standards he played a blinder.
Front page, Independent on Sunday, March 4, 1990
