Here's a change that's worth some further consideration.
Bad news for accountability and transparency. https://t.co/5eiwpW33yc
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) November 18, 2022
Hmm. Let's see. The giving (and taking away) of big interviews has been something of a game for those who seek to burnish the reputations of their paymasters since the days of Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair. Since the Brexit campaign led by Dominic Cummings, it has been the norm for the Conservatives to seek to 'win' every day, in media terms.
So we've moved from the 1990s, when a minister might or might not grace the 0810 slot on Today, and perhaps shuffle to BBC Breakfast afterwards, say twice a week, to a position where a 'duty' minister starts around 0630, and does LBC, Sky News, GMB, BBC Breakfast, Radio 4, maybe Radio 5Live and maybe GB News or TalkTV, every weekday.
And we've moved from a position where the morning political interview was based on the minister's brief and some impending announcement (with a discussion between producer and minder as whether the minister would 'take' a couple of questions on some other political story at the end), to a position where junior ministers were sent out with a sheet of 'lines to take', and told defend everything the Government was doing on every front.
This became the most bizarre form of bloodsport for our most aggressive interviewers, particularly in the dog days of Boris Johnson. Our media hosts, already frothing at some Governmental misbehaviour which overnight social media had decided needed admission and apology, found their anger multiplied by the low level of politicians sent to grace their microphones, and callously gave them unwarranted kickings. On Today, these bouts were often the full 18 minutes, from the news to the sport, with the interviewee's chair needing a wipe-down for bloodstains afterwards.
Regular and thorough scrutiny of the actions of senior government ministers mustn't be lost - but it's no bad thing for the Today programme, at least, to find alternative 'leads' at 0810.
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