What Ceri Thomas does not seem to get is that to be an effective interviewer it is not necessary to behave like a bully (Comment, 6 April). On many occasions I have been driven to turn off, or down, an interview on the Today programme because of John Humphries' or others' aggressive and loud interviewing. They demonstrate an inability to listen or let the interviewee answer the questions. They repeatedly interrupt, preventing a full response. They seem to want to be the focus of the interview, rather than the person being interviewed.
Listeners are not, as they seem to think, stupid. We are perfectly able to discern when someone is prevaricating. Thomas's patronising comments about women interviewers show he fails to understand that macho posturing does not serve the listener, or the subject in question. He obviously learnt nothing from the superb interview given by PD James last year when she edited the Today programme and, with her calm, determined and discerning questioning, tied the head of the BBC up in knots. More women (or men) like this please.
Sally Barnes
London
• Listening to the macho men on the radio sharpening their wits as they set the parameters and define the issues of the election campaign, it must have occurred to much of their audience that it's time for a change. A clutch of mainly male commentators has ruled the airways for too many years. They are unelected, yet collectively display the arrogance of power; speak as from some unassailable moral high ground; undermine any lingering respect we may have for the great officers of state; make a point-scoring game of debates on pressing national issues, presumably hoping to gain kudos for an assertiveness bordering on aggression and, of course, neither their fat salaries, expenses or pension arrangements are put up for public scrutiny.
Sue Hopkinson
Ullapool, Ross-shire
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment