Cycling UK Forum

I have just been listening to Any Answers and wonder why people do it. its one thing to publicise your empty headed drivel here, but broadcast to the whole nation, where your voice maybe recognised.. Dont think so

Slightly OT I thought the ( male ) presenter today was very balanced much better than the usual snappy lady.

Several years ago when Radio 2 had a daytime show which supposedly dealt with serious subjects where in longer gaps between music the DJ interviewed an expert or two on the subject then after a track or two has a phone-in. I didn't fully appreciate what a waste of time the person running it (DJ) was or how constrained it was by the BBCs "equal time to daft ideas" (they call it "balance"), I called in, you leave your name, phone number and summary of your point and they may chose to call you back. They did call me back to go on-air and having heard how daft their "false balance" was I then declined to participate.

I don't know if it was the DJ or BBC's policies that made it a waste of time. The problem I have with the way BBC implement their "balance" is that they give equal prominence to opposing ideas irrespective of the idea. So a discussion about e.g. "the shape of the Earth" and they'd give both the "spherical Earth" proponents and the "flat Earth" proponents both equal time (e.g. each gets 5 mins). If the BBC has even a tiny bit of common sense they'd maybe mention briefly that a few believe the Earth is flat though science has demonstrated otherwise (that should be enough to cover and balance flat vs spherical Earth). It becomes more important when it comes to e.g. Climate change where often BBC feel they have to give the Climate Deniers the same time and prominence as the Climate Scientists.

Ian

On the climate change matter I believe that the BBC, somewhat belatedly, concluded that climate change was settled science and they no longer needed to try so attempt some sort of balance. Indeed, Ofcome once ruled against them for that very thing:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -too-often

Johnocyprus wrote:Slightly OT I thought the ( male ) presenter today was very balanced much better than the usual snappy lady.

Yeah. I only caught a bit of today's but the recent (new-ish!) woman has been pretty irritating. the callers can be pretty irritating too, so it needs a decent presenter!

[The chap sounded familiar ... presenter from elsewhere at the Beeb?]

Hi,
I that your main concern being recognised / being criticised?

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
I that your main concern being recognised / being criticised?

well some of the contributors were missing a few brain cells......

Why bother? What I think is only of interest to me and I'm not eloquent enough to persuade listeners that my view is correct. Much like the Demo's in cities going on at the weekend, all rather a waste of time.
I do listen to it but end up wondering how people can spout such false impressions as fact. The most recent being how the EU took away our car, mining, fishing and steel industries.
I'll continue to listen just to hear the excuses if our economy were to Bomb after leaving the EU.

francovendee wrote:Why bother? What I think is only of interest to me and I'm not eloquent enough to persuade listeners that my view is correct. Much like the Demo's in cities going on at the weekend, all rather a waste of time.
I do listen to it but end up wondering how people can spout such false impressions as fact. The most recent being how the EU took away our car, mining, fishing and steel industries.
I'll continue to listen just to hear the excuses if our economy were to Bomb after leaving the EU.

Thats what made me think, what a jerk the guy was to phone up and sprout his ill informed nonsense

I think that's part of the function of phone-ins. There's a temptation to assume that most people are sensible and think like you. Listening to these programs is a reminder of how ill-informed, stupid and bigoted a lot of people are.
And no, I cba to phone in.

I cannot stand phone-ins. Any Answers is as bad as You and Yours on a Tuesday.

I've not heard Any Answers, but in general these types of programs don't interest me. A bit like when news reports start stopping people in the street and ask them what they think about something - getting an opinion from one or 2 probably not even random people is irrelevant and just fills-up broadcast time.

It might be useful when the individual being asked the question is a decision maker but often a good interviewer (like Paxman) is in a better position as when the interviewee lies or fails to answer the question the interviewer can point that out and pursue the matter where phone-in's and audience question things tend to do ask you question and no follow-ups. Also a good interviewer can ask relevant questions and have the background knowledge pursue, cross examine, etc. so if far more useful. It's a pity there are so few good interviewers around these days but there are some and their interviews are most informative.

Ian

Psamathe wrote:I've not heard Any Answers, but in general these types of programs don't interest me. A bit like when news reports start stopping people in the street and ask them what they think about something - getting an opinion from one or 2 probably not even random people is irrelevant and just fills-up broadcast time.

Even worse is the 'I've never been on a protest march before but...' interviewee. They can't actually be that hard to find, but it's always breathlessly reported as if that makes the march more valid.

Ben@Forest wrote:

Psamathe wrote:I've not heard Any Answers, but in general these types of programs don't interest me. A bit like when news reports start stopping people in the street and ask them what they think about something - getting an opinion from one or 2 probably not even random people is irrelevant and just fills-up broadcast time.

Even worse is the 'I've never been on a protest march before but...' interviewee. They can't actually be that hard to find, but it's always breathlessly reported as if that makes the march more valid.

Or when a so-called 'celebrity' has a view about almost anything and this is somehow thought of as of value.

Speaking in general terms the public contributors on Any Answers are well educated, balanced intellectuals in comparison to the entrenched, prehistoric nit-wits that contribute to most local radio phone-ins.