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    'Moral maze' or political avoidance? Archived Message

    Posted by pete-g on July 13, 2023, 1:11 pm

    Sometimes, on the rare occasions I drive a car, I have the misfortune to tune in to a BBC Radio 4 programme, 'The Moral Maze', hosted, I think, by a smug geezer (Establishment lackey?) Michael Buerk. It purports to address burning issues of the day, but in fact doctors them of political content/energy and - with its resident panel of bigots, weighted heavily to the right in time-honoured BBC fashion - looks at them through an inert, pseudo-philosophical lens, while re-asserting the prevailing pro-Ukraine world view, etc. I now try and change stations as soon as I hear one of those self-righteous voices (not that it's easy to find anything better).

    It reminds me of a BBC TV programme 'Hard Talk', fronted by someone who think he's a journalist, S. Sacker. I remember him interviewing the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, well before the current war got under way. The format of the programme gave him an excuse to be aggressive and almost abusive towards his illustrious guest, who - as I think was chronicled on this board - managed to parry the anti-Russian vitriol through force of superior intellect, sangfroid and infitnite patience.

    But the point is: why is serious and candid debate not permitted, or even encouraged, on the BBC, without current affairs programmes having to be 'packaged' in a gimmicky way? I remember 20 or 30 years ago that at least there was the semblance of thoughtful debate. I'm sure Robin Day was a proverbial 'safe pair of hands', but some probing and searching was in order.

    Anything politically dangerous or explosive has to be neutered by being dressed up in a 'marketable' format, or treated as a historical phenomenon once its political potency has been and gone.

    I wonder whether anyone else shares my disquiet and alarm at the tacit banning of any honest and meaningful debate on the (mainstream) airwaves?

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