The day Today anchorman discussed his new book

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Sep 26, 1999 | by Iain Macwhirter

Devil's Advocate by John Humphrys Hutchinson, #16.99 "SO, Mr Humphrys, silver-haired Today anchorman, you have written a book. What's it all about?"

"Well, you know, I've been 40 years in journalism, since I was a cub reporter on the Merthyr Express in 1966, and I've knocked around a bit. And I've seen a few things. And well, I just felt it was time to set things, you know straight. Tell it like it is."

"You mean get it off your chest?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it quite like that. But I suppose so, yes. You see, I've been around a bit and I see this pampered generation with its consumer values, and its obsession with sex and its compensation culture, and I've just had it UP TO HERE with the appalling manners of young people and mobile phones, and.."

"What makes you think anyone really wants to know what you, a BBC presenter, think about permissiveness and modern art."

"...and sex and single parent families - two is much better, you know - and all these health scares we keep hearing about and counselling. Hah! Counselling. Well they didn't have counselling in the trenches, did they? And they didn't haved counselling in the Aberfan disaster, which I covered as a reporter for the Merthyr Express. And they didn't..."

"But Mr Humphrys, what right have you to condemn consumer culture, commercial values when you make a small fortune from the BBC. Your earning power is legendary. One of the highest paid journalists, you are notorious for supplementing your income by fees from countless business conferences, after dinner speaking, training videos?"

"...Malls. Shopping Malls. They're the new cathedrals of the modern age, your know. Temples of consumerism, full of young people, obsessed with sex, no manners and mobile phones...."

"But isn't it a bit rich to be criticising single parents when you are divorced and saw little of your children growing up?"

"...Didn't have mobile phones in Splott, Cardiff in 1943 when I came into the world. Oh, no. And you didn't get counselling in the Blitz. And what were we fighting for? Damien Hirst? Pickled sheep?! Where's the value in that".

"Mr Humphrys, aren't you going to answer any of my questions?"

"Questions? Oh yes. Questions. Dumb and dumber. BBC is going downmarket all the time. The Six isn't what it used to be, you know. Now they're all obsessed with tabloid values. Consumer affairs. Sex. Jealousy. No one reports hard news any more. "

"Eh, when did you last report hard news?"

"Look sonny. Don't talk to me about news. I was a cub reporter on the Merthyr.

"Yes. I think we got that bit. But look Mr Humphrys, by what right do you attack personality presenters like Martin Bell and Jeremy Paxman when you are a personality presenter yourself".

"Ah yes. Martin. used to be my idol, you know. Till he got seduced by the 'journalism of attachment'. Emotion. that's what it's all about nowadays. Look-at-me journalism. Vacuous presenters who think they're more important than the news, and fool themselves into thinking they have something to say to the world...

"Mr Humphrys, is that not a pretty accurate description of you."

"I worked with Brian Redhead till he died, you know. Pious creep. Do you know what he used to do? He threatened to slap a BBC producer IN THE FACE one morning 'cos he didn't like the story he'd been given. So, don't give me Brian Redhead, voice of Today. I've been doing Today longer than him, you know. Fourteen years."

"Who do you think really wants to read this stuff?"

"Read this? Look I am a Welshman, and I am naturally pessimistic about outcomes, though not about people. So, when it comes to hoping, I am with the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci: pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Or, to put it in Welsh terms: just because the odds are against us, it doesn't mean we shouldn't bloody well try."

"Is that your message?

"Well. Yes, give or take 300 pages".

"Mr Humphrys, you have been called a 'miserable old Welsh git.' Would you disagree with that description?"

"Look. I've been around in journalism for 40 years, and I've seen " Continued on Radio 94