Anyone Agree There Are Too Many White Male Presenters On The Bbc?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2615471/BBC-race-bias-Corporations-news-boss-says-presenters-white-men-managers-recruits-look-like-them.html

[EcclesCake]

I don't pay any heed to the ethnicity, gender or sexuality of the news presenters or any other TV or Radio presenter.

I either like them or I don't, and whether I like them is purely a function of how they deliver the news or whatever the programme is.

[woofgang]

Its true about recruiting in your own image, although that doesn't always mean white male if you are white male.....but ask anyone whose HR department does the recruiting and whose HR department is full of idiots.......

[emmie]

i don't like most, the few i do, like Matt Frei is white, but equally George Allegia is not.

[scooping]

Maybe, if the BBC is to accurately reflect British society in terms, of course, of its 'vision' and 'mission', 51 per cent of newsreaders should be female, at least five per cent of Irish origin and culture (and they should also be sub-divided between the number of male and female Irish in the country).
An overall figure of around ten per should be from ethnic minorities, again split on gender representation. And, of course, at least one in a hundred
(one in ten if the Blair governments were correct) should be classified as bi-sexual, gay, lesbian, trans-gender etc.
This might cause a little problem with faith communities who, of course, should also be represented. At least five per cent of newsreaders should be Catholic.
At least ten per cent should be from those disabled in any way and it would clearly not be right to discriminate between younger and older people. People from the regions must also represented, particularly those with accents.
It can't be right that we judge people on their size, so larger people should be on screen and so should smaller people.
People who are not disabled but present a different screen image, say those with dwarfism, should not be excluded nor those who have had, or may continue to have mental health problems. People with red hair, the butt of many jokes, should not be discriminated against and nor should people with bad acne, disfigurement of a more serious kind and people with speech impediments.
It would also be morally wrong to discourage Gypsies, people who may be of Viking decent, those from a private educational background and those from state schools, nor those who may have a criminal background (but paid their debt to society) and those who lack the gritty life experience of same.
We also should not forget those of the Jewish faith, those with freckles and people with one ear slightly lower than the other. White people who choose to get suntanned might be another concern because they might be perceived to be copying those of black or mixed-race. And, of course, those of mixed race should be characterised, for the sake of quotas, as being partly from ethnic minorities and those who are not.

[maggiebee]

Scooping - we're talking about newsreaders and you post War and Peace!

[Svejk]

^lol, yeah and cut back the number of gay people to 2% or whatever its supposed to be. that would be interesting.

[sp1814]

Svejk

Well, if we are talking about BBC News presenters, which is what James Harding is referring to, then how could you 'cut back' to 2% when there are 0% out gay newscasters?

[Bazile]

Am i alone who loses the will power to read long posts ?

Anyway this thing about two news readers is duplicated across the BBC ; when only one is needed ... head of this / head of that ..
I wouldn't be suprised if they employ someone to be head of light bulb changing in the West , East ....

//Perhaps the BBC will now want black lesbians in wheelchairs with visual impairment and hearing loss presenting the news ! //

Why not , i'm sure the BBC head hunting department are looking into
that, as we speak .

Anyway where are all the black news journalists / presenters ?
There is a definite descrepancy , compared to Asians .

[sp1814]

Kromovaracun

You raise an interesting counterpoint.

I personally don't think that there are 'too many white male presenters' on the BBC, but at the same time, I don't think that the inclusion of black or gay people ruins programmes.

I genuinely cannot remember a programme being ruined by the producers including a black or gay character. I don't know if Luther would have been any better, played by Damien Lewis, or whether Danny Dyer's son in Eastenders should be a straight character.

[emmie]

sp
female and gay what ever next

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1239578/BBC-newsreader-Jane-Hill-comes-gay.html

[emmie]

and another, alongside the lovely Clare Balding

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9816283/Alice-Arnold-ex-BBC-newsreader-attacks-horrible-anti-gay-marriage-MPs.html

[sp1814]

Bazile


The male / female presenter format has been around on all channels for decades.

If you cast your mind back to the 70s, shows such as The Golden Shot and The Generation Game, always relied on the male / female dynamic, and this was cemented during the 80s with Good Morning Britain, GMTV, The Big Breakfast etc.

In fact, if you look at just about any news/features show (from The One Show to This Morning), you will see the male / female dynamic in operation...because this apparently works.

[sp1814]

emmie

Ah...two.

Which taken as a percentage of all BBC news presenters across local and national stations, plus radio stations will still be considerably less than 2% (although quite obviously higher than my 0% granted).

My point was in reference to Svejk's point about 'cutting back' to 2%.

[scooping]

Bazile, thought your contributions, combined, were a little long...

[Booldawg]

yet another non-story from the eternally indignent. Talking of which isnt this Lenny Henrys current huge chip-on-shoulder moment?

[emmie]

these are the ones we know about, how many more, there are plenty of tv chat show hosts who are gay, plenty of those in the celebrity spot light, plenty in media, films, tv, what about the other channels

[AB Editor]

"Why does it sometimes take TWO people to tell us about news items ( 1st one says something then the 2nd one takes up the story line) I'm sure that ONE person could manage to cope with a few lines of script."

For the first time last year I saw local news presented by just one person from behind a desk, it felt weird frankly. The silences which come with monologues are now mostly reserved for "serious" matters, and so the light and breezy nature of most of the news is lost.

I prefer the radio :)

[emmie]

so do i, i don't have to look at them then

[Svejk]

you must be confident in your gaydar to come up with 0%.
he might be head of news but he seems to be referring to presenters in general.