Question Author
@jackthehat
//The interview shows unusual behaviour from an experienced BBC journalist, they can usually handle commentators better than that.
//
He had just successfully batted away the "keep out terrorists" angle, by referencing Tim McVey so should have been in the mood to neutralise the next offer but, maybe, he didn't recognise it from the initial description offered? In fact he reacted so fast (as if to a made-up, outrageous allegation) that he talked across the interviewee's attempt to make the words "in Rotherham" audible.
Call it lawsuit avoidance behaviour ( Ian Hislop routinely does a tongue-in-cheek version of this but don't let that distract us).
@naomi24
// Abysmal research. //
Quite. Or so eager to interrupt, he didn't hear the "wild accusation" re-described as "in Rotherham".
@Ric.ror
//I listened to this at the time and thought the attitude of the interviewer was one of the reasons those 'northern cities' got into so much trouble in the first place //
Public Office terms and conditions of employment. Thou shalt not say anything which may be *perceived to be* racist, or prejudiced against an identifiable minority group. Uttering certain word sequences *will* cause you to lose your job, should they be heard by someone who despises you or covets your job.
It's really kind of twisted when self-preservation is the driving force behind PC utterances, instead of a genuinely good disposition to all of your fellow human beings.
// I like Doton but he lacks the gravitas to take on the more serious subjects //
I think journalistic gravitas can be a matter of distribution of labour and who gets to do the meaty stories (eg warzones) from which it is gleaned. Usually not enough to go around and the same faces hogging all the best stuff. That or 20-odd years' worth of hard graft, covering multiple types of story, equally well.