I’ve been meaning to write this short post for weeks.
Regular and long-term readers of this blog may remember that I have had issues with Farming Today – the early morning BBC Radio 4 farming programme. See Farming Today – not today and not tomorrow, 16 October 2018.
But those same regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I spoke to Farming Today about the Wild Justice legal challenge on 25 April.
So how come? This is how it came about. Farming Today contacted Chris Packham to ask him to appear and he wasn’t available. So then they asked whether Ruth Tingay was available and she wasn’t. So then they asked if I were available and I said I was but I had had such bad experiences of unfair treatment from the programme that I’d decided to turn down all offers of interviews (and I have turned down several in the past).
A person from Farming Toay with a very appropriate surname for the programme emailed me and asked whether if they recorded an as-live interview which they would broadcast with minimal editing then would I be up for it? So we had a chat on the phone and the person with the nominatively determinate surname won my trust and we went ahead with the interview. I believe in giving people, and organisations, a second chance to behave well. And, Farming Today asked me the right questions and I tried to give accurate and interesting answers. So Farming Today is now rehabilitated in my eyes – well, maybe rehabilitated is a bit strong, I haven’t forgotten and I haven’t forgiven (and they haven’t apologised) but I can put that behind me.
So, and I mean this, thank you Farming Today.
More generally, my advice to you if you are interviewed by the media is to be a bit pushy and set some ground rules that suit you. The media, including but not restricted to the BBC, tend to treat you as though you are a performer who has to fit in with their idea of the programme, which to some extent you do, but it’s your views they want and it’s not their place to instruct you even a little bit as to what you should say and how you should say it. It’s perfectly OK to say that you don’t agree with the premise of the question and talk about what you want to talk about!
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I didn’t think Countryfile was particularly fair or balanced however. Skies full of slow motion looming crows like a horror film and a “farmer” empathising with a bantam – scarcely a typical user of the general license and the clear implication that farmers only shoot crows to protect wildlife. Indeed watching the show one would be forgiven for thinking the countryside was covered in flower rich meadows.
Mark – I haven’t seen it yet. I’lcatch up with it tomorrow, maybe. Hope Tony Juniper came across well.