Madam, – In these testing times of political and economic turmoil, I turn to the airwaves not only for news and information, but for light relief, diversion and occasional interesting sidelines on the culture and mores of the nation.
What do I find? News reporting and investigation has become, with a few honourable exceptions, an opportunity for interviewers, whom one presumes to have been trained, to engage in rude, crude and aggressive questions, delivered in an angry shout. More often than not, a question is delivered as a tedious, politically correct monologue, leaving the hapless interviewee wondering if there is actually a question.
Panel discussions are a babel of shrill voices, with moderators unable to take control. Entertainment and lighter programmes for daytime listeners are pathetic juvenile romps, punctuated with dreary monotony by excitable presenters, inviting everyone to text, tweet or e-mail about any trivial thought that occurs to them. These babbling barons of banality are poisoning the airwaves with dross and detritus, emanating from minds that have long ceased to function at higher than infant level. As for phone-in programmes, the whingefest takes on epic proportions, turning the nation into blubbering, confessional twits.
Cultural and artistic content is invariably presented in a smug and cosy in-crowd format, where one is given to understand that engagement with the arts in this country is for the select few only; riff-raff keep out.
As I search in vain for adult discourse, I find I turn more frequently to the cross-channel offerings, where the juvenile spectrum, present everywhere, is balanced by intelligent, adult content, from the political to the humorous and the odd but interesting sidelines. I cherish the hope that my native country will grow up on the airwaves. So far, it’s still in nappies. – Yours, etc,