Over the past couple of week's I've heard some excellent, even groundbreaking, programmes on BBC Radio 4. Last week's "Crossing Continents" broadcast recordings made by a former member of the Mexican Mafia from various US penitentiaries. This was not the sort of programme I would normally listen to, but I found the content totally engrossing. On Tuesday of this week, was the final installment of Claudia Hammond's series on mental health services in Britain : State of Mind. I've listened on and off to this series which has been very good indeed. Similarly, both "The Investigation" of last week (on piracy off the coast of Somalia) and yesterday's programme on waste management (the "rubbish" rather than "The Sopranos" kind !) in the UK was extremely interesting. This is BBC Radio at its best.
So why, oh why has the quality of broadcasting on Radio 4's flagship "Today Programme" so deteriorated recently ? Admittedly, it's not all bad, but the tendency to descend into tittle-tattle about fellow members of the media "profession" is ever present. More and more, it is the BBC itself which is the subject of "The News", breaking the first rule of journalism - or so I was led to believe - that journalists (and other media types) themselves should never become the "Main Story". What's gone wrong, I wonder ?
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