Status anxiety

What bugs me is not identity fraud but who will be watchdog to BBC’s Watchdog

Toby Young

Wednesday, 24th October 2007

Toby Young has no need of a noddy shot

During my interview, Julia introduced me to a ‘cyber investigator’ — a polite, bespectacled young man — who then revealed what he’d been able to find out about me armed with the information ‘Amba’ had gleaned from my Facebook profile.

‘Is that your phone number?’ he asked, pointing to some digits on a computer printout.
‘Yes,’ I conceded, ‘but, then, I’m not ex-directory. You could have got that out of the phone book.’

‘How about that?’ he said. ‘Is that your home address?’

‘Yes, but that’s in the phone book, too.’

‘Cut,’ cried the director. ‘This isn’t working.’

For the second take, he instructed the ‘cyber investigator’ to just rattle off the things he’d been able to find out about me without giving me time to react.

‘It’s just for reasons of compression,’ he explained.

The polite young man duly complied and, when he’d concluded his ‘investigation’, Julia Bradbury asked me whether I was shocked that he’d been able to discover so much about me.

‘Not really,’ I said. ‘I mean, I have written two volumes of memoirs.’

She looked momentarily dumbfounded by this, but decided to press on.

‘Yes, but don’t you realise how vulnerable this makes you to identity theft?’

I hesitated.

‘The thing is, Julia, I actually want people to start going round impersonating me. Having people pretend to be you is a sign that you’ve arrived in our society.’

‘Cut,’ said the director. ‘I think we’ve got enough, Toby. Thanks for coming in.’

‘But what about the “noddies”?’ I asked. ‘Don’t you want to film Julia “listening” to what I’m saying so you can cut it in afterwards?’

‘No, that won’t be necessary.’

Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.

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Ali Adams

October 25th, 2007 2:50pm Report this comment

I have to say thank you for the link to this. I has given me quite an insight to how things can be manipulated with camera shots etc to get the result they want rather than whats the correct one. Brilliant!

Michael Morris

October 25th, 2007 4:54pm Report this comment

Watchdog peddling an agenda? I'm not as surprised as I should be...Wow, should we be afraid if some stranger finds our favourite film is ___ or book,___? What our status says we're doing? Oh jeeze, my page links to crazy pics of me too!And my close friends. Ahhh))) ...One word: FEAR! Check out Exploring Media discourse by Myra McDonald?

ian skidmore

October 25th, 2007 7:40pm Report this comment

Good for you. The first time I wa on Tv in a Book show to publicise my work the director said we must have a rehersal. my fellow guest the widow of the poet Vernon Watkins said " Why? We don't plan to give stupid or rude answers" "Ah" said the propducer. "If he presenter doesn't know what you are going to say he will have to listen to your answers The presenter went on to be Controller BBC Wales. Which figures

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