News values

The death of Nick Clarke, The World at One, Any Questions and Round Britain Quiz presenter, jolted many commentators — and listeners — to bewail the loss of a news broadcaster noted for his courtesy, his integrity, his ability to ferret for ‘the truth’ without being provocative or volatile. It says a lot about how much the world of broadcasting, and news reporting in particular, has changed that these qualities are now deemed so unusual. This is not to denigrate Nick Clarke’s achievement — he was an endearing broadcaster, with a wonderful ‘radio’ voice that was bold and authoritative and yet also easy-on-the-ear. You felt that he was talking directly to you, not at you. I don’t think I ever heard him bellow down the microphone. He had no need. His manner and his quality of mind were such that his interviewees felt obliged to answer in kind — without subterfuge or persiflage.

So what has changed? Or rather what has changed on Radio Four news? Why is the Today programme such a torment to listen to? After about 15 minutes I find myself switching off, worn down by the hectoring tone and the pointlessness of so many of the interviews (the best bits are the five-minute sport or business slots, chats with people who have actually done something rather than merely having an opinion or supposition). The politicians themselves, and especially those in office, are often said to be responsible for this descent into bureaucratese, trained to be like managerial automatons with a learnt-by-rote spiel from which they are too frightened to digress in case they go off-message, or even worse reveal just how far from being in control of the situation they really are. But I’m not so sure the politicians are entirely to blame for this I’m-not-going-to-give-anything-away, Oh-yes-you-are, Oh-no-I’m-not style of interviewing.