Was Mark Lawson bullied? Or was it just a matter of trying to improve Front Row?

I don’t really know Mark Lawson; I’ve bumped into him a couple of times and he once was the moderator or question master, I forget which, on some show I was on. What I mean is he is not in my circle of friends. As it happens I don’t really have a circle of friends. You can’t call ‘two’ a circle, can you? Anyway, Lawson has apparently been bumped off Radio Four’s pretty good arts programme, Front Row.  Or he has decided to leave, one of the two. Make your mind up here.

Bullying? I wonder. I wonder if it was simply a case of trying, maybe occasionally with some force or rigour, to make the programme better still. Almost any form of behaviour which involves forcefully making a point is considered bullying these days. The best editors I’ve had in 30 years of broadcasting and journalism would be sacked for being bullies today.