One line from a French MEP put John Humphrys firmly in his place

John Humphrys


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Another day, another episode of BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme. And another day of listening to John Humphrys prop up the government with his insidious sneering.

But on 17 September, French MEP Nathalie Loiseau put Humphrys firmly in his place. Loiseau told him:

That’s weird – I’m not a spokesperson of the government, but you’re not either.

“A stitch-up”

Humphrys was interviewing Loiseau about Brexit and Boris Johnson’s plans. He started the interview by describing Johnson’s disappearance from a press conference in Luxembourg as a “stitch-up” and “a bit of an ambush”.

One Twitter user described this as the “last straw”:

Others called out the supposed “balance” of BBC journalism:

On fire

Loiseau’s one line wasn’t the only time she put Humphrys in his place. She also questioned what Humphrys meant by the concept of “work” on any Brexit deal:

Meanwhile, many people celebrated her handling of the interview:

Although, as one person pointed out, he is an ’embarrassment’:

Seriously, he’s still on the air

Humphrys announced his retirement in February. In fact, he stated that he should have left years ago. Unfortunately, he’s still on our airwaves. So, unsurprisingly, this resulted in social media users asking when he’s finally going to go:

Luckily, the answer is soon. This week is, in fact, Humphrys’ last week presenting the programme.

Will it get better?

So while none of us will mourn the departing of a sexist dinosaur from our airwaves, the question remains whether the programme will actually get better in his absence. This tweet, while referencing Humphrys, also pointed out the myriad of problems with the show:

And as this social media user highlighted, the chance of the programme improving while Conservative supporting Sarah Sands is editing is very unlikely:

So while Humphrys might finally be retiring, it seems we might still be left with only one solution. And that’s to join the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve already switched off their radios and abandoned the programme for good.

Featured image via YouTube – BBC Newsnight

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  • Show Comments

    1. Why is it so difficult for everyone to realise that the BBC was set up as government propaganda machine before WW2 & a listening licence was introduced in 1946 for the British listeners to pay for it. The Nazi Goebbles was so impressed he copied it for his Propaganda Ministry without the listening tax though. What we get is PROPAGANDA.

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