Wright or Wrong? RW blogs about the cuts....

[Nick Armstrong]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio3/2011/10/controller-roger-wright-on-the.shtml

[french frank]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio3/20...t-on-the.shtml

As I've commented there, my prediction (still an hour to go!) is that he will try to shift attention away from the precise complaints, 'fascinating' though he found them, on to his own agenda of how the schedule compares with what it was like in Drummond's day. Will Bolton be well enough clued up to get any answers from him at all?

[EnemyoftheStoat]

No, Bolton will have been primed to ask the questions that RW wants to "answer".

[salymap]

he doesn't point out that the music played years ago was nearly always complete works and not bleeding chunks though, and no-one talked over the music.

[handsomefortune]

5 blog comment in response:

RW fancy appearing with Steve Hewlett in a ten minute live slot on The Media Show

good grief, no!

not that listeners would want to put hewlitt's career at risk, as he's about the only remaining convincing media commentator left throughout the whole of the beeb. (astonishingly).

[Nick Armstrong]

My reactions initially were:

- saly's 'bleeding chunks' point above

- why compare a Friday morning in 91 with a Sunday morning now (what would a Friday morning such as this morning reveal? Anyone got time to try?)

- what do all the celebrity guests cost, on Rob's morning show and the new Saturday afternoon slot. I can see savings right there by not spreading the 'Private passions' concept thinly over the whole week...

[Thespian]

I thought that same too Caliban. Why compare a weekday morning to a Sunday morning? It's like comparing Shakespeare to Pinter. Both writing for the stage, but in totally different ways and for different audiences.
He should have compared a Monday 2011 with a Monday 1991, (is that really 20 years ago <sigh>) or did that not back up his argument?

[french frank]

No, Bolton will have been primed to ask the questions that RW wants to "answer".

He was certainly primed to ask me the questions that RW wanted him to ask me a couple of weeks ago.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

QED - that's a variation on a typical old tactic; don't ask questions unless you know what the answer will be; that way you have an answer to that answer.

[BetweenTheStaves]

To be fair, I thought that Roger Bolton gave him a bit of a drubbing and so more power to him for that.

[DracoM]

RW was flustered and tetchy despite being primed and ready [apparently? ] He clearly is not used to being crossed or contradicted - and that Sunday / weekday comparison was deeply and unforgivably dishonest, and not spotted by Bolton. I shouted at the radio the instant he trotted it out!

I want someone with real and detailed knowledge of the schedules, the history and the figures to corner him and make the darts stick. He sounds as if he has got Chris Patten well tamed and on message - their words were almost identical on Feedback.

And did you notice the new 'buzz' description of the Breakfast audience? 'Lighter listeners'. Hmm.

[Angle]

What a very dispiriting experience listening to RW was.

What a perfect example of either a person with too much power or a person in the wrong job.

He answered no question straightforwardly, introduced pointless comparisons and having no other defence, answered single quotes from listeners with other quotes from other listeners. Bureaucratic despot.

The only really good thing about Radio 3 to be left, is Friends of Radio 3 for which many, many thanks to FF and others.

Don in despair.

[mangerton]

It was a poor performance from RW, though my hopes were not high. He failed to answer the questions put to him, and as others have pointed out, comparing a Sunday with a weekday is blatantly dishonest.

Bolton did quite well, pressing RW on some points, but could have pressed harder on others, like the whole works vs single movements issue.

DracoM, I shouted at my radio too, several times, but I fear it had little effect.

[Paul Sherratt]

>>Really I'd like to see a transcript of that whole interview so that I can pick it apart!

mercia, imagine yourself to be this chap.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EC8X5fx4MOo/TP7HhbxuLPI/AAAAAAAAENI/yIjoXlLliEc/s1600/geoffrey_robertson_qc_640x930.jpg

If only he'd been questioning the Murdochs intead of those amateurs

[DracoM]

Judging by the very obvious cuts in the Feedback edit, Bolton DID press him harder but in the final trim 'responses' were indeed cut.

I hope someone in R3 PR takes him very, very carefully and instructively through the Japanese Knotweed of spin, contradictions, half-truths and outright untruths in that programme to explain just how much damage he has done to the R3 cause by it.