Outrageous fortune
She’s done it again. Julie Burchill’s rant on the Today Programme was meant to be centred around the politics of food but ended up being a rant about just about everything she judged to be ‘middle classed’. Burchill, a woman who sounds like she converses in red top headlines, was the most entertaining thing on that morning.
But not necessarily in a good way. She went on to explain that, if I understood it properly, most middle-classed people were stupid and that dyslexia was simply an excuse for this stupidity. Her rationale for this theory was that “most of the ones I know are.”
Although this minor outburst (rather unrelated to the topic in hand it has to be said) had the unusual effect of leaving John Humphrys speechless, giving airtime to someone who is not an expert in dyslexia (or anything, one might argue) and has based their views purely on “the people I know” only served to downgrade the programme’s authority when it comes to serious issues. Indeed, Today Programme bloggers and emailers went into frantic activity after this item and the next day the real experts on dyslexia had to be given a hearing.
Editorial content should always be unexpected and interesting and (controversially) too much PR ‘preening’ of spokespeople can actually result in very dull interviews. Julie Burchill has made a very successful career out of trying to be outrageous. But then again, if I’d wanted to hear a shock jock I probably wouldn’t be listening to the Today Programme. Stick to the truly informed spokespeople please.