For reasons that seem quite bizarre in a modern context, there was a curious public debate which dragged on for nearly three decades in Britain on the topic of nationalisation of the steel industry; if you thought the Brexit or fox hunting debate seemed endless, you’ve not heard of steel nationalisation!
One side of the debate took the view that steel companies run as private enterprise businesses, as they’d done since the inception of the industry, should just continue doing so (the rogues!); the other side, the socialists, took the view that creating a single, government-owned steel company would enable central planning and result in enormous profitability. OK, I just burst out laughing, too, dear reader.
In retrospect it does seem rather odd how long this political debate raged on, and the surprisingly large percentage of the British population who had an opinion on it. That so many folk genuinely thought socialism was the road to riches showed how successful the left-wing con game had been – before it ran out of other people’s money.
For around 35 years Britain’s top television current affairs interviewer was a man called Robin Day. He basically pioneered the ‘hard-hitting’ television interview in the 1950s, eventually becoming a kind of national institution with his interviews of numerous people and he investigated a huge range of topics during his long broadcasting career. In this country Paul Holmes (who vaguely resembled Robin Day) apparently consciously modelled his evening TV show on Day and his interview style.
On election night 1964 the Labour party narrowly won; albeit their majority in parliament was a mere four seats – far fewer than they had expected. Day interviewed various Labour politicians on election night, querying whether such a majority was sufficient to implement some of their policies, such as steel nationalisation. One of those he interviewed was Tony Benn, later to become an extreme left winger, but in those days fairly centrist in his views.
During the exchange, Day asked Benn whether Labour would be prepared to drop steel nationalisation and other “doctrinaire measures”; Benn’s response was to criticise the use of the term ‘doctrinaire’ and say to Day, “I know what you mean but I think you’re wrong.”
Day immediately pounced, saying, “I was trying to find out what you mean, I wasn’t putting forward a point of view.”
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxD8iW7JyIP7K13vzVTWi4HHIn1_l0kQiV
Isn’t that so different to today?
These days, whether you watch comedy shows such as Seven Sharp or The Project, socialist party infomercials like Newshub Nation or Q&A with Jack Tame or other shows such as Tucker Carlson Tonight (I am Tucker’s biggest fan, by the way), all you get are the endless opinions from the host – often passed off as the ‘news’ (which in the case of thoroughly mindless people of the Kanoa Lloyd variety is usually just… embarrassing).
Think of the last guest/interview you saw on one of these shows: can you recall anything the guest actually said?
How professional it used to be when compared with today; how sad it is to think things really have degenerated rather than improved. How wistful it must make many people who remember the professionalism that used to exist in television current affairs.
It also raises the obvious question of ‘What happened?’ or even ‘Can we have professional broadcasters leaving their own viewpoints at the door once again?’