Steph says we're not being straight with you
| 15:24 UK time, Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Steph is a blogger who writes and she's not happy with us. The nub of her gripe is that we approached her to take part in a discussion on the show and that by soliciting guests in this way we are misleading those of you who listen to the show. , and there's also a reply from WHYS editor Mark Sandell towards the bottom of the page.
For my part I'd only say this. When I prepare to host the show I cluster the details of people who I know will be coming onto the programme into two sections. One I call 'guests'. This contains all the people we have invited onto the show - academics, experts, reporters, bloggers, radio hosts, WHYS regulars with an interest in the topic and so on. All of these people will be introduced with a full description of who they are and I never intend to give the impression that they have called. I'll often thank them for agreeing to come on the show.
Then I have a section called 'callers'. These are people (often some of you), who have emailed or called during the day and said 'Can I come on the show?'. To this list I add any one of you who calls during the programme. These are the people who I might thank on air for their call.
Steph is right that we must make it very clear when we have invited people on. But she's wrong to criticise us for asking people to come on air. We have never billed WHYS as a pure phone-in. It's an interactive news discussion programme. Some people are invited to take part, many more choose to take part.
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