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This week's newsletter is written by Producer, David Hass:
It held on solidly throughout the February primaries, but by early Spring, the vote for my Christmas poll idea, Who Keeps Leaving The Milk Out On Top Of The Fridge So It Creams Up And Then On The Dot Of Four Just Before The Afternoon Editorial Meeting Goes Sour had turned to mush. The people who write the captions on the website had objected, citing font sizes and kerning and horizontal wrapping and throwing their flowcharts in the air. In the end everyone piled into 'Who Runs Britain.' The whole thing has the whiff of a cover-up which though sinister is still not as bad as the milk.
Collective responsibility rules, so dissenters to the final decision were told to toe the line or be sent on the coldest assignment on earth. Which is why I ended up with Edward Stourton in Montreal for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. In a masterstroke by the UN’s Office of Ironic Relief, negotiations over what to do about the very real and present threat of man-made global warming were held in a city blistered by minus 15°C conditions, carpeted in snow and black ice.
Partly out of spite, but mainly for a bet, Ed interviewed a rubber duck as the main guest in the key slot on Saturday. It was but one highlight of the coverage. Margaret Beckett’s seminar on the rhythm of international deal-making was recorded minutes after the chief American climate negotiator, Dr Harlan Watson had stormed out of talks in a puff of smoke over how to define a duck. Later, two eminent scientists debated the uncertainties surrounding the science of climate change. We wondered whether the weight of coverage tended to unfairly blame the Americans for everything wrong with the world, and when the criticism piled up from US Mayors, writer Ross Gelbspan and Stephen Byers, it may have seemed that way.
But by all accounts the Americans held the key, or the ring, or the duck, in these negotiations, even those in which they were not directly involved. Incidentally, despite repeated requests the entire U.S. delegation declined to be interviewed. In the final hours, America fell into line more or less as predicted by Mrs Beckett, and dozens of other deals were gavelled, leading Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth to regard it as a huge moment, the culmination of fifteen years of effort. Yet there is about what was actually achieved.
A significant swathe of the public, given the choice, like nothing more than to vote for someone called Thatcher. Thank goodness Today didn’t fall for the trap, like many other so-called news programmes, of dressing up entertainment as news and interviewing Carol about her jungle exploits. Oh, I see that we did. I heard Carol’s first few words on the wind-powered crystal set in Montreal and then the crankshaft must have overheated or the bracing northerly dropped as there was a sudden hissing sound and it went dead.
It took a day or so to get it running again, and when we did, we heard someone proudly declare, "We hold to no journalistic principle". We assumed Feedback had moved quickly to grill the Today editor over the Thatcher affair, but it turned out that Daily Show presenter Jon Stewart was explaining to Jeremy Cooke how being the main source of news for American 18-24 year olds does not imply any responsibility to be accurate or fair, just funny. It was a piece that this week sat comfortably alongside some first rate radio reportage from Michael Buchanan, Angus Crawford and Tom Brook.
The most fascinating interviewee of the past few days was not Jack Straw, nor was it David Cameron. It was undoubtedly Gordon Brown. Most fascinating of all was his remark that the thing that made him feel younger than anything was the act of being woken up at 4 am by his two-year old son. We felt fortunate if somewhat surprised to have got through all three of these without John using the phrase ‘ghastly dehumanised moron’, but we felt too soon.
As far as the big poll question is concerned, the answer is obviously John. Leaving the milk out, I mean.
David Hass
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