Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear Joan Bakewell,

Age discrimination is not exactly one of the most gripping political dilemmas in the modern era, yet its influence is still pervasive.  You attacked the BBC over the weekend for damaging the position of older women in society by exiling female news presenters, and it’s not often that the BBC is on the receiving end of such accusations.  Your criticisms have particular bite because you report to the Government as the official “voice of the elderly”.  

You claimed that greying female journalists would have to dye their hair to remain on television because of the corporation’s age bias.  “There are no grey-haired women on TV as there are grey-haired men.  It’s like they have all somehow died off.”  Your rebuke comes after newsreaders Moira Stuart, 59, and Anna Ford, 65, blamed discrimination for their forced departures.  The BBC has also received around 2,000 complaints about its decision to replace 66-year-old Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips with pop singer Alesha Dixon, 30.  You raised your concerns at a face-to-face meeting with Mr Thompson and said you hoped your intervention would bring about a change in BBC policy. “Television has this enormous influence and the lack of women over a certain age is damaging.  Women would inevitably feel they had to dye their hair to appear.”  In a separate ageism row, politicians and age campaigners rounded on the BBC after comments made by Emma Swain, who is responsible for commissioning television documentaries.  She reportedly told a meeting of independent producers that the BBC1 wanted more programmes aimed at young people, adding: “For example, we have a new arts series with a new presenter, not one of the silverbacks.”  Sir Menzies Campbell said her words reflected a cultutre of youth-obsession and shallow thinking at the BBC.  “Silverbacks are the elders of the tribe with experience and judgement.  If a few silverbacks had been around, then perhaps Jonathon Ross would not have got into quite so much trouble.”  Ms Swain insisted that her words were not meant to be derogatory, and the BBC said that female presenters still had a prominent role in its current affairs schedules.  A BBC spokeswoman said: “Kirsty Wark and Martha Kearney are regular presenters on BBC television and radio and we recently announced a new daytime BBC1 show about Britain’s rip off culture which will be hosted by Gloria Hunniford, Jennie Bond and Angela Rippon. Kate Adie and Sue Lawley also have major presenting roles on Radio 4.”

To be honest, you just have to flick on the 24-hour BBC News Channel to see a bunch of 20- or 30-something blonde females reading out the headlines.    Personally I suspect that the pressure placed on the BBC by Sky News made them look for ways to appeal to a large audience, but are they the only guilty ones?  I seem to recall that Natasha Kaplinski and Kirsty Young had a rather positive effect on viewing figures of the Channel Five news bulletins, while ITV lured Kirsty Young to their main bulletins as well – albeit for a brief period.  The BBC also have the likes of Kate Silverton on BBC Breakfast news just to *ahem* help men wake up in the morning.  While I appreciate that 24 hour news puts more demands on presenters, the same can hardly be said of the 6pm and 10pm bulletins.  Furthermore, I think an experienced newsreader has an air of authority about them that the latest young blonde will simply never achieve.  When dealing with war zones, murders, riots and goodness knows what else in the UK and around the world, I want someone who has dealt with these situations before and gives off a strong sense of professionalism.  I remember growing up and watching the BBC News with the same group of presenters reading out the news for years on end (Moira Stuart and Anna Ford were very much part of this group, along with the likes of Michael Buerk, Philip Hayton and several others).  They commanded respect and the sense of familiarity was, in my opinion, reassuring.  Now we have a constant churn of presenters and I very much agree that the BBC is more interested in getting a pretty face on our screens than they are in showing how important experienced presenters are.  I hardly think that putting a couple of older presenters on Radio 4 helps balance the scales either.

Like I said, I think all major broadcasters are guilty of similar behaviour but that doesn’t mean the BBC should stoop to their levels.  Long-standing programmes such as Countryfile on the BBC have also seen experienced presenters jettisoned for young ones for no discernible reason other than age discrimination and I simply do not see how anyone benefits from this.  I don’t watch the news to have a gawp at who is presenting it – I watch it to find out what is happening at home and abroad.  Sadly, unsavoury events take up a lot of time on the news and I think this deserves something better than a pseudo-popularity contest among broadcasters.  I hope Mark Thompson took your words very seriously, but I doubt it.  He is only interested in dumbing down the BBC as much as possible because the organisation doesn’t have a clue how to act as a public service broadcaster any more.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory