New BBC R4 ‘Today’ presenter is “home-made contraptions” Husain

Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph we learn that BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme is to have a new presenter in the autumn.

“There have been increasing calls for more female voices on Today, whose male hosts currently outnumber women by four to one. […]

The previous year, its then editor Ceri Thomas faced criticism after suggesting that female journalists did not have a thick enough skin to deal with the programme’s “incredibly difficult” environment.”

Perhaps that explains the choice of Mishal Husain for the position – although thick skinned may not be the appropriate description for a presenter who just last November suggested that not enough Israelis had been killed by “home-made contraptions” fired from the Gaza Strip. In fact, the adjectives which come to mind when watching the way in which Husain conducts the interview below are ‘rude’, ‘condescending’, ‘badgering’ and ‘bullying’.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_gs7igC5siY]

Are BBC audiences to understand that those are the qualities which the corporation considers will enhance adherence to editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality in its flagship current affairs programme? 

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