Justin Webb warns BBC presenters not to sound gleeful in interviews

Radio 4 host Justin Webb warns BBC presenters not to sound gleeful during interviews

Justin Webb said presenters should have ‘guile’ to disguise excitement at setting news agenda
Host of Radio 4’s Today said that listeners can mistake it for expressing opinions
Revelations in a Today interview contributed to collapse in confidence in the PM

BBC presenters need to be ‘cautious about sounding enthusiastic’ when interviewing, Justin Webb has said.

The host of Radio 4’s Today programme, pictured, said they should have the ‘guile’ to disguise excitement at setting the news agenda as listeners can mistake it for expressing opinions.

He told Radio 4’s Feedback show: ‘We do need to be aware that our enthusiasm for doing our job well doesn’t bleed across into a kind of enthusiasm that sounds as if we’re just desperately keen that whatever happens next, happens quickly and on our watch because that’s not our business.’

The host of Radio 4’s Today programme, pictured, said they should have the ‘guile’ to disguise excitement at setting the news agenda as listeners can mistake it for expressing opinions

Webb’s comments were in response to a listener who claimed presenters showed a ‘note of unsuppressed glee as ‘the situation became more difficult for Boris Johnson’ in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.

Revelations in a Today interview contributed to a collapse in confidence in the PM.

Another listener said they hoped that ‘BBC reporters and commentators won’t in their excitement and enthusiasm for having a ringside seat during such dramas lose sight of the fact that, for many or most of us, such turmoil and instability is at best unsettling and at worst deeply worrying rather than exciting’.

Mr Webb, 61, referenced Today’s last minute interview with Lord MacDonald, who revealed that Mr Johnson had been briefed in person about a probe into a formal complaint of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by Mr Pincher while at the Foreign Office in 2019.

Mr Webb said: ‘I was very pleased he was doing it at ten past eight, the prime spot, and wasn’t doing anyone else not because of a foolish competitive reason. I hope my excitement wasn’t communicated because it shouldn’t be in any circumstances.

‘We do live for these things, but the listeners are also right. We should have the guile to hide it when the moment comes because it’s not what they want to hear and why would it be… it’s quite right we notice that.’

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