granted I am not your mother, but I feel like my timeline every morning is now a lot of you getting angry about the Today Programme, and may I suggest to you - merely suggest! - simply not listening to the Today Programme
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
I stopped about 15 years ago as the serenity of my early mornings was not being improved by the uncontrollable urge to push John Humphrys’ head into a bucket of pigswill.
We gave up on Today (for R6) after the US election, but the rot began during Brexit IMHO. Even Times Radio is better (and I’m prog/left). Seems like there’s a gap in the market for a serious centre-left news channel (non phone-in) that rises above/ignores the MAGA/Reform/clickbaity nonsense.
I stopped a while ago. I can just about bear ten minutes of Radio 4’s Six o’Clock News, but it is painfully obvious the extent to which BBC reporting in general is driven by cost.
I am now going to get - not angry at but bewildred by - the Today Programme: an item about BP referred to the company's activities in something called the "Gulf of America". Where might this place be? Is this now standard BBC usage or just particular to @radio4.bsky.social?
Radio 3. Though I do sometimes worry they would wait for the end of that lovely Bach cantata before telling us Russian missiles were heading for London.
Problem is there is very little BBC output worth watching/listening to anymore. With Spotify, Netflix, Prime, Apple TV etc - rarely consume anything from BBC now
If you need to listen to something, I can recommend @gaydio.bsky.social. You don't have to be gay to listen and it's a much brighter start to your day.
Humphrys destroyed my love of the Today programme in 2016. I still recall pushing our youngest about in her pram, going here and there, our dog at my side, one earbud in listening to the radio...grinding my teeth at the sheer scale of irresponsibility in the reporting of Brexit...and...switched off.
I only listen occasionally now, but when I did the bits I always preferred were Mishal Husain's interviews. The way she quietly skewered her subjects, even those I agreed with, was a joy to listen to.
When we lived in London there was a period of about 2 years where Andrew had it as our alarm and it was honestly the worst. John Humphrys and Nick Robinson used to invade my dreams
My trick was to have it on the other side of the bedroom. No matter how snuggly the duvet, after 3 minutes I had to get up to turn the JH or worse, Naughty, off.
I stopped listening during the run up to Brexit when it used to make me so annoyed. Same experience when I've occasionally dipped in. In the meantime I've developed an inability to listen to any audio that I haven't chosen. I can't do that thing of them deciding what they are going to talk about.
Since I’ve basically stopped listening to Radio Four, I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube, and by subbing to news channels, political commentators, science communicators, specialist creators etc I basically curate my own news shows full of real experts and not R4s Rolodex of the same old hacks.
In an embarrassing admittance of my nerdiness faves include: Dr Becky, Scott Manley, Cool Worlds, Oceanliner Designs, Forrest Valkai, Techmoan, Mustard, Simon Caine, Slidebean, Strange Parts, 8-Bit Guy, TLDR-News, Tom Scott, Veritasium, Vsauce, Tom Nicholas, Dalek 63•88, Majority Report, News Agents
I've managed to keep my YouTube politics free, basically by dismissing anything which has politics in it. It's a smorgasboard of travel videos, classic movies, car reviews and campervans which is pretty restful TBH.
I thought it was only me that did this, the audio bit, strangely it was Talk sport specifically Darren Gough on the long drive home from work that tipped me over that edge
Even if they wrote to me personally demonstrating that they'd cured the BBC news and politics of populist framing, I could not listen to unpredictable, chosen by them, radio ever again.
The Today programme has been a lost cause for a number of years now. A once-essential round up of the days news has deteriorated into a superficial and completely disposable waste of airtime.
When I stopped listening, I know it didn’t have very high listening figures but it was a flagship BBC programme because politicians and political reporters listened to it.
I decided to leave them all to talk amongst themselves!
The end of the Today programme might mean the end of the UK. Lord Hennessy told me that if British nuclear submarine commanders cannot pick up the Today programme for 5 days in a row, the UK is defined as no longer existing, so they are to break open their sealed orders and act accordingly.
People will listen to three-hour podcasts on things they care about. Today should be doing 20 or 30 minute long-form conversations with people that actually let them expand on ideas. Then quick bulletins.
You’re right. I relapsed after nearly 2 years. Time to revert listening only to the 5.30am* 15 minute news briefing (headlines, business news, what the newspapers are saying) followed by blissful radio 3
*on the Sounds app, obv, this isn’t one of those “get up early to rule the world” things
😂 Fair point! I guess no one channel is perfect, and it depends critically on interviewers. I do channel switch depending on who is presenting, and don't mind too much if they have different political views, but interview in an open style. There are some I cannot listen to (Nick Ferrari!)
@bbc5live.bsky.social is for me, @rachelburden.bsky.social and @rickedwards1.bsky.social get the balance spot on between news and a bit of levity (they can both interview better than those on Today too)
Get the hell out with that common sense stuff you radical loon this is the internet dammit theres no place for that kind of balanced and reasoned comment here
I can do that. Although I long abandoned R4 I still listen to R3 a lot and it drives me mad how much they advertise themselves to you. I'm already here! I'm already listening! If I wasn't I wouldn't even hear the advert for R3 on R3! OMFG. *Possible to be mad anywhere. lol.
There are so many much healthier and more enjoyable options than the Today Programme as well: I just wake up and stub my toe really hard on a door or piece of furniture instead!
I mean any news is painful right now. The problem with radio & tv news as opposed to print/websites/social streams is you can’t skip past the stories you don’t want..
I don’t really see the problem with it. But I rarely listen to it all morning. Sometimes I’ll catch a story or two on there and flip to radio 3 or 6. Sometimes I stick an album on. Or sometimes I just have quiet.
This is excellent advice! I used to listen 10-15 years ago (partly because it seemed like the grown up thing to do), but I got so depressed by the false balance and devil’s advocacy around the brexit referendum/fallout, climate change etc. that I switched allegiance to 6Music. Much nicer.
Made this change during the Brexit years because it was giving me a headache. I now sit quietly and drink tea and think hateful, dreadful thoughts all of my own and I'm much happier
Stopped listening to Today and wider Radio 4 around the bad Brexit years when it was clear the reporting and interviewing was somewhat partisan & lacking rigour. Likewise Question Time since Dimbleby stepped down. Now it’s mostly LBC radio and only R4 comedy & science podcasts on BBC Sounds for me
Can I recommend FIP Radio from France? Great mix of music, very few interruptions, and the announcements (always about music) are en francaise. Perfectement! https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip
I had to change my clock radio to Radio 3 from Radio 4 as being woken up every morning by me saying "Oh, for fuck's sake" in response to the headlines was getting a little wearing for my wife.
Like many commenting, switched to R3 around 5 years ago. Much better start to the day. In fact i mostly just listen to R3 now, plus a few R4 comedy and science progs. And a bit of R6.
I did this a few years back when I got sick of John Humphries astonishment that anyone would be interested or skilled in anything that he didn't know about (a large field)
Likewise Bookclub. My most masochisticly pleasurable moment being when he insisted the Hitchhiker's Guide was a satire of the genre despite Douglas Adams's protestations to the contrary. 🤔
Stanislaw Lem agreed with him. About US SF at any rate. Except Dick, who he rated highly. Notwithstanding that a stoned Dick had denounced Lem to the FBI as a product of some communist collective.
I've been thinking about this and I struggle to think of an SF trope that gets parodied in HHGTTG - a few things in the margins (green monsters, kill-o-zap guns, maybe able fish) but hyperspace bypasses, improbability drives, and tea?
I’m old enough to remember Brian Redhead and pretty much grew up with Today in the morning. Stopped c. 2014. Ditto QT during Brexit and Mock the Week around the time of the Miliband Mockery (bacon bun, kitchens, pledge stela).
FT News briefing works for me. 10 minutes, v civilised, job done. Then Andrew Marr on LBC in the evening for the deeper dives and interviews. Lovely jubbly
I genuinely don't understand why anyone would voluntarily listen to something so anger-inducing first thing in the morning. Mindless comedy is the only way - and thus Chris Moyles.
Great thread. I laughed.
Thanks to all who contributed. 🙏
I’ve given up on journalists asking antagonistic questions about complex issues & want binary answers & explanations. The world may be like that but I don’t need it in my kitchen in the morning.
I stopped for a while, then starting listening again a little on commute. But only a couple of days a week. Immediately switched to a different station whenever a politician came on. Felt just about the right level of informed from my 2 days a week.
Well, many of us are recidivists. We have been listening for decades. It was once - with caveats - worth listening to, if only to get a baseline. I stopped a few years ago, but I understand why others persist. Similar conflicts of loyalty afflict other sources e.g. Guardian (which I also quit).
Same, and Question Time as well. Both were good quality products, but fell off a cliff during Brexit. No interest in finding out whether there has been any improvement or not.
Might I suggest Gardeners’ Question Time instead? The height of rage bait if you have opinions on whether to transplant snowdrops when they’re in the green or not
People do like something to be cross about -I stopped listening during indy ref because they were so infuriatingly partisan in the name of being even handed (I'm am still cross about the smug waste of licence fee but not first thing in the morning)
There was a bit of a bumpy transition from the "dream team" of Martha Kearney and Mishal Husain (best double act on the radio) but I am warming to the new cast now.
I stopped listening to it during and following the post-Referendum Brexit shenanigans and have never really gone back. Nick Robinson’s style of “interviewing” didn’t help either, I must admit.
Stopped listening to the Today programme 10 years ago. Now it's entirely podcasts, World Service Global News for the news, tons of others for commentary. Today stopped being useful (or pleasant) years ago.
I don't. But as I always have BBC Radio 3 playing I have noticed a decrease in my anger at what used to be very biased selection and phrasing of the thankfully short headline news on there. Much improved in balance, tone and coverage lately.
Comments
Actually, now I think about it, sounds pretty good to me
As requested 🙂
But I would really like a format where the people involved actually had an intelligent conversation, not just talk over each other
Spiderman meme.gif
Although Radio 2 then kicks in and I’m not sure how many more Scott Mills Eastenders updates I can stand.
The editors and the wider BBC do not seem to understand that at least the latter is a problem.
Today Show? Radio 4? Not so much ...
I decided to leave them all to talk amongst themselves!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tmr6
*on the Sounds app, obv, this isn’t one of those “get up early to rule the world” things
*Radio 3, that's what.
I used to get my hair cut in Douglas Adams old office. I presume he had a bath installed.
Another thoughtful institution discredited.
(Question Time, also).
😁
Having something make you furious before you've even got out of bed is not ideal.
World Service World News twice daily podcast wins every time.
Thanks to all who contributed. 🙏
I’ve given up on journalists asking antagonistic questions about complex issues & want binary answers & explanations. The world may be like that but I don’t need it in my kitchen in the morning.