Recap of BBC Show, as promised to TMV readers earlier.
I was on a BBC radio show today as a blogger from The Moderate Voice.
The issue of the day there was (still), “Should Hillary Clinton quit?”
As a sign of intense international interest in the Obama-Clinton primary race, the BBC has been airing many opinion shows about the elections.
This one segment of one particular show today was just a few minutes of discussion on that topic.
There were, in those few moments on air, lots of emails flying, listener-phone callers… also, about 7 passionate bloggers on the long distance lines too at the same time… and a well-spoken BBC reporter on site at Clinton headquarters in West Virginia.
The BBC show was what I would call ‘a scattershot of opinions,’ wherein as one of the many guests, you sort of get called on by the radio host, as in school, to give your briefest .02 worth… the question itself pressuring for a yes or no response with some details of support.
There’s no time, really, ‘to question the question’… and it would have been bad form on my part, disrespectful of the host and all the planning that went into this segment… but I wanted to ask, “But, is this the right question?” or, “What is behind this question?”
I do hope that’ll be another show though that will cover such ideas. I think we need opinions. But also, like any living entity, we need routes into far larger ideas too.
Quicker vs. Deeper
I note, and certainly not just in this segment at the BBC, that radio guests cannot respond nor interact with one or two other persons, as one would in an actual conversation.
So, the talk-fest is almost like a subliminal/ fast slide-show of opinings, valuable in an instant-snapshot-of-the-culture montage way. Yet, it cannot– as a true conversation in depth would– provoke or catalyze thoughtful grasp and grappling with deeper issues… the latter, I think, adds value to listeners’ shorter-term ‘right/wrong’ and yes/ no/maybe judgments re election issues.
In such important cultural discussions, just to coin a metaphor, I wish for a flowering plant with roots. Rather than just a cutting and gathering of the roses as one may. Both beautiful forms. But, one has far more longevity.
Yet, the radio show was interesting nonetheless, and the male radio host was snappy and energetic. The woman reader of emails on-air was very expressive in tone of voice, lending a theatrical air to listener’s emails. And, the people who are this show’s producers are good-natured, smart, and gentlemanly to the bone.
Though I’ve been on radio many times over these years, at length, and as the sole guest… I’m sincerely appreciative of being asked on today… even though I’m not sure they’ll ever ask me back again… as I interposed a bit, on air, that the sterner stuff voters are made of is very similar to the Brit’s “sterner stuff,” e.g., any politician or citizen being told to ‘get off’ never worked very well with much of anyone, Brits or Americans… not in olden times nor in our times…
And, still and yet, I don’t know, I’ve been called ‘a h of a stubborn woman’ by some… Still, in terms of a deeper reflection re what has become in media, the hypertrophic “Ought Hillary Quit?” question… well, I long for something additional, something more …
(see a different take on the ubiquitous question, ‘Should Hillary quit?” next article down)