Friday, November 22, 2024

Carol Vorderman: People no longer trust BBC after Huw Edwards scandal

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Finally, the presenter took aim at the departure of the BBC chairman Richard Sharp over questions about the former Goldman Sachs banker’s role in Boris Johnson, the prime minister at the time, obtaining an £800,000 loan guarantee.

She also claimed that she was “sacked” by the corporation with “no conversation to be had” after it introduced new social media guidelines with which she did not agree.

Speaking about the state of the TV industry at the media event, Ms Vorderman said it was “a mess” and cited Ofcom figures that she said showed the “current decimation of broadcast television”.

Viewers aged between 45 and 54 have also begun to turn away from linear television, with viewing rates in the age group falling from 89 per cent to 84 per cent in a single year.

Vorderman, who now hosts a Sunday show on LBC radio, added: “Politics, arrogance, snobbery, leads to disillusionment. They are all inextricably linked.

“The rich and powerful corrupting politics, the upper-middles taking broadcast for themselves, the increasingly absurd Right-wing newspaper headlines being promoted by political programmes. What has this got to do with class? Everything, literally everything.

“After 14 years of austerity and lying by the privileged political class, this country is in an absolute mess and the TV industry must accept part of the responsibility for that too, including the riots.”

The engineering graduate, who grew up in poverty in Wales, said “working-class people feel they are not represented, their situation is not represented, the lack of opportunities and lack of money and jobs is not represented”.

She added: “Our industry is an industry of snobbery: regional snobbery, class snobbery and educational snobbery, and don’t even get me started on the political issues.”

‘I’m not beholden to anybody’

Speaking after her standing ovation after delivering the Alternative MacTaggart lecture, Ms Vorderman explained that she has felt emboldened to be outspoken on political issues in recent years because she is not “beholden” to any corporation anymore.

Asked how she was not afraid of backfire from her opinions, she said: “I think it’s about feeling that freedom, but I would say I’m knocking on 64 now, so I’ve had my career in that sense, I’m not beholden to anybody.”

The presenter also criticised the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s appearance on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, claiming it contributed towards “normalising” his views.

“Nigel Farage on I’m A Celebrity, ‘oh Nigel is just Nigel, nothing to do with me’ – what planet is that person on who thinks that?” she asked.

Earlier in the festival, ITV’s managing director Kevin Lygo defended Mr Farage’s time on the show.

“The audience is smart enough to make up their own mind. Honestly, it wasn’t meant to offend anyone,” he said.

Ms Vorderman added that “bad actors are manipulating the fact that mainstream media may not speak the language of the working class”.

She said: “I hope the whole of this year’s TV festival has really made you consider your own perceptions and that you ask yourself questions about class and opportunity, and the responsibility you hold in the future of this country.”

She has increasingly turned to political activism, including criticising the previous Conservative government, and is due to publish her book Out of Order: What’s Gone Wrong with Britain and One Woman’s Mission to Fix It, in September.

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