Tom Bradbury looks down the camera at you, this isn’t some stuffy news anchor reading the events of the day in plummy tones, this is your mate Tom having a chat, discussing the events of the day.
Tom speaks to you “as if things in America and the Trump administration havnt been crazy enough, they have gone to a whole new level tonight” now here is the thing, he is probably not wrong however what he has done in that clever opening line is done your thinking for you, he has moved from someone presenting the facts in neutral scenes to someone who draws you into a narrative on his terms.
Something has happened in the last few years in the way we consume the news, we have moved from the straight laced no nonsense delivery of the news personified by the likes of Sir Trevor McDonald to a far more magazine gonzo version, Sir Trevor for one has reservations on this
“I’m glad what I did was fairly straight. I’m not sure how capable or comfortable I’d be about expressing too much of my own view. I always felt that the News was the thing. You were just the guy who brought it in.”
Another form of journalism Sir Trevor does not subscribe to is the antagonistic style adapted by the likes of Jeremy Paxmanand Jonathon Humphries. Sir Trevor argues than a more conciliatory and softly spoken interview often produces better results.
The latest Media figure to go this particular route is a certain Mr Piers Morgan, now I feel like when I was a teenager and I discovered the new exciting band only for them to then get popular and I resenting the fact everyone else has ‘discovered’ them. That is in the context that I have always found Morgan’s angry man persona very superficial and annoying. I suppose when he is sprouting off about subjects you agree with its more palatable than when he is not.
What has been noticeable is the new approach to TV journalism and achieved two things, it has been popular encouraging people to engage once more but it has also resulted in a lack of trust in the media (which was happening for years among the print press) to filter into the TV channels. It is difficult to say whether this has been a result of the dumbing down or the arrival of social media which makes everyone feel more important and informed than they actually are. It has also allowed us to divide into tribes and only receive messages that stimulate us. Messages we agree with and feel comfortable with. In one sense that is why
Back to Tom again he looks at me and gives me that knowing smile as if we both have an awareness of what we have seen, with a half wink he smiles “ wow, amazing wasn’t it” and there it is, my mind is made up.
I miss Sir Trevor McDonald