Veteran BBC presenter Michael Buerk has said that he fears for the future of his Radio 4 show “The Moral Maze.” Buerk believes that the content of the programme is becoming increasingly “woke.”
Buerk has presented the show, which discusses ethical issues, for over 30 years. Writing in The Radio Times this week he claimed:
“It survives, even prospers, despite the temper of the times. In the wider world — and in some parts of the BBC — more and more is being put off limits, things that cannot be said. Freedom of speech is seriously under threat.”
He acknowledged that as a result of this, “The Moral Maze” is “less abrasive” than it used to be:
“We used to pride ourselves that it was a programme on which ‘the unsayable gets said’. There were no holds barred, the audience were grown-ups and didn’t need protecting from views they might not like. The arguments weren’t curated or choreographed, and they didn’t need censoring because the whole point of the programme was to test them to destruction.”
Buerk places the blame squarely at the feet of the social media giants. He argues that sites such as Twitter are encouraging people to think that those with opposing views are not just wrong, but evil. He says that this is “poisoning public discourse.”