If you’re a regular listener to The Richie Allen Radio Show, then you’ll no doubt have heard me pine for the days when thought-provoking, intellectual debate was commonplace on radio and television.
The 1970’s and 1980’s were halcyon days for free speech. Talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic provided viewers with nuanced and balanced discussions of the issues of the day and it seemed that every side of an argument was given a platform.
The presenters were brilliant. The guests and the topics took centre stage. The host’s job was to ensure that participants received equal time and to keep discussions on point.
Most of the time, presenters kept their opinions to themselves.
It was left to the viewer to determine who had made the more persuasive argument.
Terms like hate speech were unthinkable.
Back then, a guest would not have gotten away with accusing an opponent of hatred. They had to play the ball, not the man as it were. You had to defeat his argument. Audiences were not stupid.
The late night and daytime talk shows of the 1970’s and 1980’s are sorely missed. They provided a vital public service. They spoke to everyone. They spoke for everyone.
Enoch Powell is back in the news this week. Fr. Calvin Robinson, a presenter on GB News, blogged that Powell wasn’t the hateful racist that history suggests.
Robinson said that former Health Minister Powell made an important contribution to the conversation around immigration.
Unsurprisingly, the Twitterati swarmed all over Robinson who is of mixed-race heritage and was recently ordained.
It’s taken 40 years to destroy the broadcast media.
Reasonable, rational, nuanced, intellectual debate has been replaced by 240 characters on a social media site, where an anonymous user can hurl accusations and abuse at anyone while calling for their cancellation.
The accused cannot insist that the accuser take on his argument or his thesis. It is truly wretched. It is democracy destroying.
God how I miss the days when public figures couldn’t get away with personal attacks on their opponents.
They had to make an argument and the talk shows provided them with the platform.
I don’t know if Enoch Powell was racist or not and I wouldn’t dream of trying to convince my listeners one way or the other.
Dick Cavett asked the questions and let his viewers decide for themselves.
The clip below is edited out of a longer segment. Cavett moderates a debate between Enoch Powell and the director Jonathan Miller.
It’s fantastic.
There is nothing like it today.
We’re the poorer for it.
