Keeping it balanced
Impartial. The word is imprinted on the back of my Â鶹Éç pass as a daily reminder of one of the Corporation's most central values. How it's exercised can be a hot political potato as was proven yesterday when protesters held a peaceful demonstration in the foyer of Â鶹Éç Scotland's HQ here in Glasgow.
It's precisely that impartiality which precludes me - quite rightly - from commenting on not to broadcast the charity appeal for Gaza. However, you certainly had your say on today's Morning Extra and you can read more about the Â鶹Éç Director General's reasoning on The Editors Blog.
But the more general issue of impartiality is one that we come up against every day on Morning Extra. And - although I know it's hard to believe - I do sometimes get the odd complaint!
One recent respondent to our audience complaints line alleged that "Graham Stewart constantly interrupts callers, puts words in their mouths and presents a very un-balanced programme." And that was just my mother.
Truth is a phone-in isn't a free-for-all. Like any other part of Â鶹Éç output my role as a presenter is to try and balance the programme and, more often than not, that means challenging the views of our callers. As our editorial guidelines state: "we must rigorously test contributors expressing contentious views." OK, maybe not as rigorously as we would of an elected politician, but the principle still stands.
Take, for example, last Thursday's discussion about the from his employer after they had disciplined him for refusing to hand out leaflets at a gay pride march.
The overwhelming majority of our callers were supportive of the fire-fighters and many were hostile towards the gay community. We make no claims that those who phone us are representative of the population and therefore there is an onus on me to represent and argue on behalf of those whose views are not being heard.
Maybe that's why Jimmy in Ullapool emailed to accuse me of being "pro-gay". Having heard me continually arguing the counter-point to the prevailing opinion he clearly mistook balance for bias. But just like those email disclaimers say: 'The views expressed above are not necessarily those of Graham Stewart's.' What I think is, at the end of the day, irrelevant.
Morning Extra is about debate. So I will go on interrupting and challenging views where appropriate. Treat it like a conversation down the pub. Without the alcohol of course. One too many sherries and that prized impartiality goes out the window!
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