Ed Stourton - ‘Posh Ed’ to vulgar hacks like Mr Blatherskite - was rudely sacked by Today the best part of a year ago as a way to find room for Justin Webb, the BBC’s Washington correspondent.
But Ed has been holding the fort on Today in August, mostly with Evan Davis who, as a non-family man, presumably doesn’t need to take holidays in the school holidays. Stourton, presumably, has to take what he’s given.
And very good he’s been too; Ed manages to coat the most trivial item with a degree of gravitas and good humour.
But what will happen to Stourton when Webb, who always seems rather pleased with himself, finally appears?
Will the craven producers of Today dare to team the now ‘holiday relief’ Ed with Webb?
Webb, who sounds a bit of a right-wing Bush follower in truth, wrote on his BBC blog that he’d recently bought himself a large second-hand American car in Swindon.
Well that won’t get him to the Today studios for 4 in the morning.
What sort of man is this?
3 Comments
Thank goodness John Humphreys is back…Ed & Evan are so bland never a demanding question is ever uttered by either of them!
Ed Stourton in stark contrast to the shrill & egotistical Humphreys actually listens and analyses what his interviewees say. He is a real journalist not a media personality. Evan Davis too is a pleasure to listen to - he does not harrangue - he thinks and responds accordingly. Viva the holiday team!
A rare treat for toff-spotters - Webb’s cosy chat with the earl’s niece Harriett Harman about deepening social injustice under New Labour (Today 27.1.10) as detailed in the government’s Unequal Britain report.
Both were privately educated at schools which charge just under the national average wage a year. Who better to sound the death knell of class division and privilege?
I asked Today editor Dominic Groves how many of the Today team had been similarly compromised by toff-schooling but he refused to say and became overly defensive. A raw nerve?
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