Samuel v Straw Man
Martin Samuel writes an awful lot of words in the
Daily Mail defending Match of the Day and its male whiteness, which is exactly what Mediawatch would expect of a white man who writes for a politically right-wing newspaper.
So no, we're not surprised that Samuel would defend Match of the Day. We're not even surprised by Samuel's use of this sentence about the BBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics: 'You could have shot a cannonball through the media hotel and not killed a brother.'
Mediawatch can barely muster any enthusiasiam for taking Samuel to task for suggesting that women's tennis players could not analyse a men's match because they would be utterly confused as soon as they entered a fourth set or that Robbie Savage's views carry weight simply because he has played football. Samuel is a white man writing for other white men - he's preaching to a choir who is already singing his tune.
But what we will do is question why he felt the need to launch a defence of Match of the Day's white maleness at all.
Ah, it's here right here in the second paragraph of 35: 'Match of the Day is under siege again, but this time the enemy is within.
'Danny Cohen, BBC director of television, thinks there should always be a black panellist. Charlotte Moore, controller of BBC1, says women should have a regular role. Unless she plans on sacking Gary Lineker, that can only mean on the famous sofa.'
Let's take a quick look at what Danny Cohen and Charlotte Moore actually said...
Cohenisrael: "If we have five people on a panel show, it shouldn't be five white men. I think the same thing of Match Of The Day. It's a very diverse sport and it shouldn't be like that."
Moore: "I would like a woman as a regular."
Samuel calls it 'death by quota' but read those quotes again and spot where either Cohen or Moore suggests a quota. One (Cohen) quite rightly believes that a sport with 20% black participation on the pitch should - not will - have closer to 20% black participation in the TV studio and the other (Moore) simply says what she would 'like' to see. No quotas are mentioned, never mind demanded.