Rod Liddle (born 1960) is a controversial British journalist best known for his term as editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... Today, sometimes referred to as the Today programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4s long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, which is now broadcast from 6am to 9am from Monday to Friday and from 7am to 9am on Saturdays. ...

Liddle was born in South London but brought up in Nunthorpe, Teesside. He was educated at Laurence Jackson comprehensive school in Guisborough (also Teesside), and while there formed a punk band called "Dangerbird" with some friends. He attended the London School of Economics. Liddle was a member of the Socialist Workers Party in his youth but worked between 1983 and 1987 for the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet. He then returned to journalism. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Nunthorpe is a small suburb to the town of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. ... Arms of the County Borough of Teesside Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in northern England based on Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar, along the banks of the River Tees with a resident population of over 388,000 in 2005. ... Laurence Jackson was a Scottish curler. ... Map sources for Guisborough at grid reference NZ6115 Guisborough is a small market town near Middlesbrough in North East England, part of the administrative county of Redcar and Cleveland. ... It has been suggested that LSE Computer Security Research Centre be merged into this article or section. ... The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is the largest political party of the far left in England[citation needed]. It sees itself as standing in the revolutionary socialist tradition. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... The Shadow Cabinet (also called the Shadow Front Bench) is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition (or the leader of other smaller opposition parties) form an alternative cabinet to the governments, whose...

His early journalistic experience was with the South Wales Echo in Cardiff where he was a general news reporter and, for a time, the rock and pop writer. Liddle was appointed editor of the Today programme in 1998, having previously been deputy editor. Today was known for its political interviews, but Liddle's approach was to use the programme to 'break' new stories. To this end he hired journalists from outside the BBC, who critics claimed were not as familiar with the BBC's reporting culture and guidelines. Among the most controversial was Andrew Gilligan, who joined from the Sunday Telegraph in 1999. Gilligan's 29 May 2003 report on Today began a chain of events that led to the Hutton inquiry. Gilligan's reporting was criticized by Lord Hutton in his report and by a BBC Panorama documentary. The South Wales Echo is the top-selling evening newspaper in Wales. ... Andrew Gilligan Andrew Paul Gilligan (born 22 November 1968, Teddington, Middlesex, England) is a journalist best known for his report, while defence and diplomatic correspondent for BBC Radio 4s The Today Programme, about the British Governments dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hutton Inquiry was a British judicial inquiry chaired by Lord Hutton, appointed by the British government to investigate the death of a government weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly. ... Panorama is a long-running current affairs documentary series on BBC television, launched on 11 November 1953 and focusing on investigative journalism. ...

Under Liddle's editorship Today won a number of UK radio awards - a Sony Silver in 2002 for reports by Barnie Choudhury and Mike Thomson into the causes of race riots in the north of England; a Sony Bronze in 2003 for an investigation by Angus Stickler into paedophile priests; and an Amnesty International Media Award in 2003 for Gilligan's investigation into the sale of illegal landmines. The Sony Radio Academy Awards (the Sonys), started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. ... Amnesty International symbol Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) comprising a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.[1] Essentially it compares actual practices of human rights with internationally accepted standards and demands compliance where these have not...

In addition to his work on the Today programme, Liddle wrote a column under his own name for The Guardian newspaper. On September 25, 2002, he titled his column 'Marching back to Labour': making reference to a march organized by the Countryside Alliance in defence of fox hunting, Liddle wrote that readers may have forgotten why they voted Labour but would remember once they saw the people campaigning to save hunting. The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The Countryside Alliance strongly opposes House of Commons plans to ban fox hunting. ... A fox hunt Fox hunting is a form of hunting for foxes using a pack of scent hounds. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ...

The BBC considered this unacceptably partisan and gave Liddle an ultimatum either to end his column or resign. Liddle resigned on 30 September 2002. With Kate Silverton he went on to present BBC2 political show Weekend, BBC4's The Talk Show. He also continued to write for The Guardian, wrote a book of short stories entitled Too Beautiful for You, became a team captain on Call My Bluff and also took a job as Associate Editor at The Spectator. He now also writes a weekly column for The Sunday Times. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... Kate Silverton presents BBC Breakfast on BBC One and News 24. ... Call My Bluff is a British game show between two teams of three contestants. ... This article is about the British weekly magazine: there are articles on several other magazines called The Spectator such as Addison and Steeles influential literary magazine, The Spectator (1711), and the others can be found at The Spectator (disambiguation). ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ...

He defended Andrew Gilligan in the media during the Hutton inquiry.

In 2004 his personal life was the subject of much comment when he cut short his honeymoon to return to London so he could be with his mistress Alicia Monckton (a receptionist at The Spectator); his marriage ended in a swift divorce. His philandering was dramatized in Toby Young's play Who's The Daddy?. Some opinions in his columns have sometimes brought controversy: he once said that cigarettes were not as bad for you as doctors and nurses, and that he thought Geordies were like "monkeys and morons". There is traditional rivalry between Tyneside and the Teesside where Liddle was raised, and he frequently adopts a jocose, mocking tone in all his writing. A honeymoon is the traditional trip taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage. ... Toby Young (born Toby Daniel Moorsom Young in 1963) is a homuncular high-flying British journalist, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his disastrous five-year attempt to make it in the U.S. as a contributing editor at Conde Nast Publications Vanity Fair... Geordie is a term used to describe a person originating from Tyneside and the former coal mining areas of northern County Durham and the dialect spoken by such people. ... Tyneside is a conurbation in northern England, covering part of the area of Tyne and Wear. ... Arms of the County Borough of Teesside Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in northern England based on Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar, along the banks of the River Tees with a resident population of over 388,000 in 2005. ...

Criticisms

Two Channel 4 television programmes presented by Liddle in 2006 attracted a great deal of controversy. In The New Fundamentalists, a programme in the Dispatches strand, Liddle - who attends a Church of England church - condemned the rise of evangelicalism and/or Christian fundamentalism in Britain, especially the anti-Darwinian influence of such beliefs in faith schools; and criticised the social teaching and cultural influence of this strand of Christianity. In The Trouble With Atheism, Liddle argued that atheists can be as dogmatic and intolerant as the adherents of religion. "History has shown us," he says, "that it’s not religion that’s the problem, but any system of thought that insists that one group of people are inviolably in the right, whereas the others are in the wrong and must somehow be punished." Liddle argues, for example, that eugenic policies are the logical consequence of dogmatic adherence to Darwinism. Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... A dispatch can be: A report sent to a newspaper by a correspondent. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to religious practices and traditions which are found in conservative, almost always Protestant, Christianity. ... // In comparative religion, fundamentalism has come to refer to several different understandings of religious thought and practice, through literal interpretation of religious texts such as the Bible or the Quran and sometimes also anti-modernist movements in various religions. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth and his life, death, resurrection, and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ... It has been suggested that Dysgenics be merged into this article or section. ... Charles Darwin Darwinism is a term for the underlying theory in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. ...

In 2005, Liddle was criticized by the MCB leader Sir Iqbal Sacranie ^[1] when he said, "The one we didn't want to hear, is the most accurate: Sacranie and Mr Bunglawala don't like Jews. They are both unequivocal anti-Semites", after they had suggested a Genocide memorial day was more appropriate than simply a Holocaust memorial day. Sir Iqbal Sacranie (born 1952) served as General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) until June 2006. ... ...

Mr Bunglawala responded by affirming that:

"Instead of addressing the issue in an evidence-based manner, Liddle resorts to histrionics and smearing, referring to Sir Iqbal Sacranie and myself as anti-Semites. We are not. It seems in order to qualify as a Liddle-approved 'moderate' Muslim one needs to remain silent about Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people."

^[2]

It was also alleged that Liddle ignored the following statement made by the MCB about Holocaust Memorial Day earlier in the year.

"The Nazi Holocaust was a truly evil and abhorrent crime and we stand together with our fellow British Jews in their sense of pain and anguish. None of us must ever forget how the Holocaust began. We must remember it began with a hatred that dehumanised an entire people, that fostered state brutality, made second class citizens of honest, innocent people because of their religion and ethnic identity."

^[3]

Liddle was heavily criticised by racial equality groups following the broadcast of his Channel 4 documentary 'Immigration Is A Time Bomb' Amongst the complaints were that Liddle allowed BNP leader Nick Griffin to speak "unchallenged when arguing for freedom of speech" and that he "stated that Griffin should not have been arrested for stating his views" for incitement to racial hatred for which he had already received a two year suspended sentence in 1998. ^[4]. BNP may be: British National Party, a British nationalist political party British National Party (1960s), a British political party active in the 1960s Bahujana Nidahas Peramuna, a Sri Lankan political party Balochistan National Party, a political party in Pakistan Bandipur National Park, a national park in India Banff National... Nicholas John Griffin (born 1959) is a British politician. ...

In February 2006 he wrote an article in The Sunday Times ('Alas, I must defend the BNP') supporting BNP leader Nick Griffin's right to free speech, after Griffin had been arrested for inciting racial hatred. The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ...

External links

• Rod Liddle: Marching back to Labour
• We may have to bomb Iran

References