Latest news with #LyseDoucet
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Newscast Are (Even More Of) Israel's Allies Turning Against Them?
Today, we discuss the new aid distrubition model in Gaza and why the EU's top diplomat has gone further in criticising Israeli strikes and aid distribution. The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet joins Adam in the studio to discuss the video footage of chaotic scenes at an aid distribution centre in Rafah. They discuss the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and vice president of the European Commission Kaja Kallas' criticism of Israel. And there's a fortnight to go until the spending review. Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police, has been on the radio lobbying the Chancellor for more cash. BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth is on the line with a politics wrap-up. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast'. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Shiler Mahmoudi. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Radio 3 might be ‘dumbing down', but annoyingly it's working
Earlier this month, the BBC's veteran war correspondent Lyse Doucet said that she has been 'turning away from the news and listening to Radio 3 instead of Radio 4'. Doucet's reason was that the news has been so unremittingly depressing of late; Radio 3 was a sanctuary. She is far from alone – last week's Rajar figures showed that Radio 3 is on the up, with 2.15m tuning in, the station's best for many years. To add to the sense of achievement, almost every other BBC station had lost listeners in the same period. And before Radio 3 controller Sam Jackson could finish his first celebratory glass of fizz, someone was pouring him another, as Radio 3 won Station of the Year at the prestigious Audio and Radio Industry Awards (Arias). It is a vindication of sorts for Jackson, who has been fighting accusations of 'dumbing down' since he arrived two years ago. His predecessors would sympathise, going right back to George Barnes when he kicked off the Third Programme in 1946 and, two years later, was fighting accusations of 'vulgarisation' from EM Forster. The crime? Playing 'light' music concerts, including Bizet, Strauss and Mozart). Radio 3's gift and curse is that it emerged (or perhaps descended) from the Third Programme, which was set up to be strenuously high-minded, mixing classical music with poetry, philosophy and debate. Its mission wasn't simply to educate, inform and entertain, but to expand, refine and civilise. There are many Radio 3 listeners who still believe this is the station's mission – no wonder they bristle at the loss of Free Thinking and Drama on 3, at the perceived 'therapisation' of classical music, or at the existence of Jools Holland (the boogie-woogiefication of classical music). Those purists would suggest that Radio 3's recent resurgence isn't despite any 'dumbing down', but because of it – further evidence that it is slumping inexorably towards Classic FM territory. Is this fair? In response to the heartening Rajar figures, Radio 3's press release trumpeted their more highbrow content, from the Pierre Boulez centenary celebrations to 25 for 25: Sounds of a Century, 25 new commissions from contemporary composers. We don't know if it is this specific programming that is bringing the listeners in – specific figures were not provided – but it is encouraging to see the station take pride in its more challenging offerings. EM Forster may not agree, but when it comes to the music it's hard to make a strong case that Radio 3 has dumbed down. Classical Live, Radio 3 in Concert and Composer of the Week still offer a variety that the commercial stations wouldn't dare, while jazz, new music and opera are ring-fenced by dedicated programming. A push for 'diversity' (female composers!) has only broadened the station's offering. There is no doubt that in recent times the station has fallen into the trap of trying to attract listeners who like their classical music to be 'calm, soothing and mindful', and often accompanied by birdsong and lapping waves, but this is hopefully something that will be redressed by the launch of new 'mindful' digital station Radio 3 Unwind. However, it is in the spaces in between the music where Radio 3 has undoubtedly grown more populist, and this is something unlikely to be reversed. Listeners long ago got used to the audience interactivity that was once the preserve of Radio 5 Live, but it is the presenters who seem to stir up the most passion. The likes of Tom McKinney, Katie Derham, Jess Gillam and Linton Stephens lean more into being informally enthusiastic than tweedily knowledgeable, while the inclusion of Holland and newsreader Clive Myrie suggest a safety-first approach. 'Don't be scared! We love classical music and we're not going to be stuffy about it!' As someone who is a far-cry from being a classical music buff, I am a good test case – and I have found the station to be more approachable and accessible of late. That will likely send shudders down the spines of the purists. While Jackson did not begin the jettisoning of spoken word programming, it does seem he is keen to finish the job and create a purely classical music station. Some decisions are financial – on Radio 4's Feedback he said that budget cuts forced him to choose between live classical music and drama – but there is the sense of brand-building here too. Not Classic FM, but the anti-Classic FM. A classical music station with highbrow aspirations, but, crucially, a classical music station. If you want wider culture, off you go to Radio 4. It's understandable, but it's a pity – and I eye the superb Sunday Feature nervously. Yet, if the listener numbers are rising, then it can only be that Radio 3 is successfully bringing classical music to new audiences, dumbed down or not.
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘It's so gloomy': some of UK's top broadcasters admit to avoiding news
She is perhaps the UK's most prominent war correspondent, broadcasting from the world's toughest regions, interpreting its most intractable and bloody conflicts. Yet, like many others at a time when the news agenda is so tough, even Lyse Doucet has admitted she finds herself tempted to turn off. 'I just want to say as a broadcaster that even though I'm on one side of the microphone and you're on the other, that I too have been turning away from news and listening to Radio 3 instead of Radio 4, because the news is difficult,' said Doucet, the BBC's fearless chief international correspondent, as she picked up an award last week. 'We all think: 'Oh, it's so depressing. It's so gloomy.'' There have been concerns that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the relentless pace of stories coming out of the Trump administration, will fuel so-called 'news avoidance', a phenomenon that appears to combine a long-term decline in seeking out news with the intensity of the current agenda. When BBC News was recently restructured, staff were told by Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, that it was partly driven by a need to take on 'the growing trend of news avoidance'. The UK appears to be among the countries most seriously affected. The proportion who say they have a high interest in news has almost halved in the UK over the last decade, from 70% in 2015 to 38% last year, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. However, despite the difficulty of reporting on and learning about difficult world events, Doucet, who has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East, said it was important for people who had the 'gift of living in democratic societies' to 'stand for the values that we believe in'. 'It's an important part of who we are as citizens,' she said. 'I would like to believe that the BBC is also part of that as a public broadcaster. It's the proverbial water cooler that we can all meet together and share our stories, and we can criticise as well. 'We welcome the criticism, but I think in the time when we feel that so much is slipping, literally the ground beneath us is shaking, we all need to stand together for what we believe in and what we hold dear.' Doucet is not the only big name to admit to finding the news agenda tough. Jonathan Dimbleby also recently talked about how he struggled to discuss current news events such as Gaza with younger generations. 'I always used to be a glass half full as a person,' he told the Beeb Watch podcast. 'Whereas increasingly I find myself thinking most things seem to be for the bad, everything I look at. I don't think it's just age. I think it's the environment and circumstances which we live in. 'I've got grown up children in their 40s and one just in his 50s. They are already pretty dismayed by what is happening in the world. If you've got young children and teenagers who are at the point of A levels and GCSEs, they're looking outwards and upwards. They're filled, actually, with a lot of zest for life. You want to encourage that, but you also want to be realistic. So what do I do? I shy away from it all. That's the truth. I shy away from it.' He pointed to a recent interview on the BBC's World at One, in which a doctor in Gaza talked about the horrific injuries of a child from shrapnel. 'I can take that, but I recoiled from that,' he said. 'And I wonder how people generally cope with the perpetual horrors that emerge from there, from Ukraine and elsewhere, without just turning away from it because it's too much to bear.'
BBC News
18-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Ukrainecast Life as a BBC bureau chief in Moscow and Kyiv
In today's episode we do something slightly different. You'll be familiar with some of the names and voices of the correspondents who've covered the Ukraine war for the last three years - James Waterhouse, Lyse Doucet, Sarah Rainsford and more - who regularly appear on this podcast. But you'll be less familiar with the people doing the work behind the scenes. Today, we hear from one of them. Kate Peters spent more than 30 years with BBC News and she spent a lot of time producing and running bureaus in Moscow and then Kyiv. Kate reflects on her career, discusses the challenges of working in a war zone and talks with Jonathan Beale, a BBC defence correspondent who worked with during her time in Ukraine. Today's episode is presented by Vitaly Shevchenko. The producer was Ben Carter. The editor was Max Deveson. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@ with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480 You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast's Discord server here:
