Latest news with #O'Brien's
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
How James O'Brien became the most polarising voice on the radio
The perpetually exasperated LBC talk radio host James O'Brien seems to provoke irritation and inspire admiration in equal measure. During the weekday show he has hosted since 2004, he's become famed as much for his sneering derision for callers on subjects from Brexit to Donald Trump as he has for eloquently dissecting the news of the day. But this week, the 53-year-old's polarising approach slipped into something more sinister when he repeated the anti-Semitic testimony of a man who made ludicrous claims about his Jewish wife 's 'anti-Arab' indoctrination. Speaking to his audience of hundreds of thousands, the former Newsnight host read out a message that said: 'My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school, in a leafy Hertfordshire town, she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed. Whilst young children are taught such hatred and dehumanisation – undoubtedly on both sides – then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty.' 'Unacceptable and highly offensive' O'Brien's apparent readiness to accept the veracity of the inflammatory account led to calls for his suspension from LBC. For critics, it marked the most extreme example yet of his perceived arrogance. Indeed, O'Brien prefaced what he read out on Tuesday with the words: 'I'm fascinated by objectivity', as if – rather than being a highly questionable set of claims – this was a provably factual account that his audience desperately needed to be made aware of. Others, however, were quick to take issue with his behaviour. Critics included the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who called O'Brien's decision 'unacceptable and highly offensive'. The backlash has led him to issue an apology, and footage of the incident has now been removed from LBC's social media platforms. 'As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the programme, I did so in good faith,' said O'Brien. 'But the message has understandably upset a lot of people, and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value and am genuinely sorry for that.' Of course, being a talk show host necessitates heated debate and disagreement. But this appeared to be O'Brien indulging shock jock tactics, airing the type of conspiracy that he would typically rail against. Political ambiguity For all his divisiveness, O'Brien's own politics are somewhat undefined. He has described himself as liberal (not Lib Dem) and he is far from being a Left-wing firebrand or Corbynista (last week he said he couldn't defend Diane Abbott after she recanted her comments about Jews not being subject to racism equivalent to people of colour – describing Abbott's remarks as 'objectively stupid'). His adoptive father was a journalist who once worked for The Telegraph, and O'Brien's own career spanned stints at The Daily Mail, The Express, The Spectator and BBC's Newsnight. His technique on LBC is to position himself as someone who wants to uncover the truth or say the unsayable – to challenge the mainstream media, whether that be Conservative-leaning newspapers or the BBC. It is his job to provoke reactions from his listeners, but it's as much his manner as his content that divides opinion. Brexit's loudest critic O'Brien is best known as a standard bearer for Remainers over Brexit, and one of the most persistent and polarising voices on the fall-out from Britain's decision to leave the EU. The prominence of Brexit, especially from 2019 onwards, coincided with his and LBC's ability to exploit social media. O'Brien's confrontational soliloquies or exchanges with callers regularly go viral, expanding his reach beyond his weekly audience of 1.5 million. This statement from his show from May this year is typical: 'I've enjoyed nothing more over the last few years than explaining to you the reality that has been either completely ignored or misunderstood by almost every other corner of the UK media, including many beloved colleagues on this station, some of whom asked you to stop talking about Brexit, which is a demonstration of ignorance visible from space.' His style – sometimes characterised as patronising – has been parodied most effectively by the impressionist Tony Lapidus, who manages to convey both O'Brien's over-familiarity and ability to verbally outmanoeuvre callers. 'At 10 o'clock he eases himself into his very own Star Chamber, wig in place, and casts a practised eye over the miscreants he has lined up for his daily exercise,' wrote Michael Henderson in The Critic magazine in 2022. 'Nobody is quite as clever as he, nor as public-spirited. His rebukes are coated with sarcasm and exasperation but as he falls short of top-notch intelligence, and has a limited vocabulary, his barbs rarely wound as he would like.' O'Brien has long been cited as a spokesman for 'Centrist Dads'. His interventions are often anti-Trump and anti-Reform, as well as continuing to attack Brexit. He castigates anyone who strays from centrist orthodoxies as ignorant or ill-intentioned. In August last year, he called the riots following the Southport murders 'The Farage Riots' in reference to the Reform leader. (His labelling of the unrest attracted numerous complaints. Ofcom did not uphold them.) Farage said in response: 'At no point in the past 30 years have I ever encouraged violence or the use of undemocratic means… and yet we have LBC presenters like James O'Brien calling them 'The Farage Riots''. O'Brien wrote a virtual Centrist Dad manifesto in the form of his book trilogy How To Be Right, How Not To Be Wrong and How They Broke Britain, the titles of which only further irritated his detractors. He said of How They Broke Britain: 'I hope this book becomes some sort of Rosetta Stone, or at least a compass to navigate the oceans of bullshit.' This is not O'Brien's first self-induced crisis O'Brien is often seen in the studio rubbing his head with frustration, as if the combined obligations of listening to the views of the public and having to set them straight is about to break him at any moment. It is, however, a very effective media persona. His mid-morning show, broadcast after that of Right-leaning Nick Ferrari's At Breakfast, is the most popular on LBC. Asked about O'Brien's approach, Matt Deegan, a radio industry expert and host of The Media Club podcast, says: 'It's always been fun to put down callers and let them fall into traps. There is a good apocryphal quote from the New York radio legend Howard Stern, which is something like 'People who hate me listen longer than the people who like me'. Sometimes people tune in to be offended.' Before this week, O'Brien has mostly managed to tread the line between leaning into disagreement and becoming embroiled in scandal. But this isn't the first time that he has found himself in a self-induced crisis. From 2014, O'Brien was a vocal supporter of the later convicted paedophile and fraudster Carl Beech, who made unfounded claims of sexual abuse against numerous politicians and public figures, including the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor and former Home Secretary Leon Brittan. Especially damning was the prominent support his show gave to Mark Watts, editor of the now defunct Exaro news organisation, who was at the time leading the campaign supporting the accusations made by Beech, many of which did huge personal damage to the falsely accused and their families. In 2015, O'Brien commented: 'Words like 'cover-up' spring to mind. Words like 'conspiracy' spring to mind.' In a series of exchanges with Watts at the time, he cast doubt over the commitment of the 'mainstream media' and Britain's political establishment to address Beech's alleged revelations. Four years later, in September 2019, Beech was jailed for 18 years on 12 counts of perverting the course of justice, one of fraud, and for several child sexual offences. There is no suggestion O'Brien knew of Beech's crimes while he was defending him – far from it – but Beech's eventual conviction still cast a shadow over someone whose career is based on being 'right'. O'Brien would later say on X: 'Hate the Carl Beech story. We gave his allegations against dead politicians a lot of coverage on the show & it turns out he was bulls---ing everyone. But from Rotherham to Westminster to the BBC, telling abuse survivors that they'll be believed still seems the right thing to do. 'There will always be accusations of bias over a long period of time if you do a show every day on subjects people feel very passionate about,' says Deegan. 'Hosting a three-hour live show means you have to keep things interesting and express a lot of opinions.' Selective firepower Certainly, O'Brien doesn't seem short of opinions or a willingness to air them. But while he is adept at taking down callers whose arguments he sees as flimsy or foolish, he seems less interested in the knotty business of offering coherent alternatives. In stark contrast to the Brexit debate, he has been far less strident on trans issues, for example, saying in 2023: 'If someone believes that they were born in the wrong body, I don't want to call them a liar. And if somebody believes that their personal security is threatened by that person using the same amenities that they use, I don't want to call them a liar either.' It is his apparent self-righteousness, whether he chooses to come down firmly on one side or not, that perhaps alienates his opponents above all. 'There are lots of opportunities for us to dedicate ourselves to evidence and fact, while the age seems to be dedicated to promoting idiots and falsehood and disinformation,' O'Brien said in May this year.
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Four takeaways from Boston College coach Bill O'Brien's appearance at ACC Football Kickoff
Here are four takeaways from O'Brien's news conference: Versatile defense could be the key Dealing with player losses following graduation and the NFL Draft is par for the course for college coaches, so O'Brien isn't fazed by the departure of top defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku, who the Cowboys selected in the second round. Advertisement O'Brien expects his versatile defense will have no trouble filling the hole left by Ezeiruaku, who was the 2024 ACC Defensive Player of the Year after leading the conference with 16.5 sacks. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I feel very confident in our ability to play good defense this year,' O'Brien said. 'We have a lot of versatile players. We have guys that can play safety and corner. We have linebackers that can play in the box. They can walk out on receivers. We have nickels that can play safety, that can play corner. We have defensive linemen that can play inside, that can play off the edge. And over the course of 30 practices in training camp, that'll all come together, and we'll be ready to go when the season kicks off.' Advertisement Touchdown in Charlotte — Boston College Football (@BCFootball) BC's NIL money is awarded to players who 'earn it,' including by attending class O'Brien called revenue sharing and name, image, and likeness legislation in college football 'the wild, wild west,' especially when compared with the NFL's model. 'There's all different things that go into the NFL, but it's very uniform. There's rules,' he said. 'That's something that I believe has to happen eventually in college football — that there has to be enforcement.' Despite facing the added challenge of recruiting players to a private, Jesuit university with high academic standards, O'Brien is satisfied with the way he, chief of staff Berj Najarian, and the administration have handled their NIL model. 'We do a good job of making sure the players understand it's an 'earn it' philosophy,' O'Brien said. 'Every [football player] coming into BC as a freshman, they're going to make a certain amount of money. From that point forward, they're going to earn everything they get.' By performing well, players can earn additional money. But those performance incentives are not limited to the field. 'Going to class, being on time for meetings,' O'Brien said. 'You don't necessarily have to be an All-American right away. Just got to be a good guy, a good locker room guy, good teammate, somebody that's a contributing member of the team. And if you do that, you'll earn more and more as you go through your career at BC.' The difference between a winning and losing record is minor details The Eagles haven't finished above .500 in conference play since 2009, when they went 5-3 in the ACC and 9-5 overall. O'Brien has tried to convey to his players that the difference between finishing 4-4 in the conference — as BC did last season — and winning 10 or 11 games overall comes down to a handful of mistakes. Advertisement Three of the Eagles' six losses last season were by less than a touchdown, and five were by 10 points or fewer. 'There's a small margin of error for all the teams, and we have to figure out how to be on the right side of that margin, whether it's turnovers or missed opportunities on defense, maybe a lack of communication here and there,' O'Brien said. 'My point is it comes down to seven or eight, maybe nine plays in a game that make a big difference.' O'Brien likes to leverage local connections in recruiting It's no secret that BC faces stiff competition in recruiting from schools that can offer more NIL money, larger stadiums, or more trophies in their cases, so to lock down his top prospects, O'Brien presents BC as the whole package: a great education in a major city, where players can earn money and play in a Power Five conference. While O'Brien recruits all over the country, he also likes to sell local players on the idea that their families can attend every game, and he tries to use BC's identity to his advantage. 'We recruit at every Catholic school in the country,' he said. O'Brien also said he doesn't put much stock into prospect rankings and stars. 'I want to see what they do on the field when they get there,' he said. 'We have a process of how we evaluate prospects, and I think we're on the right path.' Emma Healy can be reached at
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘Learn from the mistakes' – Joey O'Brien says there are beneficial lessons in Qarabag loss for Shels' challenges ahead
Euractiv Joey O'Brien believes the lessons from a tough night against Qarabag will be short term pain for long term gain as far as Shelbourne's European ambitions are concerned. O'Brien's side suffered a three goal defeat at Tolka Park which kills their hopes of progression in the Champions League but they have the significant fallback of a drop to the Europa League and the insurance of a Conference League playoff if the second tier is beyond them.
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘Learn from the mistakes' – Joey O'Brien says there are valuable lessons in Qarabag loss for Shels' challenges ahead
Euractiv Joey O'Brien believes the lessons from a tough night against Qarabag will be short term pain for long term gain as far as Shelbourne's European ambitions are concerned. O'Brien's side suffered a three goal defeat at Tolka Park which kills their hopes of progression in the Champions League but they have the significant fallback of a drop to the Europa League and the insurance of a Conference League playoff if the second tier is beyond them.
Glasgow Times
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Henri Matisse ready to renew Field Of Gold rivalry at Goodwood
O'Brien's Wootton Bassett colt ended last season in victory at the Breeders' Cup and struck Classic gold in the French 2,000 Guineas before finding only John and Thady Gosden's Field Of Gold too good in the St James's Palace Stakes. The Ballydoyle handler said: 'He's being trained for the Sussex and is going good so far. We're very happy with him and he is progressing.' Also a runner-up at the Royal meeting was Illinois, in the Gold Cup behind Trawlerman, and he too is set for a trip to the Sussex Downs, where he could be joined by an emerging stablemate. O'Brien said: 'At the moment he (Illinois) is going for the Goodwood Cup and it's possible that Scandinavia could go there as well. 'We were very happy with his run in Ascot. We'd prefer he had another year before he went there (for the Gold Cup), but that is the way it worked out.' O'Brien also outlined plans for Coventry Stakes winner Gstaad, who will be seen next in top-level action at the Curragh. He said: 'The plan is to go for the Phoenix Stakes (August 9). That is the way we are thinking at the moment.'
