The culture minister says he's happy to broker meetings with the BBC for Nadine Dorries. Why doesn't he go himself?
Addressing the Oxford Media Convention, the culture secretary, Ed Vaizey, referred to Radio 4's flagship news programme Today as a "terrible cliched locker room" fuelled by "unbearable "amounts of testosterone". Which seems rich coming from a member of the current government. Doesn't that description better describe Westminster? In that fetid environment, the prime minister thinks it's acceptable to tell women to "calm down, dear". The coalition government boasts a risible five female ministers among 23.
I've chastised the Today programme publicly in the past for its notable absence of women contributors, so there's no need to revisit the same territory, and those in charge are no doubt aware that the superb presenter Sarah Montague is a minority figure among the men. So let's return to Mr Vaizey, whose outcry was prompted by a group called Sound Women, formed to draw attention to the discrepancy in numbers between men and women on our airwaves.
While I am totally in sympathy with the group's cause, why start there? We've entirely failed to make equal pay a reality despite four decades passing since the Equal Pay Act. I'm all for tackling sexism in the media and beyond, but to start with the BBC seems less about the issues and more to do with Conservative bias against the corporation.
The Today programme is an anomaly on Radio 4 – it's answerable to DG Mark Thompson instead of controller Gwyneth Williams. It isn't even broadcast from the radio studios but from Television Centre in White City. So while it could certainly do with more women, it broadcasts on a station that features a broad sweep of great female presenters from Jenni Murray and Libby Purves to Jane Garvey, Francine Stock and Kirsty Young.
Vaizey would be better advised to rail against the continued objectification of women in the media, highlighted, for those listening carefully, at the recent Leveson inquiry but, as others have also noted, worthy of an inquiry all of its own. My Radio 4 stablemate Kirsty Young and I recently shared our mutual dread of letting our daughters accompany us into the newsagent's. How do you explain to a seven-year-old why the shelves are littered with women in various near pornographic poses and later, when they can read, why words such as fat, thin and a phrase such as "cellulite ridden" are still considered acceptable ways to describe a fellow human.
Vaizey tells us that he's happy to broker meetings with the BBC for Nadine Dorries, "an MP who feels strongly about these issues". Doesn't he feel strongly about them? Why should Nadine Dorries be dispatched to see Mark Thomspon? Vaizey should consider going himself if he's that animated about it.
There's nothing I'd love more than to see an equal representation of women in our media, but I'd also like those women to be more representative of the female population – young, old and middle aged; there because of their skill and knowledge rather than their ability to excite men's fantasies or live up to stereotypes.
What's more, it's women's representation by and in the media that needs to be revolutionised, not just the numbers working in broadcasting. On the numbers front, perhaps that revolution should begin in Parliament.