I have just been reading an interesting piece in the Telegraph, about secularists wanting a voice on Radio 4’s, “Thought for the Day” slot. Personally I find the Today programme quite a good bit of news reporting, especially as they have a really agressive style of interrogating their guests, in a very un-Paxman like way.
So for the un-initaited ”Thought for the Day” comes on during the Today programme around about 7:45am and a pre-selected religious buff gives us a 3 minute monolgue about what he thinks about current affairs. There are a mix of religious commentators from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and many other faiths. Needless to say, its almost like a daily sermon in a 3 minute slot.
Now the evil secularists, atheists and humanists want to get in on the action and have a slice of the action, boring people to death with their endless drivel in the 7:45am slot. Sorry to be harsh, but you can’t tell me it will be any better just because they don’t believe in God. I’d don’t agree that non-believers should be banned from the slot, but equally I don’t really give a crap. There are a lot more important issues to address than “Thought for the Day”. How about, so called “honour killings”, or forced marriage, what about the 26 C of E Bishops who sit unelected in the House of Lords.
I just can’t get up the energy to argue about “Thought for the Day” as it all just smacks of, me-too-isms. The only reason the slot has 4.5 million listeners is because they’re already tuned into the Today programme and can’t be bothered the change the radio station. I bet if you took it off air, and made it available only on iPlayer very few people would bother to go look for it.
Oh and if you’re one of those religious types, don’t go thinking I’m on your side either. You get plenty of programmes on TV, like all the channels that pump out worship on Sky. They even have it listed specifically in the planner! Let us also not forget “Songs of Praise” and “Around the World in 80 faiths”. So don’t tell me that the religious are hard done by.
So what to do with the 3 minute boredom slot? either make it more interesting, or bin it is my view. I have no interest in it and it seems completely out of place in the programme content.
