Since the last general election, we have gone through three prime ministers, changed monarchs and seen a record number of scandal-fuelled resignations from the cabinet. But at least one thing will remain the same. Tom Bradby will be back to present ITV’s coverage of election night, joined once more by George Osborne and Ed Balls.
There is comfort in familiarity, but maybe not for Bradby and the like. Speaking to the Radio Times about the coverage, he suggested that perhaps, career-wise, he should be nervous as “there aren’t many white male anchors left”.
How to react to that? As the man who is heading up election night coverage with Osborne and Balls, with added Nicola Sturgeon, suggesting there is an existential threat to white men in broadcast journalism feels like a Ron Burgundy outtake from Anchorman.
Bradby is undoubtedly an excellent and experienced broadcaster but here he seems blind to the reality of his circumstances. White men make up approximately 40% of the population in England and Wales; to return to the old days where they made up the vast majority of news presenters would erode the already fragile trust in media institutions. In an age of mass misinformation, seeing a greater spread of the population leading our news coverage implies a meritocracy and journalism that scrutinises at least some of its own practices. Even if the reality is that Bradby’s election night companion, Osborne, was able to fail upwards into editing and added to the decline of the Evening Standard, which will soon cease trading in newsprint.
So turn off the alarm: there is no dire shortage of white men behind ITV newsdesks. Currently, it would appear, there are seven white men on its presenting roster. Bradby is right that things have changed since 2019. But Clive Myrie and Laura Kuenssberg’s promotion to the BBC’s election coverage isn’t a worrying sign of the times: more accurately, it is a direct consequence of the Huw Edwards scandal that saw the BBC’s highest paid newsreader resign from the network following contested allegations that he paid a 17-year-old for explicit images, as well as further allegations emerging that BBC colleagues had made complaints about him – to no avail.
As a species, it may be less populous now, but the great white male news presenter once roamed the Earth and – in audience terms – sat with God. The US news anchor Walter Cronkite, who covered seismic events such as the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the first moon landing, was famously labelled the most trusted man in the US.
It is undeniable that things have changed dramatically since then. Many millions fewer watch mainstream news bulletins and a wider spread of people present them. Good for them; talent should rise. But that’s hardly a wave of wokery: some great TV replacement theory.
Bradby’s words could be explained by clumsy phrasing or perhaps by his replying to a leading question, but the reaction of those who have seized on his lament speaks to the insidious paranoia of those who continue to benefit from the status quo, and know well how to continue continuing.
A great white male anchor, sharing a desk with two other white men in an election where the Tories are facing challenges from Keir Starmer, Ed Davey, John Swinney and Nigel Farage is hardly evidence that the diversity thing has run out of control or that white men are struggling to reach positions of power.
We cannot know the future for the white male anchor. We assume they will always be there, on mainstream channels, on cable, on YouTube, but no one counts the numbers, David Attenborough doesn’t film them. They survive on their wits and the wits of their negotiating agents.
Bradby, insidious gaffes aside, seems like one of the good ones and as a prominent member of a declining breed his services are likely to be required for a while yet. “You just put your head down, do a good job and try to be as nice as you can to everyone around you,” he said.
The next election may be far in the future, but who knows? On the evidence of the recent past, they may continue to come around as often as a new series of Strictly.
So much news, so much Autocue, so many shiny desks: we may need as many and as diverse a group of TV anchors as we can get.
Leila Latif is a freelance writer and critic
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