Johnson ‘a known liar’ and Corbyn a ‘coward’, claims Channel 4 News boss
Boris Johnson is a “known liar”, while he and Jeremy Corbyn are “cowards” who are fostering a decline in democracy, a leading broadcaster has claimed.
Using last night’s MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Channel 4 News chief Dorothy Byrne said the drop in politicians holding themselves up for proper scrutiny had become “critical for our democracy.”
“Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are cowards,” said Byrne. “If they really believe in the policies they promote, they should come onto television to explain them, to allow them to be scrutinised and to justify them.”
Byrne went further, implying Johnson was “a known liar”, and arguing it is time “to start using the l-word. I believe that we need to start calling politicians out as liars when they lie”.
Byrne, one of the country’s longest-serving news and current affairs figure, said: “Remember when Andrew Marr told Penny Mordaunt her claim that the UK couldn’t stop Turkey from joining the EU was ‘strange’?
“It was strange, but it was also untrue – a lie. Is it time for us to start using the L-word? I believe that we need to start calling politicians out as liars when they lie.
“If we continue to be so polite, how will our viewers know that politicians are lying?”
Byrne added: “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hasn’t held one major press conference or given a major television interview since he came to power in July.” Corbyn has similarly failed to give significant interviews on terrestrial TV, she said.
This echoed moves by US President Donald Trump, who “has abandoned formal White House briefings. He, like our PM, prefers to take questions from journalists during photo opps, notably getting onto his helicopter…Journalists have to shout out and there is no opportunity for follow-ups.”
Byrne, who by contrast praised Margaret Thatcher’s willingness to be scrutinised, called on the industry to “form a united front in opposing attempts to sideline our central role in the political life of this country”.
“Television is a bulwark of our democracy, those who undermine its role are undermining democracy,” Byrne said.
“I genuinely fear that in the next election campaign there will be too little proper democratic debate and scrutiny to enable voters to make informed decisions.”
Main image: Getty