Moira: Furore over a national treasure

It would be hard to imagine a less controversial TV figure than Moira Stuart. She has not danced on ice or appeared on I'm a Celebrity. She has thrown no glasses of wine in public places. For years, her personality has appeared self-effacing to the point of invisibility, yet now, after 26 years in broadcasting, the circumstances of her leaving have roused a controversy beyond all expectation.

MPs, pressure groups and powerful broadcasting figures united in protest against her departure from the slot she occupied on the Sunday AM programme, alleging that the BBC was yet again guilty of shuffling an older woman off the screen. Jeremy Paxman described the decision to end her 20-year newsreading career as "strange" and questioned what the corporation had gained by "getting rid of her".

David Dimbleby accused the BBC of making decisions based on "change for the sake of change" rather than "common sense". Sir David Frost, Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson, Rory Bremner, Joanna Trollope, Esther Rantzen, John Humphrys and virtually anyone else not on holiday joined the list of Stuart's defenders. The Daily Mail launched a campaign to save her. By the end of the week the BBC had changed tack, suggesting that Stuart, 55, was in talks about another newsreading job, possibly on digital TV.

Whatever the outcome of such talks, the controversy over Moira Stuart has touched a raw nerve at the BBC, encompassing a triple whammy of allegations of ageism, sexism and racism within the corporation. It also raises a more profound question of whether a public service broadcaster should, through its on-screen personalities, be obliged to reflect society at large.

"I've made a television career after the age of 40," says the Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, "but when it comes to newsreaders it is undeniably the case that you don't see many older women.

"I wouldn't say that public service broadcasters have a responsibility to reflect quotas - you don't need the right percentage of ginger-haired people or whatever - but what is ludicrous is the waste of talent. They imagine that people are much more concerned about the appearance and age of women than they actually are."

This observation is one that has been echoed by departing newsreaders for several years. While women over 40, such as Janice Hadlow, Jenny Abramsky, Lorraine Heggessey and Jana Bennett have for some time held powerful positions within the BBC hierarchy, on-screen female presenters are ushered off long before their male counterparts.

Anna Ford disappeared from view at 62 after 27 years, commenting on the need for viewers to relate to "people with lines" on their faces. Kate Adie, Angela Rippon and Julia Somerville are among those who believe that their virtual disappearance from mainstream TV is connected with an inherent prejudice against older women.

The BBC unwittingly reinforced this argument when, defending itself against ageism, a spokesman said: "You only have to look at some of the more experienced female presenters across the BBC, including Jenni Murray, Libby Purves, Sue Barker, Kirsty Wark, Jane Corbin, Sue MacGregor and Sarah Kennedy."

What he failed to add is that Murray, Purves, MacGregor and Kennedy are best known for their work on radio, the burqa of broadcasting, where the wrinkling faces of women over a certain age are shielded from view. Martha Kearney, approaching 50, has just quit Newsnight to join other TV heavyweights, like Joan Bakewell, who have discovered that the screen is no place to age gracefully.

In truth these accusations are not confined to women. When Peter Sissons was moved off the 10'Clock News he complained that "the BBC's biggest blind spot is its tendency to ageism ... I've been to too many leaving parties for people who've turned 50: they're at the height of their powers and they're out."

Yet it may well be the case that the BBC has misjudged its audience. According to one BBC news insider: "Viewers don't actually object to older faces. In fact, there has been all sorts of research that shows they inspire trust and respect."

Across the media spectrum the need to appeal to the young has acquired a kneejerk quality, yet as demographics shift, accusations of ageism in the media are multiplying. In the US, the idea that you're finished at 40 is being challenged. Television screenwriters recently sued over ageism, and on the networks, 49-year-old Today presenter Katie Couric has just been elevated to CBS nightly news anchor, to be replaced by Meredith Vieira, 52.

Another question raised by Stuart's departure is just how committed the BBC is to social and cultural diversity. While BBC producers are bound by guidelines to include a certain number of figures who are older, female and from diverse ethnic backgrounds in their programmes, no such guidance exists for those working in front of the camera.

After Greg Dyke's comment that the BBC was "hideously white" and Jonathan Ross's recent remarks that black people at the BBC "are either standing on the door or carrying a cloth", there appears to be an element of bad judgement in dispatching Britain's first black female newsreader. To lose an older female face may be a misfortune; to lose one of your only black presenters looks like carelessness.

However, Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster University, has a different take: "I don't think there is any requirement on the BBC to be demographically representative," he says. "Market testing is all the rage among broadcasters and it persistently shows that people are looking for a combination of authority, avuncularity and neutrality, which is why Trevor McDonald has lasted so long."

Mugged from behind by the Moira Stuart row, the BBC protested that for years the newsreader had had only a small role on the Sunday AM programme, which had been rendered less relevant following changes introduced in the show.

Yet if Stuart's elevation to "national treasure" status took the BBC by surprise, one reason for it may be the very nostalgia she inspires. Like those of her distant forerunners Richard Baker or Peter Woods, Stuart's job was largely confined to reading the news. She was a figure of yesteryear, and apart from occasional outings was never seen performing hard-hitting interviews, presenting the news from Washington or wearing a helmet in Basra.

"Put brutally, she is dated," says Professor Barnett. "We are moving away from the rather wooden, presentational view of a newsreader who is good at inflection to someone with real journalistic credibility. That's why figures like Michael Burke and John Simpson are seen striding through starving babies and getting bombed. It gives them a believable edge."

Behind the departure of Moira Stuart lies a more prosaic truth about the changing nature of television journalism and the requirements made of those who present it. Whereas Stuart started as an actress, TV journalists are now required to exhibit journalism. What's more, they must weather the relentless curiosity about their personal lives off screen.

Ironically, Stuart showed herself more in tune with current televisual trends when she was seen breaking down in tears in a recent BBC documentary about William Wilberforce. If she could only break down in tears now, she might find herself once again the height of TV fashion.

MEDIA DIARY

On his toes

BBC executives, put on your dancing shoes. Sir Michael Lyons, newly appointed chairman of the BBC Trust, may confess to not watching much TV but he has proved to be a keen ballroom dancer, who admitted a couple of years ago to taking classes in Latin American. So that's another series of Strictly Come Dancing guaranteed.

'Express' obsessions

So what is that amazing formula for Richard Desmond's Daily Express? Internet consultant Martin Belam has spent the past three months analysing the front pages of the newspaper and has posted the results on his website, Currybet. In third position is that old favourite house prices, which has appeared on 13 of the 57 front pages since the New Year. Number two is the weather, and number one is health. Princess Diana makes it only to number five, though maybe Express editors are just keeping their powder dry for the 10th anniversary of her death later this year.

Better late than never

It's been a tough week for rock's PR king Bernard Doherty. First the Daily Mirror splashed on Take That headlining the Princess Diana memorial concert. Doherty, incidentally, represents both the concert and the band but strangely he took 24 hours to deny the story, after it had garnered his clients all the necessary publicity. Then Keith Richards told NME he had snorted his father's ashes. Quick on the draw as ever, Doherty issued a denial on behalf of the rocker, 24 hours later, after acres of coverage. Delaying is an interesting PR tactic, non?

The freeze at 'The Sun'

Going down 4-0 to the Daily Mirror at the British Press Awards won't have left Sun executives very cheery. Their displeasure is being felt on the newspaper, where a new freeze has been imposed on hiring and budgets. Conspiratorial types in the newsroom are convinced a round of purges is on its way. They are also wondering if the first victim will be Rebekah Wade.

Easter is cancelled

Strangely there is hardly any mention of religion in the Good Friday issue of The Daily Telegraph. In past years, it was de rigueur for the Telegraph to have a learned article about Christianity on its leader pages, and probably flagged on the front page. But comment editor Simon Heffer is not one to enjoy a good crucifixion, it seems. He is an atheist.

Parting shots

An unusual obituary in The Guardian of former writer John O'Callaghan. "He resigned from The Guardian on an issue of principle, a very unusual course of action for one of the paper's journalists," says the obit haughtily. It goes on: "He was one of a succession of Guardian motoring correspondents who disliked cars." Was there nothing else to say?

The life of Brian

Nelson Mandela may have forgiven Barnet's Conservative councillor Brian Gordon for blacking up and wearing a kaftan at a fancy dress party, but was the atonement premature? Librarians at the Hendon Times have dug up an article from 1977 when Gordon, standing as Conservative candidate in the Burnt Oak by-election, declared that immigration should end and that Britain should not become the "dustbin" of the world. He also said that the country should not have to "suffer" the immigration caused by African leaders expelling their Asian citizens. Then-editor Dennis Signy was unearthed by the newspaper for comment this week. Said Signy: "He was very young and brash at the time." Gordon, who denies being a racist, could not, however, be raised for comment.

Minority interests

In a rather sniffy Guardian piece on the 10th anniversary of Five, Mark Lawson claims the channel garners only 200,000 viewers for its evening news. That may be true at 7pm, but the 5.30pm news pulls in over 700,000. It might also be worth noting that Lawson interviewed actor Nigel Planer last week for his own BBC 4 series. The ratings for this... 59,000.