Sour grapes from TV’s old gals

Is it time we had more older female presenters on our tellies?

It's "morally wrong" that there are no older women on television, John Humphrys tells The Daily Telegraph. Since Humphrys is still soldiering on at the Today programme, aged nearly 70, he may be feeling guilty but like so much that's said on the subject of women on TV, this is silly. Producers don't worry about morals; they worry about ratings.

Besides, there's hypocrisy in all this, as the impeccably feminist Carol Sarler noted in The Times. Yes, we can see why Harriet Harman went "whinnying" with outrage into the Today studio last week. Only 18% of presenters over 50 are women, while among the 481 presenters of all ages at the BBC, Sky, ITN, Channel 4 and Five, the headcount of 50-plus is just 26.

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