John Humphrys

Subject: John Humphrys

John Humphrys retired as a presenter on Radio Four's Today Program this morning.. 
It's an end to a career which stretches back 35 years to a time when the radio was a major link in people's access to news and events. John was a thorn in the side of the establishment in that he drilled down in his interview, refusing to be sold short in terms of the answer given by a politician. He was abrasive at times, even  hostile to the person he was interviewing and unlike the usual BBC employee, who's position is to find a balance in the political ferment, he felt it his job to unsettle the political apple cart when he felt it necessary. This attempt to find balance has been forced upon it by the BBCs position as part an element of the State, a public organisation rather than seen as a wholly a private one.which can hold any view its shareholders agree with. 
John Humphrys managed to bridge the gap, taking on what he saw as morally inferior people who were propounding lies. This was well before the era of 'false news' where presidents turn to Twitter to stir up the population rather than educate them. 
The Today program was the 'turn to' program if you wanted to hear an unbiased description regarding the news of the day and John Humphries was part of the team who brought that news and the players behind the news. His role as he saw it was to ask questions to get behind the image provided by the spin doctors who job it was to blur the actuality with a tutored  image intended to mislead the public. He was the most feared interviewer and one who bruised his interviewee if he felt he was getting nowhere with his questions. Even his bosses inside the BBC were not immune from being unsettled, even ridiculed by his questioning. One, the then head of the corporation was forced to resign after facing a Humphrys  interview, so revealing were the questions and their ineffectual answers. 
Today is his last program and whilst one man doesn't make the whole program, he was head and shoulders above the others when doing interviews. He became an icon in his own right. He set the standard for getting to the root of the matter and ones natural inclination to offer the person you are speaking to a lifeline to save face, John having done his homework felt that he had a duty to expose the public figure to the truth. 
As an example of his craft he has just finished an interview with David Cameron in which the genial tones of Cameron were tested by Humphrys in his critical appraisal to Cameron's decision to seek the countries wishes regarding its withdrawal from Europe. He insisted on answers rather than platitudes and whilst we wish we had Cameron back in the post instead of the Buffoon we have in place he never the less was unsparing, asking questions we all wish we could ask and insisting on clarity where he sensed a smokescreen.
He spoke truth to power and in this day of currying favour or being side stepped by the popularism for the web and such as Twitter to get the political message across it takes the tenacity of other human beings to delve deeper and seek the truth in that message. With the retirement of John Humphrey we are one man down and seem further from finding the truth, assuming that is there is any.