Dumbing down

I recall cringing at some of the presentations years ago on 'Tomorrow's World'

Chris Burrows was justifiably dismayed to hear presenter Mark Horton proclaim I K Brunel a 'real engineer - he has mud on his boots.' 

Personally, whenever Mr Horton appears on TV I reach automatically for the remote control. To me he one of the worst examples of the presenter breed, many of whom seem more concerned with their own image than the subject, and with dumbing down the content so the average viewer could understand it. (Is he thick, this average viewer?) 

I recall cringing at some of the presentations years ago on 'Tomorrow's World' where, for example, a new gadget was announced which was due to change our lives for ever! The inventor had been dragged down from Leeds, say, and given about fifteen seconds of precious airtime to describe his creation, and was promptly shunted off again. Then more flowery words and hand waving from the presenter. Nothing much we can do about it, I'm afraid. That's the popular media for you. This after personal steam pressure lowered a bit!

Alan Catharine, Hassocks, West Sussex

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