Editing Rod Liddle (section)

==Early life and radio==
At 16, he was a member of the [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]],<ref>Rod Liddle [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/05/jubilee.monarchy "Britain's great divide: London versus the rest"], ''The Guardian'', 5 June 2002</ref> remaining a member for about a year,<ref>Rod Liddle [http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/17th-december-2005/17/lets-not-forget-the-weirdos-and-halfwits "Let's not forget the weirdos and halfwits"], ''The Spectator'', 16 December 2005.</ref> and was a supporter of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] (CND) around the same time.<ref name=Barber>Barber, Lynn. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/05/fiction.features4 "Liddle at large"], ''The Observer'', 5 October 2003</ref> He recalled campaigning for Labour in the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]], canvassing votes by going door to door in full [[Punk subculture|punk]] getup. He estimated that in doing so "I must have singlehandedly lost my party a good 5,000 votes".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liddle |first=Rod |date=2024-06-19 |title=How to lose voters |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-lose-voters/ |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US |quote=During the 1983 general election, I campaigned every single day with great zeal and avidity. I knocked on quite literally thousands of doors enquiring of people if we, the Labour party, could count on their support on 9 June. (...) I did all this with my hair spiked up in jagged tufts held in place by gallons of hairspray, and with a little bit of eyeliner and maybe a streak of blusher on my cheeks. My favoured shirt was fluorescent blue stripes on a pale blue background. My jeans were ripped at both knees. A pair of ragged Converse baseball boots and two badges – one promoting the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the other pledging my affection for a band called Cabaret Voltaire – completed my outfit. I reckon I must have singlehandedly lost my party a good 5,000 votes.}}</ref>

He attended the [[London School of Economics]] (LSE) as a mature student, where he read social psychology.<ref name=Timesprofile>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article455993.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1 "Profile: Rod Liddle: How to sex up – and mess up – your life"]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''The Times'', 11 July 2004.</ref><ref name=Leapman>Leapman, Michael [http://www.newstatesman.com/node/140860 "The New Statesman Interview – Rod Liddle"], ''New Statesman'', 30 July 2001</ref> His early career in journalism was with the ''[[South Wales Echo]]'' in Cardiff where he was a general news reporter and, for a time, the rock and pop writer. He worked between 1983 and 1987 as a speechwriter and researcher for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/4294084.stm "Rod Liddle"], BBC News, 29 September 2005</ref>

Although Liddle considered becoming a [[secondary school]] teacher, he decided against it on the grounds that he "could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids", clarifying that he wouldn't have "dabbled much below [[Year 10]].".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-teenage-girl-a-maths-teacher-and-a-righteous-tabloid-fury|title=A teenage girl, a maths teacher and a righteous tabloid fury|work=The Spectator|date=29 September 2012}}</ref> Liddle instead returned to journalism after graduating from the LSE, and was taken on as a trainee producer by the BBC.<ref name=Timesprofile/> 

Liddle was appointed editor of the ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme in 1998.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/7327168.stm|title=This week's panel|work=BBC News|date=2 April 2008}}</ref> The programme had a strong reputation for its political interviews, but Liddle tried, with some success, to improve the programme's investigative journalism.<ref name=Leapman/> To this end he hired journalists from outside the BBC. Among the most controversial was [[Andrew Gilligan]], who joined from ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' in 1999. Gilligan's 29 May 2003 report on ''Today''—that the British government had "sexed up" the [[WMD dossier|intelligence dossier]] on Iraq, a report broadcast after Liddle had left the programme—began a chain of events that included the death in July that year of [[David Kelly (weapons expert)|David Kelly]], the weapons inspector who was Gilligan's source, and the subsequent [[Hutton Inquiry]], a public inquiry into the circumstances of Kelly's death. Liddle defended Gilligan throughout the controversy.<ref name=Barber/>

Under Liddle's editorship, ''Today'' won a number of awards: a [[Sony Radio Academy Awards|Sony Silver]] in 2002 for reports by Barnie Choudhury and Mike Thomson into the causes of race riots in the north of England; a Sony Bronze in 2003 for an investigation by Angus Stickler into paedophile priests; and an [[Amnesty International]] Media Award in 2003 for Gilligan's investigation into the sale of illegal landmines, an investigation that attracted a lengthy legal action. While working for ''Today'', Liddle also wrote a column for ''[[The Guardian]]''. On 25 September 2002, referring to a march organised by the [[Countryside Alliance]] in defence of [[fox hunting]], Liddle wrote that readers may have forgotten why they voted Labour in 1997, but would remember once they saw the people campaigning to save hunting.<ref>Liddle, Rod. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/sep/25/broadcasting.ruralaffairs "Marching back to Labour"], ''The Guardian'', 25 September 2002</ref> His column led ''The Daily Telegraph'' to accuse Liddle of bias and of endangering democracy.<ref>Day, Julia. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/sep/26/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia "Telegraph accuses Liddle of political bias"], ''The Guardian'', 26 September 2002.
* For the ''Telegraph'' report, see: [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/4267304/Slanted-thought-on-Today.html "Slanted thought on Today"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 26 September 2002</ref>

The BBC concluded that Liddle's comments breached his commitment to impartiality as a BBC programme editor, and gave him an ultimatum to stop writing his column or resign from his position on ''Today''. He resigned on 30 September 2002.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2288751.stm "BBC editor steps down"], BBC News, 30 September 2002.
* See also: Higham, Nick. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2289152.stm "How Today's editor went"], BBC News, 30 September 2002</ref> He said later that when he was editor he was ordered by BBC management to sack [[Frederick Forsyth]] from the show, and speculated that it was because of Forsyth's right wing political views.<ref>Wilson, Jamie. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/feb/03/television.uknews "Liddle 'ordered to sack Forsyth'"], ''The Guardian'', 3 February 2003</ref> The BBC replied that the decision was made for editorial reasons.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2720809.stm "BBC rejects Liddle comments"], BBC News, 3 February 2003</ref> Liddle also courted controversy discussing the public and police's response to child pornography and highlighted the [[Pete Townshend]] case as a means to highlight problems with enforcing the law.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/jan/14/childprotection.rodliddle|title=Should it really be a crime to look at child pornography?|work=The Guardian|date=14 January 2003}}</ref>

Since January 2025 he has presented a Saturday morning show on Times Radio.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.news.co.uk/latest-news/rod-liddle-takes-over-times-radios-saturday-morning-show/|work=Times Radio|title=Rod Liddle takes over Times Radio's Saturday morning show|date=8 January 2025}}</ref>