Two morning TV interviews sum up the double standards our media applies to interviewees.
The latest was on ITV’s Good Morning Britain yesterday, when Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid interviewed the 15-year-old Alex Mann, who went viral rapping Thiago Silva by Dave and AJ Tracey when invited onto Dave’s set at Glastonbury.
Morgan fawned over “the man of the moment”, congratulated him for “slaying it” and Alex was invited to rap on-air.
Glastonbury hero @mannerzzzz AKA #AlexFromGlasto rapping live on #GMB for superfans @piersmorgan and @susannareid100 pic.twitter.com/99QpaSxFt7
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) July 3, 2019
In contrast, watch this interview during the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme from February, when a presenter interviewed the hip-hop artist AJ Tracey – behind the very same track that Alex rapped along to.
“Some of your other videos we were playing earlier on, you know, it’s almost like a bit of a shout-out to kind of gangs in London, I’m not suggesting you’re advocating gangs, but there do seem to be a lot of guys hanging out – is that a conscious message, or is that just the scene that you’re in, the music scene that you’re in?”
‘I can’t say my mum really enjoys that video,’ @ajtracey
He says the video for his single Psyche Out – with strippers – was shot in Atlanta and reflects the culture there.
He’s just released his self-titled debut album – without the help of a traditional record label. pic.twitter.com/mYXfQmZKcy
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) February 12, 2019
Interestingly, Alex wasn’t asked about the lyrics of the song, which the HuffPost points out refers to guns and murder, but AJ Tracey was subjected to spurious links between his music and gang crime. Your mole wonders what the difference could be…