Matt Brittin profile, How to cold call a president, The Policing and Media Charter, Jamie Bartlett

March 25, 2026·42 min·3 clips

Nottingham Post editor: victims' families were told of Ian Coates's death ten minutes before the police press conference.

The programme opens with BBC succession. Matt Brittin's expected appointment as BBC Director General gives the presenters an immediate BBC story, sharpened by archive audio from Katie Razzell's 2022 interview about his Google record. That sets the tone. This is not just a name moving into the top job. It is a question about what business instincts he brings with him. Edward Luce comes next. The show says he called Donald Trump's mobile and got an interview, which turns into a discussion about access and the practical business of reaching a political figure. The police charter gives the hour its weight. Alan Woods explains the strain on police communications teams, especially smaller forces with limited staff across several disciplines. A Nicola Bulley-style incident sits in the background. When a critical incident lands, press offices and journalists need working relationships before the pressure peaks. Reciprocity becomes the useful word. The charter asks police forces to keep phone lines open, and asks journalists for realistic deadlines, courtesy and some effort from their side. Local media matter here. Woods says most calls and inquiries to press offices come from local and regional journalists, so the charter matters well beyond national newsrooms. Jamie Bartlett closes the hour. His podcast, Everything is Fake and Nobody Cares, is treated less like a slogan and more like a test of trust. The presenters press the premise. Bartlett points to a fake version of himself, an AI companion and the growing difficulty of knowing what can be believed, while making clear that the series itself is real. The episode ends up as a tidy media audit. BBC leadership, Trump access, police communication and synthetic media all feed the same question: how does journalism prove itself when institutions and formats are under pressure?

As heard by us

A brisk Media Show episode on the BBC's next leader, Trump access, police press rules and trust in the AI age.

The Media Show uses Matt Brittin's appointment as BBC director general as its lead story, then moves through a busy set of media questions about access, trust and institutional pressure.

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Why you'd press play

For Matt Britton's BBC job, an FT call to Donald Trump's mobile, and the changing rules around police access.

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