James: Why The Media's Take On Corbyn Needs To Change
26 September 2016, 10:57 | Updated: 30 September 2016, 07:48
After Jeremy Corbyn's huge victory in the Labour leadership election, James O'Brien calls on the media to change how it talks about him and respect the fact he is "the only alternative Prime Minister".
James opened his show reflecting on his own opinion of Corbyn and how it's changed since Saturday's win.
"The media, myself included, now have to stop talking about Jeremy Corbyn like he is some sort of pimple on the backside of British politics and start talking about him as the only alternative Prime Minister to Theresa May.
"That is what he is."
"I'm not going to lie to you. I've made a conscious personal and professional decision to leave the scepticism at the door and will now treat this party and this man as I treat all politicians - with a degree of cynicism but not as some sort of aberration.
"This is not a dream from which the Labour party is going to wake up, it's real. It's happening."
James queried why Corbyn's views had been spoken about so negatively by some: "Try this on for size. We spend far too much money on war and weapons and we should be spending that money on the poor.
"What's not to like about that?
"Why is that even controversial?"
The LBC presenter then reflected on the way he had spoken about the Labour leader himself: "I used to call it undergraduate, quasi-Marxist. Parking all that language, it's over, it's finished, it's meaningless.
"You begin to look for finer detail in the policy. You struggle at the moment to see it, but who comes up with a fully-fledged manifesto within a few weeks of being leader, or a year? He's not got an election to fight."
Praising the "degree of stength" Corbyn had shown while facing challenges from within his own party, O'Brien finished with a question: "You've got a leader who really does appear to represent a profound alternative to the notion of business as usual.
"Why has that been treated so negatively?"
