Jostling for position

Well done James, a disco is a discussion between the presenter and more than one person (usually with opposing views) - you can also have a 'trisco'.

More BBC jargon for the handbook...

Stringer - a blokey in a bureau that runs around taking sat phones to guests, meeting and greeting, getting vox pops etc.

Piggy back - to take advantage of a guest that's been on another programme before yours.

Sat in the studio for the first time during the programme and so missed my chance to be plugged on air for the blog as we had Dickey reading the comments today, the bloggers friends.

I booked our main guest today, Debbie Schlussel. The question was 'Does America's image matter?' - as in do Americans care what the world thinks of them? I knew Debbie would cause some controversy but I wasn't prepared for the angry, angry people down the phone, on the text, emails, comments on the blog. When you're fully interactive it does open multitudinous channels of abuse...

I felt a little guilty that Debbie didn't really have an ally and the callers were so vehemently against her (and cross with the BBC for giving her airtime). Occasionally it did feel like a public hanging. However, there was a late show of support from her in email form. I suppose your average right-winger doesn't really listen to the BBC. Also one caller called Des justified it best when he said that, although he completely disagreed with her, America's global image is often that of right-wingers like Debbie so it was relevant and even necessary to have her on.

I did regret that, because of the large response, we had to squeeze our other stories - the strike in Lebanon (with callers right in the midst of it) and the South African government's proposals to forcibly treat and confine TB sufferers. In fact, I liked these stories better and I consider them more worthy and more interesting. The U.S was a bit of a cheap shot and, of course, it descended into Bush bashing and Iraq rows briefly before Mad's swift presenting skills brought it back to the question in hand. That's the problem with user generated content, you have to strike a balance between what the listeners are pushing and what can take the show further.

Some excellent vox pops from Cairo and Nairobi opened the U.S question out - the BBC trumps everyone else time after time in being able to go to pretty much any country in the world at short notice. My favourite: (woman from Nairobi) "Americans, they good and bad...but most...bad".