6th March 2009
Colofn Golwg
Dwi wastad wedi teimlo bod yna rywbeth ychydig bach yn gyfoglyd am y cyfryngau yn trafod eu hunain – storm cyfryngol am storm cyfryngol ac ati. Dyw trafod papurau newydd ddim yn ffordd dda iawn, mentrwn i, o werthu papurau newydd. Gyda chryn amheuaeth felly dyma fi yn ysgrifennu colofn am golofn arall. Nid, gobeithio, oherwydd fy mod i’n perthyn i glic cyfryngol hunan-dybus ond yn hytrach gan bod yr achos hwn yn dweud rhywbeth diddorol ynglyn a’r Gymru gyfoes.
A dweud y gwir, dyna oedd y golofn dan sylw yn llwyddo i wneud bob wythnos yn nhudalennau braidd yn siomedig ar brydiau y Wales on Sunday. Mi lansiwyd ein hunig bapur Sul cenedlaethol gyda breuddwydion mawr i greu rhyw fath o Scotsman, neu hyd yn oed Die Zeit neu Le Monde Cymreig. Ond nid felly y bu hi ac mae’r papur wedi darganfod niche tua gwaelod y farchnad gyda cyfuniad llwyddiannus o chwaraeon a chlecs. Ac eto – anwybyddwch y snobyddiaeth deallusol am eiliad – onid yw hi’n well bod pobl yn prynu papur poblogaidd sydd o leiaf yn cynnwys newyddion o Gymru yn hytrach na ‘fersiwn Cymreig’ y News of the World? Do, mi oeddwn i, fel eraill ohonoch chi, yn prynu’r Wales On Sunday allan o ryw deimlad gwaelodol o ddyletswydd. Ond hefyd i ddarllen colofn wleidyddol Matt Withers a cholofn ‘anwleidyddol’ Angharad Mair. Ond yn y blynyddoedd buodd hi wrthi roedd yna lawer mwy o wleidyddiaeth ddifrifol yng ngholofn Angharad na cholofn adloniadol gynt yr Aelod Seneddol ‘gyda phersonoliaeth’ dros Maldwyn, chwedl y Golygyddion, sydd bellach yn ymddangos yn y Daily Sport. Roedd yna bryfocio yma: Seb Coe ar y Tim Pel-Droed Olympaidd, y BBC a’i rhaglenni chwaraeon a cholofn gref yr wythnos hon ar yr Academi Filwrol oedd yn procio cydwybod hyd yn oed yr awdur hwn.
Ond dyma fydd colofn olaf Angharad, a dyw e ddim yn glir pam. Tybed a yw’r Sianel yn nerfus am un o’i chyflwynwyr amlycaf yn mynegi barn mewn ffordd mor uniongyrchol, afaelgar. Pe bydde hyn yn wir, mi fydde’n drueni: ceidwadaeth sefydliadol Cymru fach ar ei gwaethaf. Fel mae Vaughan Roderick yn dweud yn ei flog gogoneddus o fywiog, gellweirus, myth ydy’r syniad o newyddiadurwr di-duedd. Gwell o lawer fyddai cofleidio amrywiaeth barn.
Rhai wythnosau yn ol, roedd Angharad yn collfarnu Parc y Sgarlets am eu diffyg Cymraeg tra roedd y gohebydd David James yn collfarnu Plaid Cymru am droi ysgolion Saesneg Caerdydd yn ghettos ethnig (Na, wnes i ddim deall hwnna chwaith). Mae angen lleisiau fel Angharad arnom. Pobl sydd yn fodlon dweud y drefn yn ddiflewyn ar dafod wrth ddynion (a menywod) mewn siwtiau: populist, ychydig bach gormod i’r dde-canol i rai ar ambell i bwnc efallai ond a’i chalon yn gadarn dros Gymru a’i phobl. Rhyw fath o Eva Peron Cymreig – ond heb y dagrau.
I’ve always felt that there’s something rather nauseous about the media discussing itself – media storm about a media storm and so on. If I might say, discussing newspapers isn’t a good way, of selling newspapers. Therefore it’s with some reservation that I find myself writing a column about another column. Not, I hope, because I’m part of a self-obsessed media clique but rather because this issue says something interesting about modern Wales.
In fact, the column in question succeeds in doing this every week amongst the at times slightly disappointing pages of the Wales on Sunday. Our only Sunday newspaper was launched with big dreams of creating some sort of Scotsman, or even Die Zeit or a Welsh Le Monde. But it wasn’t to be and the paper has discovered a niche towards the bottom of the market with a successful combination of sport and gossip. And again – ignore the intellectual snobbery for a moment – isn’t it better that people buy a populist paper that at least includes news from Wales rather than a ‘Welsh version’ of the News of the World? Yes, I, like many amongst you, buy the Wales on Sunday out of some base feeling of duty. I do it also to read Matt Withers’ political column and Angharad Mair’s ‘non-political’ column. But in the years that she’s been there, there was a great deal more of serious politics in Angharad’s column than in the fun and games of what the editors called the MP ‘with personality’, whose column now appears in the Daily Sport. The column is certainly thought-provoking: Seb Coe on the GB Olympic Football Team, the BBC and its sports programmes and this week’s powerful column on the Military Academy pricked even the conscience of this author.
But this will be Angharad’s last column, and it’s not clear why. I wonder if S4C are nervous about one of their best known presenters offering an opinion in a way so direct, so gripping. If this is true, it would be a great shame: little Wales’s institutional conservatism at its very worst. As Vaughan Roderick says in his gloriously teasing and lively blog, the idea of the unbiased journalist is a myth. It’s much better to embrace a diversity of opinion.
A few weeks ago, Angharad condemned Parc y Scarlets for their lack of Welsh while journalist David James was condemning Plaid Cymru for turning English language schools in Cardiff into ethnic ghettoes (no, I didn’t get that either). We need voices like Angharad’s amongst us. People who are prepared to tell it like it is to the men (and women) in suits: populist, a little bit to the centre-right for some on a few topics perhaps, but totally committed to Wales and her people. A Welsh Eva Peron – but without the tears
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