James O'Brien (LBC)
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| James O'Brien | |
| Station(s) | LBC 97.3 |
| Time slot | 1000-1300 |
| Style | Talk Radio |
| Country | England |
James O'Brien is a radio presenter and journalist in London, England. He is currently one of the presenters on London talk station LBC 97.3, presenting the Monday to Friday 1000-1300 slot with phone-in discussion of current affairs and news (generally, but not always, of a light-hearted nature), views and real-life experiences. His musical lead in for each hour is an opening section of Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve.
O'Brien first appeared on LBC in mid-2002 as a holiday cover presenter, gaining his own weekly programme in January 2003. He became a full-time presenter in 2004.
In his programme O'Brien uses humour, bombast, knowledge and strong opinions to pursue an essentially liberal agenda, defending sections of society such as immigrants, single mothers and the travelling community. James is unashamedly outspoken in his contempt of people who care passionately about the rights and welfare of animals. One past programme was recorded at an Essex travellers' site in 2005, and the following year he promised an anti-paedophile campaigner that he would personally pay the £700 needed to reconnect the phones of her cash-strapped charity.
After a grounding in national newspaper journalism, culminating in a stint as show business editor of the Daily Express where he secured rare interviews with the likes of Eminem, David Beckham and John Travolta, O'Brien was drawn to the broadcast media. His first two engagements as a broadcaster were presenting BBC Radio Five Live's political eviction show 'The Magnificent Seven' and co-presenting Channel Five's current affairs talk show The Wright Stuff, earning a Sony Bronze Award and a Royal Television Society Award nomination respectively. Subsequently, he presented an eponymous late night chat show for regional ITV as well as fronting an array of documentaries and discussion programmes for most national broadcasters. He is also adept at winding up bigots, racists and homophobes and, as such, is a regular recipient of retaliatory comments through internet forums. However James sometimes forgets that he's anti racist, and has often revealed his dislike of French and German people.
James is in very vocal support of continued mass immigration into the UK, sees no negatives to it, and labels anybody who questions the desirability of this as 'racist' or 'bigoted'.
If any white Anglo Saxon caller to his show should dare to say that they feel even slightly threatened by the influence of new 'cultures' forced on the neighbourhood that they, and generations of their family, were born and brought up in, James will bully them before cutting them off, normally using an ad break or the travel news as an excuse. Women often get this treatment too. He is clearly more comfortable bullying them.
However, James also regularly offends many new immigrants to the UK by mocking religion in a very offensive manner, and it could therefore be argued that he causes far greater offence to these new immigrants, on an almost daily basis, than any BNP supporter ever has. His frequent mockery of religion has also demonstrated his hypocrisy as James has admitted that he had his daughter baptised.This will probably be a 'Get the kid into the successful local Catholic School' ploy. Luckily the priests involved at his local Catholic school, St Mary's in Chiswick are aware of James, his views on religion and his lack of practice. He may be shocked when he finds that having attended Ampleforth will not be enough.
With his 'journalist' wife Lucy McDonald, he fronted Channel Five's 2001 general election talk show, securing rave reviews from the likes of Clive James, who wrote: "James in particular is a pink-shirted walking encyclopedia of political savvy" [1]. His forthright opinions are now regularly sought by broadcasters including Sky, NBC, ABC Australia, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Recently, O'Brien and wife (whom he often refers to as "Mrs. O'Brien" on his show), have together hosted several weekend and Bank Holiday phone-ins for LBC.
James often talks about his family on air. But if a caller should mention James' family, perhaps to identify a discrepancy between what James says and what he does, James gets very defensive and rude, and then claims that his family should not be discussed on air.
O'Brien has had articles published in The Spectator, Cosmopolitan, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian.
Adopted, O'Brien was brought up in Kidderminster and went to public school. In 2006, James and Lucy O'Brien's first child, Elizabeth, was born through IVF treatment.
James is currently the Computer Games Reviewer for the Daily Mail. Even though he detests The Mail, often ridiculing its readership, James clearly doesn't allow principles to stand in the way of a job.
