News that Steven Bartlett has been unwittingly spreading harmful health misinformation will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever taken a critical view of his chart-topping podcasts.
An analysis published by the BBC World Service found that, on average, he allowed 14 harmful health claims to be made across 20 health-related episodes of Diary of a CEO that went against extensive scientific evidence.
Or put another way, he shirked a responsibility that any presenter worth their salt should prioritise; To challenge, check and check again.
Producers at Flight Studio – the podcast production company owned by Bartlett – have hit back at the BBC claims, saying the investigation focussed on a “limited proportion of guests” to create a “broader, partial narrative”.
But judging by the response on social media, it is clear that they have probably tapped into something much bigger.
The meteoric rise of DOAC
Bartlett, a ’90s child, has enjoyed meteoric success on the back of a podcast in which he dishes out worldly advice to an audience eager to suckle at the teet of a barely-born dot-com entrepreneur with an erroneous belief that has it all figured out.
It’s where Molly Mae got her first taste of public outcry for suggesting that we “all have the same 24 hours in a day” and where Gary Neville was able to turn arbitrary words like ‘holiday’ into business-sounding ‘mini-retirements’ in the gaze of a starstruck host.
If you find phrases like “never compromise your self-story” and “always prioritise your first foundation” to be inspirational, then this is the place for you.
If you believe such statements belong on the LinkedIn pages of egocentric business gurus with perfectly sculpted hair and round glasses they probably don’t need, then my advice would be to steer well clear.
Toxic content
The recent revelations contained in the BBC’s report relating to health misinformation are concerning, but in my view, are just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, there’s a good argument to be made that the whole premise of Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO is toxic.
The show is predicated on the idea that just because someone has done well in business they have the answers to everything, which is ludicrous. It’s like asking the guy in the pub for career advice just because they dropped the fruit machine 15 minutes ago.
And while his show is billed as being empowering, it is actually incredibly belittling.
The title promotes the lofty status of the ‘chief executive officer’ who has been kind enough to impart nuggets of advice for feeble minions who never considered why their “self story” was important to their career development.
And it’s not just Bartlett who projects that bootlicker mentality, but almost everyone who steps foot onto his show and are given a platform to present a point of view as fact rather than opinion with little pushback from the host.
Everyone from politicians to marriage councillors have been afforded the same treatment since the show first launched in 2017, which given its popularity, is a deeply concerning fault.
Related: Companies investing $1 billion in the US will receive ‘expedited environmental approvals’