"World in Action's" style was the opposite to its urbane BBC rivals, especially to the London BBC. By repute, especially in its early days "World in Action" would never employ anybody who was on first-name terms with any politician. Gus Macdonald, an executive producer of the programme, said it had been "born brash". Steve Boulton, one of its last editors, wrote in "The Independent" that the programme's ethos was to "comfort the afflicted – and afflict the comfortable." Paul Greengrass told "The Guardian" in June 2008 that the chairman of Granada TV once told him: "Don't forget, your job's to make trouble."