McAlpine, Newsnight and All That ...

[aeolium]

I agree, kernelbogey. The BBC deserves criticism like any institution when it falls short, but the ideal of public service broadcasting should be defended from its enemies, who would sell it off as they have sold off other valuable public service organisations (and who seek to do the same with the NHS and education). One has only to compare the journalism of the BBC with the wretched output of most of NewsCorp, not least the lamentable Fox News which is deservedly held up for ridicule, to see what we might end up with if the privatising wolves got their way.

[french frank]

I've copied kb's post (#146 above) on to his new thread, to make a concrete start on a new discussion.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

thankyou - the first truely funny reply in this thread

Guardian:
Peel Kippers addle the brain

[Thropplenoggin]

I think Entwistle IMO has added to his folly by this hasty resignation ,leaving the BBC in the lurch, precariously hanging out of control . For Tim Davie of all people to be now hopefully only temporarily in charge, is still 5 minutes too long for such an inexperienced 'light weight', it just shows the poverty of the situation ref BBCs present management chain. Someone of substance needs to be brought in temporarily (even if brought out of retirement). Mark Byford, Gregg Dyke, or even Jenny Abramski (she of the fabulous BBC pension). It needs to be someone with media experience, perhaps an ex newspaper editor. I am so disappointed with Entwhistle, he should of toughed it out , or worked out a situation where he stayed in place for a few more weeks . Patten must stay....it is absolutely the wrong time for him to resign OR be asked to resign. The new DG needs to be someone who is at least robust (whatever Mark Thompson was, he was at least robust)....it is ridiculous that someone as frail as GE rose to DG status.

Except the first Savile Newsnight brouhaha happened on his watch, and he hot-footed out of there just in the nick of time. I wouldn't be surprised if all this come's back to haunt Mr. Squeaky Clean. Some of The New York Times journos are none too happy about his appointment in the wake of all this.

[amateur51]

Chris Patten on the Andrew Marr Show:

'When I became Chairman of the BBC Trust I discovered there are more people in the BBC Senior Management Group than its equivalent in the Chinese Communist Party ...'

Terrible the way these organisations grow & grow

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/

[Thropplenoggin]

Bring back Birt? (who's often suffered from the same)...

I thought Birt was the one who brought in all these middle managers to count the paper clips, etc.?!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Agreed...

It felt like Mair was dumped on, my comment about that was guess-work though. Have you seen it confirmed elsewhere that Paxo et al. ran for the hills?

For all I know Eddie M had been scheduled to do Friday's show for weeks, and just got the short straw as things turned out...

Two hours ago, Eddie Mair posted the following message on Twitter:

'Am reading nonsense that I was forced to present Friday's #Newsnight because no-one else would. In fact I had been on the rota since Oct 30.'

[Nick Armstrong]

Two hours ago, Eddie Mair posted the following message on Twitter:

'Am reading nonsense that I was forced to present Friday's #Newsnight because no-one else would. In fact I had been on the rota since Oct 30.'

If only everything were so capable of clean resolution!

[DracoM]

But he's right!! I've seen him on there on Fridays for weeks!

[An_Inspector_Calls]

There's another issue quietly simmering with regard to its biased reporting of climate change which is dragging the BBC into the courts

http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2012/11/9/oh-dear.html

At stake here are details of a secret meeting held in 2006 in which BBC journalists agreed their climate change stance in cahoots with organizations such as WWF and FoE. That issue will end in tears for the BBC . . .

And now Booker has it in the Sunday Telegraph (third story)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9668782/David-Cameron-backs-the-EUs-grand-design-for-energy.html

[ahinton]

I thought Birt was the one who brought in all these middle managers to count the paper clips, etc.?!

Even if so, then you've apparently missed the point, which was about "wistle" with no superfluous "h"; never mind!...

[Nick Armstrong]

Even if so, then you've apparently missed the point, which was about "wistle" with no superfluous "h"; never mind!...

Huh? Wasn't someone just correcting my spelling mistake? Was there an ulterior point?

But he's right!! I've seen him on there on Fridays for weeks!

The thumbs up from me was a sign of assent to Eddie's nice crisp explanation

[Stillhomewardbound]

I have long held the vew that the formation of the BBC governors under a trust served not to enforce their authority but rather to accentuate their benignity. This is all a mess of potage and a ground zero point must be got to. It's the necessity of deciding how to pull the BBC out of the tailspin it has entered into. Entiwistle is all of a victim. He didn't have two minutes to get his hands on the stick and see if there was any remote chance of pulling it back to arrest the dive.

Question is, as I've already asked, just what was Group Captain Patten doing given that he's been in the co-pilot's seat for the best part of two years.

[aeolium]

Question is, as I've already asked, just what was Group Captain Patten doing given that he's been in the co-pilot's seat for the best part of two years.

Or indeed Wing-Commander Thompson who was there much longer than Patten and must in part have been responsible for the editorial and management structure which resulted in the Newsnight failings.

[John Wright]

As usual, those in the big jobs always benefit from their own cock-ups

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ex-bbc-boss-line-450-000-payment-203300828.html