The Future of the BBC

[french frank]

This is Nick Robinson's view - rather more optimistic than John Simpson's. I hope he's right.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if any of these troubles, which all seem to involve defective management, can be traced back to "the BIRT years" when DG John Birt was said to have put in place a veritable layer-cake of obviously unnecessary management at the expense of programme makers.

[ahinton]

I certainly do not want to witness the demise of BBC; what I might be forced to witness and which is likely to be beyond my control could well be quite another matter, however...

[scottycelt]

I wonder if any of these troubles, which all seem to involve defective management ...

Summed it all up in a nutshell .... !!

So many large companies these days, both in the public and private sectors, seem to exist for the benefit of managers and certainly not the 'end-user'.

I'm quite prepared to believe Entwistle didn't know or wasn't told told what was going on at the shopfloor. That fits in with general large corporate experience.

According to Jonathan Dimbleby this morning, Entwistle was well aware of the many layers of management at the BBC ,resulting in a unhealthy sclerosis of information flow between top and bottom, and had real plans for change.

If this is true, his departure is indeed sad, and we can only hope his successor is of a similar frame of mind.

Fortunately, in the current climate, he/she may have no real choice in the matter.

[eighthobstruction]

I certainly do not want to witness the demise of BBC; what I might be forced to witness and which is likely to be beyond my control could well be quite another matter, however...

.....worth reading twice that one....

[Lateralthinking1]

Chris Patten, who is not a terrible person, has let the cat out of the bag on the culture of very senior management. He described the D-G as needing to be "the first among equals". This is how such things are now seen both in the public and private sectors. It sounds good on the surface. Unfortunately what it means is that the senior Head is "first" when things go well and "among equals" when mistakes are made. One of the "equals" then generally takes the blame.

Actually, the organisation is always first. A D-G is second but he/she needs to be a very clear second ahead of everyone else. That might sound less than democratic but it isn't so. The democracy is in the fact that the organisation and not the D-G is first. The D-G has to be open to inputs from further down the chain. He/she must then take the responsibility for decisions as he/she is paid to do. I fear that any restructuring of the BBC won't happen on this basis.

[greenilex]

I'm convinced most of this is a deliberate distraction from other people's disasters...just in case the Beeb thinks it can delve into our masters' behaviour in any real way.

[ahinton]

.....worth reading twice that one....

Is it? Perhaps I should have italicised "want", since what I meant (and hoped) to convey was that I might nevertheless be forced to witness that demise irrespective of what I or others might want.

[french frank]

If the BBC ceased to exist it would have to be reinvented (probably by popular demand: "Bring back the BBC! Give Us Back Our Licence Fee!")

I dunno - this country.

[kernelbogey]

As they signal in Sainsbury's and elsewhere: 'When it's gone, it's gone'!

[Osborn]

"Former BBC director general George Entwistle will receive one year's salary, worth £450,000, as part of a pay-off deal, the BBC Trust has said." (BBC Home Page)

Not really unreasonable; he's not going to be terribly employable for a bit & there aren't many job opportuniies. Still, it's a good hourly rate for under 2 months work & £450k is only part of the deal.

[anotherbob]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/11/bbc-reform-trim-managerial-monster-freedom

[Petrushka]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...onster-freedom

Great piece. Astonished to find myself in agreement with Tariq Ali but I am.

[french frank]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...onster-freedom

Although I don't know what makes Tariq Ali specially competent to judge ...

Re Entwistle not being employable: I don't know - when Lesley Douglas resigned as Controller of R2, being hugely more at fault than Enty (over Ross-Brand), she walked straight into another top media post.

[kernelbogey]

David Dimbleby, talking a lot of sense while being interviewed on this morning's Today.

Excellent polemic on over-management, management gobbledegook, and why the DG shouldn't have resigned.