Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Richard Hakluyt]

Maybe the top tier of the BBC should not be Tory placemen?

[Sheilbh]

Maybe the top tier of the BBC should not be Tory placemen?

Yeah - although the Chair is normally sympathetic to whichever party appointed them. And, say, Greg Dyke was a Labour donor when he was appointed DG but was better at his job.

With Davie - because I think there is a lot going wrong at the BBC - he was brought into the BBC at a pretty senior level by Mark Thompson in the 2000s. I think the bigger issue is actually Davies' background is in marketing and comms - most previous BBC DGs have come from a production or editorial background. Plus, say, Nick Robinson and Andrew Marr were both party activists in their 20s (like Davie) and I don't think it has affected their ability to report for example - I'm not sure it should be different for management.

And I look at all of the stuff about moving the focus to less of everything else but more popular (as far as I can tell commercial style) broadcasting, the cutting of whole foreign language wings of the World Service, gutting the BBC's music (getting rid of the BBC choir which is the only professional choir in the country, also consolidating the BBC's regional orchestras  - and this may amaze you - in a way that is fine for London and shit for everywhere else), cutting back arts broadcasting, whatever's going on with BBC4 etc. I get the sense - even with this - of a comms person who doesn't really get what the BBC is for, why it is difference and why the difference its existence/funding model.

Even this situation feels very much like how a marketing/comms person would respond to a bit of pressure/controversy

I think there is a wider identity crisis going on at the BBC and I don't think someone with Davie's background couldn't do the job, but I just don't get the sense that he really has a vision of the BBC that is different from any commercial broadcaster. I suspect they probably thought that someone with a more commercial history would be the person to lead the BBC in the age of streamers etc - when (my view - and on this I am very conservative/stodgy) is actually that's when you need to double down on someone who really gets the distinctive public service bit of the BBC mandate.

[Sheilbh]

Haha I love that the BBC won't won't return the BBCs call. I can imagine someone yelling across the office. "Hey Percy, what's going on, do you want to comment?" And being replied either with silence, or "shut the hell up Nigel, that's how it's going"

I mean that's just the start. I wouldn't be surprised if within a year or two the BBC ends up doing a comedy-drama about this starring Michael Sheen

The BBC covering the BBC is a very big thing. It's a bit like the NYT in the US (but I'd argue more justifiably a big part of national life rather than just insufferably self-important).

Edit: The slightly mad thing is until he was removed I hadn't even seen that much focus on Lineker's comments - the Express went in hard but it's basically Pravda. Even from government I saw a weird Penny Mordaunt line but that's it. And this isn't the first time and previously I've seen much stronger pushback from the right-wing press and government, so it seems really odd that this was the final straw for the BBC

[Richard Hakluyt]

I'm in total agreement that becoming more "commercial" is a dead end. We do not need a TV tax to enable yet another media company to produce property and quiz shows. My moment of realising that they had lost the plot was the Word Service cuts made a while back https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/sep/29/hundreds-of-jobs-to-go-as-bbc-announces-world-service-cutbacks utterly insane imo and all to save £28.5m per annum.

[HVC]

Haha I love that the BBC won't won't return the BBCs call. I can imagine someone yelling across the office. "Hey Percy, what's going on, do you want to comment?" And being replied either with silence, or "shut the hell up Nigel, that's how it's going"

I mean that's just the start. I wouldn't be surprised if within a year or two the BBC ends up doing a comedy-drama about this starring Michael Sheen

The BBC covering the BBC is a very big thing. It's a bit like the NYT in the US (but I'd argue more justifiably a big part of national life rather than just insufferably self-important).

Edit: The slightly mad thing is until he was removed I hadn't even seen that much focus on Lineker's comments - the Express went in hard but it's basically Pravda. Even from government I saw a weird Penny Mordaunt line but that's it. And this isn't the first time and previously I've seen much stronger pushback from the right-wing press and government, so it seems really odd that this was the final straw for the BBC

Check out the Dailymail, they've been harping for a while. It's schizophrenic  today. Articles calling for his removal followed by one's claiming the BBC went too far

[Sheilbh]

Check out the Dailymail, they've been harping for a while. It's schizophrenic  today. Articles calling for his removal followed by one's claiming the BBC went too far

Yeah. That's always the way - my view is that the right wing press have an influence but that it's often overstated. One of the reasons it's overstated is that while they have a position on some issues, 90% of the time they are trying to predict what their readers' response will be. They're more a mirror as anything else - and this is an example.

There's a reason "reverse ferret" is press and political slang here to describe a sudden shift in the editorial line/a very strong u-turn. It's from when Kelvin MacKenzie (loathsome man) edited the Sun in the 80s and his view of the media's role in relation to public figures was to "stick a ferret up their trousers". But while the public initially like seeing people humiliated, at some point the public start sympathising with them and whenever that happened MacKenzie would shout "reverse ferret" to the newsroom and the editorial line would swing wildly to very positive/supportive coverage ("aren't they brave dealing with this hounding by the press" etc)

I suspect there's a lot of reverse ferreting going on in the Mail and Express etc right now.

[garbon]

I feel seen and shamed. 

Charlotte Colombo
@colombochar

Me religiously following all the match of the day updates despite never watching a full game of football in my life


11:57 PM · Mar 10, 2023 · 1,527 Views

[Sheilbh]

As Marie Le Conte put it, there's nothing quite like being on Twitter when someone's in the process of shitting the bed.

Latest from Sky News:

Sophy Ridge
@SophyRidgeSky
The BBC will air "limited sport programming" over the weekend and is "working hard to resolve the situation" - latest spokesperson statement

In other words:


Edit: Incidentally:

Today I learned world feed commentary is a thing.
Interesting, and makes a lot of sense.
I hope they can find a way to boycott 

David Ornstein is reporting that the BBC don't actually have the rights to use the world feed commentary (because they don't normally ever need it) so it's not super clear what they can broadcast tonight. Highlights without a host, pundits, commentators or interviews with players and managers?

[Maladict]

I never thought I'd feel so much schadenfreude for the BBC.

[Josquius]

Low the idea of a Martin sheen dramatisation

Oddly Piers Morgan of all people has come out in defence of Lineker. The scumbags are split.

Wonder if Gary will see an uptick in usage for baby names this year?

[Sheilbh]

I never thought I'd feel so much schadenfreude for the BBC.

It is, I think objectively, very funny.

Apparently Match of the Day will be 20 minutes tonight.

Oddly Piers Morgan of all people has come out in defence of Lineker. The scumbags are split.

I don't think that's really a surprise. Piers Morgan defending the rights of TV presenters to mouth off on social media feels very much dog bites man.

Have to be honest I love how strongly Carol Vorderman's gone in. I hadn't realised that Vorders had become a really vociferous critic of the government because I mainly remember her being fairly pro-Tory (especially pre-2010).

I can't think of a similar story from then but this whole story really does just evoke feelings of the mid-90s for me. It could all go wrong but it just feels like the entire country is just done with them.

Wonder if Gary will see an uptick in usage for baby names this year?

Only one of us can really do anything about that

[Sheilbh]

Now there are rumours that the talent rebellion is spreading from just BBC Sport to other departments

[garbon]

Now there are rumours that the talent rebellion is spreading from just BBC Sport to other departments

[Sheilbh]

BBC Director General giving an exclusive interview on BBC News about the BBC story
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-64928580

As ever with BBC stories it's all very:


Didn't particularly enjoy it based on the look on his face at the end after the classic "should you resign" question.

[mongers]

The BBC has approached Mr Sharp for comment.